PwC’s Tech Week: working towards a human-led and tech-powered future

PwC Malta has recently organised a series of technology-related events aimed at giving more prominence to the various challenges business leaders face in undertaking digital transformation initiatives. During the week starting 15 May, PwC’s Tech Week kicked off with ‘Reshaping the future of Tech’ – a day dedicated to the student community. With constant disruption being created by technology, there has never been such a demand from the business community looking for key talent in technology related careers. The events were aimed at encouraging students to understand better how their relevant studies could be practically transposed within the world of work.

The main highlight of the week was the Intelligent Digital two-day conference, held on 16 and 17 May. The first day’s proceedings included a full-day conference focusing on digital transformation, followed by afternoon deep-dive insights on business applications and use cases. Targeted mainly at CEOs, the conference presented insights into how technological innovation can aid businesses in shaping strategy and maximising business performance. The second day, targeted mostly at CTOs, was a half-day conference presenting a technical focus on digital infrastructure and storage, cyber security, and data privacy, amongst other topics.

In commenting on the two-day conference, Michel Ganado, PwC Malta’s Digital Services Leader, emphasised the need for “organisations to re-imagine and re-think the art of the possible and move to more data-driven, customer-centric omnichannel solutions which are tech-powered and human-led”. The speakers and panellist line-up for the two days was extensive, comprising local C-suite business leaders, technology alliance partners from Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and HP as well key PwC subject matter experts from its local and EMEA network.

The fourth day of Tech Week comprised a whole day event of Digital in Action at PwC’s The Hub in Qormi. The agenda included eleven thematic sessions that provided business and technology leaders with the opportunity to see technology in action and gain insight into how certain digital areas and emerging technologies will be crucial to driving their business agendas for the years to come.

The closing day of Tech Week involved a joint event with The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry on the Customer Experience in the Digital Age. Two brief presentations, followed by a panel discussion related to the customer experience, included speakers such as Christina Zammit La Rosa (Director at Zammit La Rosa Footwear Ltd), Malcolm Camilleri (Deputy CEO at the PG Group), and Benji Borg (CEO at ANCHOVY. and 9H Group).

Reflecting back on the full week of events dedicated to technology and innovation, PwC’s Territory Senior Partner, David Valenzia, stated that “it has been a pleasure seeing this week unfold, and we have received very positive feedback from our foreign-based colleagues, and our technology alliance partners. It has also been very well received by our clients locally, and I’m sure it has invigorated our business community to look forward and assess how technology can be used as an enabler for their strategy and transformation.

Michel Ganado supported this view and commented that “the Intelligent Digital conference will feature as an annual event aimed at helping organisations of all sizes leverage digital technologies to drive sustained business outcomes.”