Great Digital for Good Conference 2025 round-up

Marie Kitney, our Director of Client Engagement, kicked off the day with a workshop on cutting through digital noise to help teams prioritise the work that makes the biggest impact. She shared practical ways to streamline everyday tasks – from AI-generated summaries and smart tagging to atomised content – and guided delegates through two exercises: one to identify opportunities to simplify digital tasks, and another to explore how digital could amplify their organisation’s mission. It set the tone for a day of thinking bigger, working smarter, and making digital count.

What if your website data could drive real change? Catherine Warwick, one of our Client Partners, showed us how. She explained how to define success based on purpose, set KPIs that link online engagement to real-world outcomes, and use dashboards to track what really matters to your organisation. Perhaps most important of all, she demonstrated how to turn those insights into action – using benchmarks and targets to generate momentum and improve website performance.  

Paul Costello, another of our Client Partners, showed us three simple, evidence-backed techniques for getting the kind of stakeholder buy-in that makes digital projects succeed. We’re all using them already – just not always intentionally.  

He unpacked three human biases that shape how people make decisions: the IKEA Effect, the Framing Effect, and Social Proof. For each one, we explored how the bias could be used to bring stakeholders with us on a major website project – discussing, at our tables, practical ways to bring these to life. Key takeaway? Great digital starts with people – so lead them with intention. 

Berry Cochrane from Forward Action showed how organisations can drive cultural and social impact in a digital landscape that isn’t neutral – and often works against them. In an attention economy where focus is monetised and algorithms reward outrage, relevance isn’t guaranteed – and truth has to work harder than ever in a world increasingly shaped by AI-driven misinformation.  

Berry shared practical tactics to help organisations reclaim influence: break down silos, lead with values, prioritise humanity, empower your messengers, build communities rather than just reach, embrace video, and, above all, define a clear narrative. Her message was clear: If we don’t shape the digital space with intention, someone else will.  

Hack days aren’t just events – they’re a fast-track way to tackle your toughest challenges. Jaron Ghani, our Innovation Director, showed how a single day of focused collaboration can deliver real results. Whether sector-, client-, or technology-focused, hack days give teams space to innovate, prototype, and test solutions. The session provided a behind-the-scenes look at Numiko’s hack days, showing how teams came together to turn client challenges into practical, actionable solutions. Key tips: state the problem clearly, challenge the brief, fail fast, and don’t aim to build the final solution in a day. 

The unconference session is our chance to make things truly collaborative – a space to hear from everyone in the room, not just the people holding the mics.  

This year we centred the discussion on two questions: what are the biggest opportunities for digital teams next year? And just as importantly: What are the biggest challenges?  

On the challenge side, AI search trends dominated the conversation, along with managing stakeholder expectations, tackling accessibility and organisation-wide rebrands. 

But there was plenty of optimism too. Delegates pointed to opportunities in AI-powered efficiency, simplification, digital upskilling, smarter dashboards, and geo-based improvements. 

Agnieszka Grychowska and Sean Callow from Kingston University shared their experience of tackling a large-scale content migration project, showing why auditing regularly is key to keeping major initiatives running smoothly.  

Oscar French from LAMDA explained how their small digital team manages to deliver a big impact. By working flexibly, making smart use of the LAMDA brand – especially celebrity alumni, and spending where it matters, the team achieves far more than its size suggests. He also emphasised that consistent, organic storytelling goes a long way in building visibility and trust.  

Eva Bensasson, Bloomberg Tech Fellow and Website Manager at the Courtauld & Jane Macpherson, Bloomberg Accelerator Programme Digital Advisor for Arts Council England, reflected on The Courtauld’s journey in the Bloomberg Accelerator Programme. They showed how it has strengthened their digital skills, expanded their network and supported their work on improving user journeys – all while bringing the whole digital team along for the ride.  

Jamie Horton, Senior Consultant at Cast From Clay, offered an inside look at policymaking, sharing insights from Cast From Clay’s ‘Policy Unstuck’ series. Evidence alone isn’t enough – success comes from clear objectives, understanding the people and processes that drive change, and spotting the right opportunities to make your policy stick. 

Tejas Patel and Callum Hosie from Upsun shared practical approaches for helping digital teams save both their money, and the planet. They outlined three levers – optimise infrastructure, use geo-localisation, and rightsizing servers – alongside strategies to boost carbon efficiency and keep costs predictable. Smart, simple changes that make sustainability feel doable and impactful. The headline stat: 88% reductions in your website’s CO2 emissions are possible with just a few simple changes.  

What stood out most across the day was the power of collaboration. Bringing together people from different sectors, roles and organisations always sparks something special – and this year was no different. We really enjoyed ourselves, and if the great scores we received on our feedback forms are anything to go by, we can say with confidence our delegates did too!  

We’re already excited to bring everyone back together next year – so watch this space.