Lunching with the London Livery Company

In this blog post, Cloudhelix’s Chairman Ivan Whittall gives us the lowdown on a recent lunch event with London’s IT livery and discovers the value of the professionalisation of the IT industry first hand.

As an IT consultancy, Cloudhelix is always looking forward, whether to understand how new technology can be utilised for our clients, how older systems can be brought up to date, or how we can improve our platform; we’re always looking, thinking and moving forward.

Whilst it is easy to forget how far we’ve come, both in a few years as a business and in the last seventy or so as an industry; both facets were highlighted during a recent lunch with London’s IT livery, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

I was invited to lunch with the livery as a guest of one of our largest clients, FRP, the UK’s leading insolvency practice.

There is a wealth of great tradition surrounding the Livery companies of London; some were formed as early as the middle ages and membership has always signified trustworthiness and quality. Whilst IT is a truly modern profession, it is tremendously positive and brilliant to see it recognised in this way by the City of London, giving industry experts time away from the tech to review the state of play with fellow peers.

The meeting of the livery is a grandiose affair steeped in tradition, with this particular lunch taking place aboard the HQS Wellington. For such a young industry (the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists is just 25 years old), it is inspiring to see our new industry fully embracing, and being embraced by wonderful old traditions, particularly considering us techies aren’t known for our formality.

Besides the opportunity to catch up with clients and talk shop with new industry faces, Sir John Dermot Turing – the nephew of the late Alan Turing – gave a speech which highlighted just how far things have come. Just eighty years ago, the idea of the modern computer had only just been conceived. The pace of change won’t be letting up anytime soon (read: ever), and our formidable industry is forever seeking to improve and become more efficient. We’re now in a place where the science, mathematics and theory of computing are used to solve real-world problems, in business and beyond… and we’re tremendously proud to be a part of this innovative industry.

Our thanks go to the team at FRP for their invitation along with the hospitality of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and its members for what was a brilliant lunch. Hopefully, this is the first of many opportunities to join London’s IT livery for a chance to consider future developments as well as look back at what we’ve achieved as an industry so far.

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