James Dixon's Linkedin Analytics

I've enjoyed our event programme this year more than ever. Meeting so incredible people along the way, looking forward to catching up with some of them this week

“It used to be Cloud First. Now it’s AI or Die.” That line stuck with me from last week’s Connectd x Dell Technologies event. It captured something I think a lot of people in the room were feeling but hadn’t yet said out loud: that you can’t afford to ignore what’s happening with AI. And if you’re building something new, you’ve got an edge. You’re not wrestling with legacy systems or complex migrations. You can just start with what works now. I found the whole session surprisingly hopeful. There was no pressure to become an expert overnight. Just a reminder to stay open, ask questions, and begin somewhere. For me, that’s often where the best cultural shifts happen too. I’ve been thinking about how AI could support the people side of what we do. Not replace it, but support it. Like taking care of the heavy-lift onboarding admin, so we can spend more time actually getting to know people. Or helping team members prepare for coaching conversations ahead of time, So the time we do spend together lands better. Not efficiency for efficiency’s sake, but freeing up time for the things that build trust, not just systems. As Head of People, my job is to make sure people can show up as themselves. That’s how it’s been for me at Connectd. And that’s the kind of environment I want to protect as we grow. But culture doesn’t stay strong by accident. You have to keep choosing it. Especially when new tools come into play. For founders, especially early ones, my one piece of advice would be: You don’t need to know everything about AI. But you do need to know what kind of culture you want to build alongside it. Because you’re not just choosing your tech stack. You’re choosing how people will work together inside it.

Not been as excited for an event in a while... Off to Boxpark to listen to Roei Samuel & Simon Squibb talk. Guaranteed to be an amazing evening!

Feedback & stories of excellent customer outcomes seem to be getting stronger with each event. Made some great connections at our last one, can't wait to find out who I'll meet next!