Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series from SuperTech that explores the professional services tech scene outside of London. We’re also on the AdviserTech Show podcast feed.
This is a special four-part mini-series in partnership with the Women in Finance Collective, a new network to promote and support women who work in finance and fintech in the Midlands.
In this episode, we spotlight the next generation of women shaping the future of financial services and fintech. Host Hilary Smyth-Allen is joined by Florence Govier, Product Manager at Moneyinfo, and Naya Hemans-Westerway, Business Consultant at Jigsawtree.
They share frank reflections on entering the industry, navigating male-dominated spaces, and why fintech continues to attract ambitious young professionals.
They discuss:
Links:
To find out more about SuperTech WM click here.
To find out more about Moneyinfo click here.
To find out more about Jigsaw Tree click here.
To find out more about the Women In Finance Collective click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series from SuperTech that explores the professional services tech scene outside of London. We’re also on the AdviserTech Show podcast feed.
This is a special four-part mini-series in partnership with the Women in Finance Collective, a new network to promote and support women who work in finance and fintech in the Midlands.
In this episode, host Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Amira Norris, Co-Founder of The Mentor Standard, and Julie Goddard, Business Psychologist and Founder of The Success Architect. They explore the role of behavioural psychology in leadership and decision-making, and how high-stakes environments, such as finance, shape it.
They discuss:
Links:
To find out more about SuperTech WM click here.
To find out more about Moneyinfo click here.
To find out more about Jigsaw Tree click here.
To find out more about the Women In Finance Collective click here.
To find out more about The Mentor Standard click here.
To find out more about The Success Architect click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of Beyond the Capital, part of our Women in Finance Collective mini-series, host Hilary Smith-Allen is joined by Kim Jenkins, Chief Operating Officer of fintech firm Afternoon, and Liz Basten, founder of Kiss My Brand, a marketing agency.
Together, they share their reflections on decades of working in fintech and financial services, tackling barriers and exploring how women can thrive at every stage of their careers. From building a personal brand to navigating career plateaus, from embracing AI to re-setting career purpose, this is a conversation packed with insight, honesty, and practical advice.
They discuss:
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Women in Finance
02:27 Barriers in the Workplace
06:31 Building a Personal Brand
09:17 The Importance of Mentorship
12:40 Navigating Career Progression
15:47 The Impact of AI on Careers
19:09 Finding Purpose and Skills for the Future
Resources:
To find out more about SuperTech click here.
To find out more about the Women in Finance Collective click here.
To find out more about Afternoon click here.
To find out more about Kiss My Brand click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series from SuperTech that explores the professional services tech scene outside of London. We’re also on the AdviserTech Show podcast feed.
This is a special four-part mini-series in partnership with the Women in Finance Collective, a new network to promote and support women who work in finance and fintech in the Midlands.
For this first episode of the series, host Hilary Smyth-Allen is joined by Tessa Lee, Managing Director of Moneyinfo, and Gemma Lowndes, Director of Operations for Jigsaw Tree. Moneyinfo and Jigsaw Tree are the founding companies of the Women In Finance Collective.
They discuss:
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the Women in Finance Collective
02:43 The Need for Local Support in Finance
05:41 Challenges Faced by Women in Finance
08:36 The Role of Technology in Finance
10:52 Building a Supportive Community
12:12 Inspiring Future Generations
13:02 Getting Involved with the Collective
More information:
To find out more about SuperTech WM click here.
To find out more about Moneyinfo click here.
To find out more about Jigsaw Tree click here.
To find out more about the Women In Finance Collective click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is the final episode of a four-part mini-series of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, in partnership with the TiPS Accelerator, a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.
This episode explores how accountancy and audit firm Armstrong Watson navigated the cultural, technical, and client-related challenges of adopting new audit technology through the TiPS accelerator programme.
Host Hilary Smith-Allen is joined by Steve Preston and Lucy Hughes, who share their experience of implementing data analytics tools across Armstrong Watson’s offices, managing team engagement and collaborating with both clients and suppliers.
They discuss how a mindset shift, at both board level and across teams, was essential to success, how change management workshops helped guide the process, and why rolling out the pilot at scale made all the difference.
They discuss:
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction to the TIPS programme
01:18 – About Armstrong Watson
02:18 – Mindset challenges and cultural shifts
03:45 – Why data analytics?
05:14 – How external support accelerated change
06:37 – Running pilots and rolling out across offices
08:23 – Defining success: audit quality, efficiency, and client service
10:15 – Adapting plans and improving feedback loops
13:08 – Involving clients in the pilot process
15:22 – Supplier relationships and off-the-shelf vs bespoke tech
18:43 – Measuring impact and looking ahead
21:18 – Team buy-in and long-term cultural change
22:45 – Final takeaways for firms on the tech journey
Find out more about TiPS here and SuperTech here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is the third episode of a four-part mini-series of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, in partnership with the TiPS Accelerator, a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.
This episode features leaders from Thorntons, a full-service Scottish law firm, who speak to host Hilary Smyth-Allen about their journey on the TiPS Accelerator.
Sarah Blair, Jane McCance, and Lewis Quinn unpack how the firm used service design thinking to drive digital transformation, foster AI literacy, and unveil the real human challenges behind legal tech adoption.
From co-creating solutions with colleagues to embracing “messy” innovation, they share their people-first approach to change - and how that’s shaping the firm's internal transformation programme.
They discuss:
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction to TiPS and Thorntons
01:45 – Thorntons’ structure, services, and innovation roles
04:20 – The trap of tech-first thinking and why adoption lags
06:30 – Identifying human problems before implementing solutions
08:00 – Shifting project scope: literacy, service design and the “AI Sandbox”
10:14 – Building transformation roles from scratch
12:00 – Starting with discovery and asking the right questions
15:00 – What the project uncovered (and what it changed)
17:17 – What is the Double Diamond? A primer on service design
19:15 – From AI requests to deeper diagnostics and real solutions
22:00 – Aligning innovation with strategic priorities
24:25 – Wellbeing, time-saving, and what “impact” really means
27:00 – Culture change and playful innovation techniques
29:00 – AI roadshows, Jedi groups, and safe experimentation
31:15 – Upskilling junior colleagues and early-career catalysts
33:42 – Final takeaways: messiness, experimentation, and mindset
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is the second episode of a four-part mini-series of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, in partnership with the TiPS Accelerator—a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.
In this episode, host Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Dr Catriona Wolfenden, Director of Product and Innovation at Weightmans, a top-40 UK law firm. She shares insights from Weightmans’ participation in the TiPS accelerator programme, focusing on how trust plays a pivotal role in the successful adoption of legal technology, especially emerging tools like generative AI.
The conversation explores how the legal innovation team at Weightmans balances enthusiasm for technology with risk awareness, pilot fatigue, and stakeholder engagement. Listeners will hear how trust varies across teams, projects, and client relationships. Plus, thinking critically before launching a pilot is more important than ever.
They discuss:
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction to TiPS and Weightmans
01:20 – Role of the innovation team and post-COVID tech shift
03:26 – The GenAI explosion and the risks of hype
05:46 – Trust as the cornerstone of successful pilots
07:03 – Legal responsibility and the “black box” problem
10:36 – The academic and cross-sector value of TiPS
12:11 – Mapping stakeholder trust and pilot impact
14:31 – Avoiding the “snake oil” trap
15:49 – Is GenAI hype, or here to stay?
17:35 – ROI challenges and market saturation
19:32 – Innovation lessons for smaller firms
21:36 – Managing disruption and unintended consequences
23:11 – One key takeaway: plan more than you think you need to
Links:
Find out more about the TiPS accelerator here
Find out more about SuperTech WM here
Find out more about Weightmans here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of Beyond the Capital from SuperTech WM, we find out about the TiPS Accelerator—a programme helping regional law and accountancy firms adopt new technology.
Host Hilary Smith-Allen is joined by the research team at Oxford Brookes Business School—Professor Tim Vorley, Dr. Francisco Trincado Munoz, and Dr. Hannah Tornow—to explore how the accelerator helped firms navigate the challenges of digital transformation.
From AI readiness to rethinking business models, this project focused on people as much as it did on technology.
They discuss:
Find out more about the TiPS accelerator here.
Find out more about SuperTech WM here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to Beyond The Capital from SuperTech.
This is a four-part mini-series about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab. SuperTech has partnered with Fintech Scotland for the Lab, which is an industry-led collaborative research and innovation programme, helping to shape future financial regulation in the UK.
The programme - and this mini-series - focuses on how new technologies can deliver better outcomes for customers following the introduction of Consumer Duty regulation.
In this episode, host Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Rachel McGowan, Chief Technology Officer of Moneyline, about the impact of Consumer Duty on Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs).
They discuss:
To find out more about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to Beyond The Capital from SuperTech.
This is a four-part mini-series about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab. SuperTech has partnered with Fintech Scotland for the Lab, which is an industry-led collaborative research and innovation programme, helping to shape future financial regulation in the UK.
The programme - and this mini-series - focuses on how new technologies can deliver better outcomes for customers following the introduction of Consumer Duty regulation.
This episode delves into the impact of Consumer Duty on financial advice. The regulation was introduced to improve customers’ experience of financial products and advice, but how is it impacting the advice gap?
To find out, Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Ben Hampton, CEO of Wealth Wizards, and Professor John Finch of Glasgow University. John is the Principal Investigator in the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab project.
They discuss:
To find out more about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to Beyond The Capital from SuperTech.
This is a four-part mini-series about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab. SuperTech has partnered with Fintech Scotland for the Lab, which is an industry led collaborative research and innovation programme, helping to shape the future financial regulation in the UK.
The programme - and this mini-series - focuses on how new technologies can deliver better outcomes for customers following the introduction of Consumer Duty regulation.
In this episode, the focus is on the challenges facing credit unions following the introduction of Consumer Duty.
Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Helen Toft, a Non-Executive Director at Advance Credit Union in Birmingham, and Elizabeth Campbell, the General Manager at Castlemilk Credit Union in Glasgow.
They discuss:
To find out more about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to Beyond The Capital from SuperTech and a special four-part series about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab. SuperTech has partnered with Fintech Scotland for the Lab, which is an industry led collaborative research and innovation programme, helping to shape the future financial regulation in the UK.
The programme - and this mini-series - focuses on how new technologies can deliver better outcomes for customers following the introduction of Consumer Duty regulation.
In this episode, presenter Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Lorraine Breese-Price, the Chief Customer Officer of Dudley Building Society. They discuss the challenges and opportunities that Consumer Duty poses for building societies, including:
To find out more about the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to our special mini-series of Beyond The Capital recorded at Birmingham Tech Week 2024.
In this episode, Hilary Smyth-Allen explores the challenges and opportunities of AI adoption in the legal sector. She spoke to Emma Jackson, Head of Legal Technology & Data at Mills & Reeve; Vipul Ladwa, founder of legal tech company Casey; and Aisling O’Connell, Head of Innovation Policy at the Solicitors Regulations Authority.
They discuss:
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series that explores the professional services technology scene outside of London, brought to you by SuperTech. To find out more about SuperTech, click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to our special mini-series of Beyond The Capital recorded at Birmingham Tech Week 2024.
In this episode, Hilary Smyth-Allen finds out more about the role of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT). She speaks to its CEO Ezechi Britton. They discuss:
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series that explores the professional services technology scene outside of London, brought to you by SuperTech. To find out more about SuperTech, click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to our special mini-series of Beyond The Capital recorded at Birmingham Tech Week 2024.
In this episode, we’re finding out about AI and real estate.
Hilary Smyth-Allen speaks to Shakirah Akinwale, centre director of University College London’s Centre for Sustainability and RealTech Innovation, who is also a smart buildings technology consultant. She also speaks to Tom Shrive, the CPO Adiuvo and Chair of the RED Foundation AI committee.
They discuss:
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series that explores the professional services technology scene outside of London, brought to you by SuperTech. To find out more about SuperTech, click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome to our special mini-series of Beyond The Capital recorded at Birmingham Tech Week 2024.
In this episode, Hilary Smyth-Allen finds out about the evolving landscape of the UK's fintech sector following the recent election of a Labour government. She spoke to Adam Jackson, Chief Strategy Officer at Innovate Finance. They discuss:
Beyond The Capital is the podcast series that explores the professional services technology scene outside of London, brought to you by SuperTech. To find out more about SuperTech, click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this series of Beyond The Capital from SuperTech, we're exploring the power of partnerships. Birmingham-based Fastcheck was set up by Amar Rana who was frustrated by the complicated nature of obtaining car finance. In this episode, Hilary speaks to Amar about:
To find out more about Fastcheck click here.
To find out more about SuperTech WM click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this series of Beyond The Capital, we’re exploring the power of partnerships.
Shame is a huge barrier to tackling problem debt. But the first thing anyone in debt is required to do is complete an income and expenditure form. To help those complete this form who can’t face speaking to a real person, a Midlands-based business has come up with a solution: an AI assistant to help with affordability assessments.
In this episode, Hilary speaks with Rachel Curtis, CEO and co-founder of Inicio AI. They discuss:
Please note, that this episode briefly mentions suicide.
To find out more about Incio AI click here.
To find out more about SuperTech WM click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this series, we’re exploring the power of partnerships.
A fintech that’s focused on credit unions and community banks says its whole business model is formed on partnerships. Incuto's ethos is tech for good. It helps enable people to access financial services that don’t always have traditional routes available to them.
In this episode, Hilary speaks to Lauren Langton, Head of Advocacy at Incuto. They discuss:
To learn more about SuperTech WM click here.
To learn more about Incuto click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this series of Beyond The Capital, we’re exploring the power of partnerships. The number of Brits owning properties in Spain continues to rise according to recent data. But the process of holiday home ownership is complicated. One Birmingham-based business is working to address this. Bueno is a one-stop platform for property owners.
In this episode, Hilary speaks to Felix Hughes of Bueno. They discuss:
To find out more about Bueno click here.
To find out more about SuperTech WM click here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.