SOVEREIGNTY VERSUS RESILIENCE IN OUR DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
- Date: September 28, 2025 at 15:00 - 4pm
- Location: SME4Labour POD (Arena Room - Thames), ACC Liverpool Kings Dock Street, Liverpool, L3 4FP
The Labour Party Annual Conference 2025
SME4Labour and OpenUK fringe: SOVEREIGNTY VERSUS RESILIENCE IN OUR DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
As the world becomes increasingly digital, tensions between national sovereignty and global resilience are reshaping our infrastructure. This timely discussion explores how governments, industries, and communities balance control, security, and cooperation in an interconnected digital age.
Speakers:
- Steve Yemm, MP, MP for Mansfield
- Karl Havard, Chief Commercial Officer, Nscale
- Max Beverton-Palmer, Head of Public Policy, UK, NVIDIA
Chair: Amanda Brock, OpenUK CEO
Tickets are free, but booking is required via https://www.sme4labour.org/sovereignty_versus_resilience
This event is in the secure zone, so you will need a conference pass to access it.
Date: Sunday, 28 September 2025
Time: 15:00
Location: SME4Labour POD (Arena Room - Thames), ACC Liverpool, Kings Dock Street, Liverpool, England, L3 4FP
Please note: This event will be recorded for distribution through SME4Labour and its partners’ social media channels. All audience members agree to the possibility of appearing on these recordings by virtue of attending the event or participating in the event.
Bios:
Steve Yemm MP
Early life and career. Yemm received a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Nottingham. He was the Labour candidate in the 2011 Mansfield mayoral election, and defeated by Mansfield Independent Forum candidate Tony Egginton by a majority of 67 votes on second preference voting.
Amanda Brock
OpenUK CEO, Amanda Brock has built one of open source’s most recognised and impactful organisations. Executive Producer of State of Open Con (2023- 2025), Amanda’s a globally sought-after keynote speaker.
A lawyer with 25 years’ experience, 5 as GC of Canonical, she’s been instrumental in shaping open source’s legal frameworks, as she was internet law during the early 2000’s.
Regularly contributing to tech press, she edited “Open Source: Law, Policy and Practice”, 2nd edition (2022).
Recognition: Computer Weekly 50 Most Influential Women in UK Tech (2023, 2024) listed as #20 in 2024; Computing IT Leaders 100 (2023, 2024); Lifetime Achievement Award WIPL (2022); Women Who Will Changemaker (2023); INvolve Heroes (2022, 2023); Novi Awards (2024); and Ambassador, Open Charge Alliance.
Advisory Board Appointments: UK Cabinet Office Open Standards Board; UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure; UKRI Exascale; KDE; commercial boards – Mimoto, Scarf, FerretDB and Space Aye; and Fellow, Open Forum Academy; Distinguished Fellow, Rust Foundation; and European Representative, OIN and Board Member Mojaloop Foundation.
Karl Havard
Karl Havard has 25+ years in the IT, Cloud and AI industry. Has previously held senior leadership roles inside AWS and Google as well as building and leading start-up businesses in the HPC and Generative AI cloud service provider industry.
Max Beverton-Palmer
Max Beverton-Palmer was previously Director of the Internet Policy Unit at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. His work focuses on digital government, the global governance of tech, content and online harms, and democracy tech and participation. He was previously Head of Digital Policy at Sky, leading policy in the UK and EU on online advertising, internet safety, and online regulation, as well as working with technology and product teams on ethical responsibility of design. He started his career at the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, working on broadcast regulation, net neutrality, broadband infrastructure and spectrum.
Event summary
- Date: September 28, 2025 at 15:00 - 4pm
- Location: SME4Labour POD (Arena Room - Thames), ACC Liverpool Kings Dock Street, Liverpool, L3 4FP
- Contact name: SME4Labour team
- Contact email: [email protected]
- Ticket price: Free
- RSVP: RSVP using the form below.