**Vision** Conferences and meetings generate £18.3B annually for the UK economy (BVEP). COVID-19 has been catastrophic. In conferences and meetings breakout groups are a core part of the agenda. The project will deliver a new Broadsword proposition, underpinned by unique UK-developed technology (Axis) to enable engaging, inclusive and high-impact break-out sessions for virtual and hybrid conferences and meetings. This will: \*Reduce the carbon footprint associated with conferences and meetings by enabling full or partial virtualisation and hence avoided travel \*Address latent demand for meetings and conferences not met by the high cost structure of live events \*Increase event accessibility to those living with a disability, without detracting from the critical need to increase accessibility within physical venues \*Increase event inclusion and reduce the impact of bias -- gender, ethnicity -- in breakout events \*Substantially increase the quality and quantity of outputs generated driving a bigger impact and return on the investment of attendees' time \*Help drive economic recovery for business following COVID-19 Current state of the art for virtual breakouts as part of a conference is the use of video calling / event hosting technology to provide breakout rooms with the ability to share content, discuss ideas and poll, collaborate visually with a digital whiteboard (Miro, Mural, Teams) vote and score (Slido, Mentimeter). There are three key limitations: \*The impact of dominant voices and bias and fragmented experience across content creation (digital whiteboard) and voting undermines the depth and quality of the output and prevents every voice from being heard \*Manual and tricky process to aggregate the individual breakout outputs into a single useful output that can be shared and disseminated in the plenary following the breakout and after the conference. And hard to understand levels of engagement and participation to inform continuous improvement \*Variable quality in facilitation within each breakout group -- highly dependent upon the skills and experience of the facilitator, which impacts output quality and participant experience. Technical limitations are compounded by the challenge of establishing an appropriate commercial and business model that addresses the near-term virtual need and creates a sustainable engine for growth by addressing latent demand with innovative propositions. **Innovation** This project will define the characteristics of effective virtual and hybrid break-out sessions, define a compelling client proposition and commercial model and extend the existing Axis platform for digital collaboration -- creating an events version of the platform -- to make the proposition viable, scalable and differentiated. To deliver the innovative technical solution will involve applying React Hooks, GSAP and canvases on the existing web-based Axis platform to deliver the enhanced functionality specific to virtual and hybrid break-out groups. To ensure that the solution fully embodies sustainability and inclusion partners include Private Goodness (sustainability and CSR) Purple Goat (disability) and DICE (inclusion and diversity in events). And to ensure market fit and engagement as key to driving profitable growth the EMA (represent the buyers of virtual / hybrid events with 1,400 members) and Realise (specialists in events consulting and growth).

**Vision** COVID-19 has reshaped how the world works. A sustained shift to virtual working creates an opportunity for a post-pandemic recovery that is more sustainable and inclusive: Eliminate carbon associated with day-to-day commuting and journeys taken (often by air) for meetings and workshops * Make home working a viable and respected alternative, increasing gender equality and access to those living with a disability. This in no way detracts from the need to make physical workplaces more accessible * Reduce workplace bias toward minorities and women * Help UK professional services and events firms operate successfully in a virtual environment to provide a source of competitive advantage (in alignment with the ISCF Next Generation Services Challenge) This project will extend the Axis digital collaboration platform to: * Extend coverage of meeting and workshop types to maximise reduction in business travel (and carbon) by making virtual at least as good as face-to-face * Support virtual collaboration that uses analytics and decision science to increase inclusion and remove bias * Maximise workshop and meeting accessibility for those living with disabilities enabling those disadvantaged by the physical workplace to gain an equal voice and set of opportunities * Provide free sets of workshop templates designed specifically to support SMEs and corporates to innovate around sustainable and inclusive growth **Innovation** In a world of remote working, video conferencing is invaluable for simple meetings, but it does not allow for structured collaborative thinking and decision-making. It doesn't ensure that every voice is heard, and decisions are made free from bias. Axis can. We now need to take the Axis platform further and faster, with an emphasis on driving sustainable and inclusive growth. We've teamed up with three mission-driven organisations: Private Goodness (workplace equality, human rights and sustainability), Unida (gender equality) and Purple Goat (disability equality) and Accenture (one of the world's leading professional services firms, serving over 75% of the Fortune 500 with over 500,000 employees) to co-develop the Axis platform with the latest web-based technologies for immersive collaboration and analytics-enabled decision-making. We will extend the platform to build Axis' core sources of differentiation vs. the current state of the art (digital whiteboarding solutions including Teams Whiteboard, Mural and Miro). A re-build of the front end in order to enhance usability and accessibility; * Implement React Hooks, improving how component and application state can be managed * Enhance the use of GSAP and canvases to deliver complex meeting agenda setup where in-workshop data flows can be intuitively configured * Ensure accessibility combining enhanced perceivability and understandability (for instance making sure that everything has properties for alternative texts) and accessibility optimised navigation, so that regardless of circumstance, device or location anyone can participate effectively Develop a needs-based template library and redefined run screens to enhance effective collaboration. A switch to container-based infrastructure, using AWS' EKS Kubernetes to enable more rapid delivery of new features and increase scalability and resilience.