IT Life: From TV To IT

As a professional actress, Linda Davidson spent three years portraying the troubled punk Mary Smith in EastEnders. She later appeared in Casualty, The Bill and the first West End revival of the The Rocky Horror Show. However, that’s not why TechWeekEurope wanted to have a chat with her.

In the late nineties, Linda switched careers, and started to work for the likes of BBC and Channel 4, in the developing field of digital media. From there, she progressed to the position of IT & operations director at Discovery Communications. Last year, Linda struck out on her own and founded the a.bridge collective – an unusual company that helps large corporations optimise their technology adoption. In her spare time, she also gives guest lectures on technology, arts and design.

Punk’s not dead

What are you doing at the moment?
I was an IT director at Discovery Communications until about a year ago. I left, to take a year out, but realised very quickly I needed to get back to work. It was when one of the mums at school said it was my turn to host the coffee morning in my house. I just went, “Oh my God, what have I done? This is so not me.” So I set up a little business for myself and a couple of girlfriends. I consult, and bring them in to work on projects when needed.

I do three things. First, it’s usage and adoption of technology, and I seem to work mostly in the unified communication space. So when people have implemented video conferencing and collaboration tools enterprise-wide, and nobody uses them, which is quite often the case, I come in.

The second thing is business relationship management. I act as the mediator, or translator between technologists and business customers, making sure everybody is speaking the same language. For example, recently I got called in by this huge TV corporation because somebody in a very senior position was having meetings with the technology department on a monthly basis to be briefed on the projects. And yet after six months they still had no clue what IT was delivering. So I was asked to interface with the IT department.

And the third thing we do is working with companies to realise more revenue from digital distribution of their content.

How many years of experience in IT do you have?
I was an actress for 15 years. Then I worked for Tomorrow’s World on BBC. In the late nineties, we were just playing around with our website, looking at what the technology might do. And that inspired a career change. It has been a transition over the years, moving through digital media and ending up as an IT director at Discovery.

Not exactly the traditional route into this field, I know. But I have worked in most areas of the television business and know it inside out, so from the technology strategy perspective, I understand content management systems and advertising.

What’s been your favourite project  so far?
My favourite projects are usually about the people. I enjoyed doing all the video communication stuff at Discovery. Again, we had introduced video conferencing. Then I looked at how people were using it, and it wasn’t how we imagined they would use it at all!

Change is good

What tech were you involved with ten years ago?
Ten years ago we were pioneering live webcasts with actors at the BBC, working with BT, looking at content distribution on different platforms. Ultimately, it’s still the same content. We still have video, pictures and text, but it is consumed differently. We didn’t know it back then. So we were playing around a lot.

What do you think about the iPlayer?
Oh, it’s a game-changer, isn’t it? I only wish we had done it at Channel 4, because that’s where I was at the time. We had been trying to create a similar platform there, and they went ahead with 4 On Demand (4OD). The thing is, the BBC was able to do this because of the copyright. Other broadcasters buy a lot of their content, so it is the rights, not the technology holding them back. It is the same for connected TVs.

Who’s your tech hero?
James Veall. He’s the senior vice president of operations at Viacom. I think he’s a visionary; he’s also the best boss I have ever had. He’s a fantastic coach, and I grew a lot under his leadership.

What about a tech villain?
I guess anyone who is not open to change. And there are a lot of people like that.

What’s your favourite technology ever made?
My radio. I listen to it on my phone, turn it on as soon as I’m home, or behind a computer. The way radio is distributed now is changing rapidly. If you look at Absolute radio, they have so many different digital channels where they segment their content. And the value they bring to advertisers is phenomenal. It’s a really good business model, and they are really hooked into the niche music market.

What is the greatest challenge for an IT company/department today?
The pace of change, particularly in the consumer market, and how you rationalise that with corporate technology. Technology is now front and centre of most people’s lives. They shop online, have wireless at home, they got their iPad and expect organisations to reflect that.

To Cloud or not to Cloud?
Anything that gets people engaged with technology and makes using it easier and cheaper is a good thing. Obviously, there are still security issues that need to be ironed out. But it’s not like the cloud is a new thing. It has been around for a while, people just called it something else.

What did you want to be when you were a child?
I always wanted to be an actress. That went according to plan!

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