500 staff. One day. The start of a new digital and clinical strategy.
The first Elevate showcase event, at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust fuelled unprecedented digital engagement and enthusiasm.
The day put trust leaders, operational teams, and frontline clinical staff in the same room as tech innovators. The foundation of a new digital and clinical strategy, it inspired the art of the possible.
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton brought together 500 NHS staff from across the organisation
What one day delivered
How it happened
Showing the art of the possible, driving clinical involvement in digital direction
UHDB wanted to inform its new digital strategy and priorities with voices beyond the digital team. But the innovators, the people who'd actually use the tools, and the executives setting strategic direction - rarely sat in the same conversation. Elevate created an opportunity to change that.
Whole-workforce, in one room
Elevate curated relevant suppliers to the trust's priorities and brought 500 staff across every tier into a single day of structured engagement - hands-on, honest, and high-energy.
Insight that changed the strategy
The feedback captured on the day fed directly into UHDB's 2026-2030 digital strategy. And it gave tech firms meetings that would otherwise have taken months to arrange.
Tech firms able to listen, learn, and respond
Big tech and specialist health tech firms took their innovations inside the hospital. But they also learned, hearing about challenges directly from the people who use and who decide.
What the NHS and suppliers said
This is clinical people coming to a digital event... the first I’ve known in my 20 years in the NHS.
The breadth of excitement, the buzz that’s been created: we wouldn't get that anywhere else.
We're bringing vendors to the people.
This is not just about picking the next fancy innovation.
This is about what our staff need.
This has been key in developing our future digital strategy.
We have been able to get real-time feedback from our teams on how the advancements in technology can improve their working lives and patient care.
I think it’s really important for co-development.
As a clinician, we don’t often go to events like this.
There’s a real palpable sense of excitement, hope and optimism.
In this room are represented so many solutions that can improve what it is to work in the NHS. I’m really looking forward to hearing the outcomes and how that takes us forward.
What I've seen today is energy.
People have not been able to stop talking to one another. Look at the innovation brought to us today in one handy marketplace that allows us to efficiently use our time to be inspired and challenge ourselves to think differently.
Every single thing I've seen would offer something to an organisation which has got ambitions to be outstanding.
From the robot to technology for how we manage our patient records.
They are making connections here.
I've loved talking to people today - not just to transfer learning, but to make lasting relationships to solving the problems they're talking about.
Where Elevate is happening next
We are in talks to arrange Elevate events with these organisations during Autumn 2026.
Be part of the next one.
Elevate is gaining momentum across the country, helping to show the art of the possible.