Meet me at the Milk Bar - Angela Prentner-Smith

Angela Prentner-Smith will be co-hosting a design session at Friday's Milk Bar with Sarah Drummond, of Snook, on what a working day in the future might look like.

Angela is a highly experienced business and change professional. She has forged a career as a strategic business analyst with specific expertise in digital transformation, customer experience and branding. She has a particular skill for running innovative workshops and getting to the heart of business problems and customer needs.

Angela is the driving force behind This is Milk, and brings passion and ingenuity to everything she does. She created This is Milk to make businesses better, simply.

Ahead of the Milk Bar we asked Angela a few questions:
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1. What brings you to the Milk Bar Meet Up?
   
   Well I set up the Milk Bar due to frustrations I was having with events and networking.  I wanted a place where we could talk about what's coming next as opposed to what's happening now.  How can we make things better? Are there better ways of doing things?  What’s coming next for us, what will we have to prepare for next, are there better ways of doing things? I love to hear and learn from other people's thoughts on these issues, and so the Milk Bar was born!
   
   
2. You will be co-hosting a design session that shows what a work day in the future might look like. Can you tell us a bit more about why you chose this topic for the Milk Bar?
   
   Sarah and I designed this topic to get people thinking about what the future might look like.  The great thing about the future is that we are designing it as we go, without even knowing it.  What we as business people need to do is to proactively design it, rather than let it happen to us. 
    
   The exercise draws on the tools of service design and design thinking to get people thinking and doing rather than just listening.
   
   
3. Why do you think it is important for organisations to prepare for the future?
   
   The world is changing so quickly.  Digital and technological advancements have meant even the safest of businesses and industries are threatened by disruptors.  In order to keep up with customer expectations, employee expectations, the changing workplace landscape and competitors, businesses need to be on the front foot.
   
   
4. What do you think the most important trend is going to be for your business in the next 5 years?
   
   For This is Milk – I think the trend towards employee learning is key.  The critical component that will help any business to deal with constant change is constant learning.  If we aren’t learning, we can’t keep up with change, we can’t inform our business strategies with the latest information and we won’t deliver the best to our customers.
    
   So for a business that's all about change and transformation the key to our success will be in constant learning and changing ourselves!  There is data to back this up, but it seems obvious to me!  Don’t stagnate, and keep learning to keep successful.
   
   Meet Angela at the Milk Bar on Friday 5 August 2016, 17:30-19:30 at Snook Interchange Glasgow , 84 Miller Street, Glasgow.

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