In November, a delegation of CenSoF researchers spent two days at BT's Adastral Park headquarters and innovation campus near Ipswich in Suffolk, and at the BT archives in Holborn, Central London. Members of the team were hosted at BT by our CenSoF partner for a day of presentations and discussions of areas of shared interest for future work together across the Centre.

As well as a tour of the site, the team spent some time exploring the impressive BT 'showcase' which demonstrates future technologies in a range of simulated settings like a living room and hospital, for instance. The next day, CenSoF and BT staff travelled to London to meet a BT archivist at the company's archives. There, the team were talked through some of the fascinating materials available in the BT strongroom, which date back over a hundred years to the firm's beginnings. Colleagues then enjoyed exploring some of the different collections of media, documents and materials accessible to researchers working with the archives.

Conversations over a packed two days generated plenty of ideas for ways to take the collaboration forward across the Centre's domains, and there are plans for further trips to Adastral and the archives.