Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 10 | Page 87

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business Apadmi named first Amazon Alexa Skill Builder in the north of England ///////////////////////////// M anchester-based Apadmi has become the first recognised Skill Builder in the north of England by Amazon Alexa. The news comes after Apadmi has been working across the region to help educate businesses and developers about voice technology. The mobile tech specialists have been promoting voice technology and the importance of developers learning skills in this field since Autumn 2017, when they held their first workshop for engineers. These workshops outline best practice development www.intelligentcio.com process and considerations for designing technology specifically for voice. Since then, they’ve collaborated with Amazon to hold voice events for the tech community, as well as further workshops aimed at developers from introductory level through to advanced, at Amazon Alexa’s London HQ and in Manchester city centre. Apadmi has used its events to get more software specialists excited about developing for voice, sharing the extensive knowledge of its staff about voice development tools outside of the standard Alexa development kits. Marcus Hadfield, Chief Strategy Officer at Apadmi, commented: “Voice might not be new, but it’s starting to gain a lot of momentum in the tech industry. It’s critical that developers learn best practice now and get the basics of voice design right, so that they can build on those concepts with greater ease as soon as new updates are released.” The news comes after Apadmi’s most recent Alexa skill launch: The Drum Voice, which allows readers of the global marketing publication to speak with its editor, Gordon Young. n INTELLIGENTCIO 87