Simon Allen writes and speaks about digital infrastructure, including the power, data centers, chips and supply chains needed to scale AI. They represent the Quantum Infrastructure Council and have moderated industry discussions.
Simon Allen is most useful for explaining AI infrastructure constraints: power, data centers, chips, supply chains and skills.
Best for
UK or European digital infrastructure operator, investor or advisory firm planning a programme on delivery constraints.
Not for
A global enterprise-software vendor selling AI governance or automation tools to non-technical executives.
Key takeaways
AI depends on a physical chain from electricity and substations through cooling, chips and networks.
Energy, data center infrastructure, chips and advanced manufacturing account for roughly one in 45 workers.
They say the AI infrastructure debate stops too early at the data center.
Check first: Confirm audience data, post-level engagement and whether they offer a paid partnership format.
Main ideas
AI depends on a physical chain, not just computing power · Delivery constraints deserve as much attention as AI demand · Technology readiness should be grounded in local infrastructure realities
Simon Allen writes about the infrastructure behind AI and digital services: power, data centers, chips, networks, and the people and supply chains that keep them running.
Their posts connect big-picture questions about AI and quantum readiness to practical constraints such as grid capacity, cooling, equipment and skills.
They also represent the Quantum Infrastructure Council at industry events and moderate discussions about infrastructure delivery.
Simon Allen looks beyond the visible data center to the wider systems AI depends on.
In a post on AI’s physical infrastructure, they trace the chain from electricity and substations through data centers, cooling, chips and networks, highlighting the workers needed at each stage.
In a post on chip manufacturing, they extend the discussion upstream to the power, water, chemicals and grid resilience advanced manufacturing requires.
They bring these themes into industry discussions, too.
At a UK infrastructure event, they connected quantum readiness to practical questions of power, cooling and site design (event post).
In a post about a panel they were due to moderate, they framed shortages of equipment, chips, cooling capacity and skilled workers as delivery challenges, with sourcing and procurement among the responses to explore (Capacity Europe post).
These concise posts surface the dependencies and questions behind infrastructure decisions.
Across these four posts, Simon Allen moves the AI and technology discussion from big-picture demand to the infrastructure and people needed to deliver it.
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The posts connect power, data centers, chips, supply chains and skills, while treating UK conditions and project constraints as practical parts of the picture.
AI depends on a physical chain, not just computing power
Allen argues that discussion of AI infrastructure often stops at data centers.
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They point further upstream to chip manufacturing and its needs for electricity, water, chemicals, grid resilience and energy security.
In another post, they map the chain from electricity and substations through data centers, cooling, chips and networks.
Together, these examples show a habit of widening the frame from a visible facility to the systems that make it possible.
One post asks not only where data centers will be built, but what infrastructure sits behind the chips. Another names the workers who build and operate that physical stack, estimating that related workforces make up about 2.2% of the global workforce.
Delivery constraints deserve as much attention as AI demand
Allen highlights the practical limits on infrastructure expansion: power equipment, chips, cooling, supply chains and skilled workers.
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They focus on how projects can proceed amid scarcity, including through standardisation, alternative sourcing and procurement. This puts execution alongside technology ambition.
In a post about moderating a Capacity Europe panel, Allen describes a discussion on delivering projects amid shortages and lists the constraints and responses the panel will explore. The post shows the issues they bring to an event, rather than reporting the panel's conclusions.
Technology readiness should be grounded in local infrastructure realities
Allen presents quantum readiness as a practical planning question, not only a distant technology prospect.
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They connect it to power, cooling, site design and long-term strategy, and favor examining the domestic ecosystem in its specific context. The UK post also links infrastructure discussion to planning reform, regional growth, investment, supply-chain delivery and skills.
Reporting from Platform UK, where they represented the Quantum Infrastructure Council, Allen says the event's focus on UK conditions made conversations sharper and more actionable. They describe delegates beginning to consider what quantum could mean for infrastructure planning.
This is the clearest statement of Simon Allen's core argument: the AI conversation focuses on which jobs AI will replace, while the physical workforce it depends on gets far less attention.
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The post answers that question directly and maps the chain they have in mind, from electricity to chips.
Simon Allen argues that the debate over AI and jobs ignores the people AI itself relies on.
By their rough estimate, the combined workforces behind energy and power, data center infrastructure, and chips and advanced manufacturing make up only about 2.2% of the global workforce, roughly one in 45 workers.
That small group underpins a chain they lay out explicitly: electricity, substations, transmission, data centers, cooling, chips and networks.
They name power engineers, electricians, data center designers and operators, commissioning engineers, cooling specialists, semiconductor engineers and technicians as strategically important skills.
AI cannot scale, they conclude, without the people who build and operate its underlying infrastructure.
For brands planning a campaign
A campaign on AI, skills or industrial strategy can use this framing to turn abstract automation talk into a concrete story about labour and infrastructure. It gives a speaker or advisor a memorable statistic and a visual chain of roles to discuss.
This post shows where Simon Allen draws the boundary of the AI infrastructure conversation, and why they think most coverage gets it wrong.
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It is the clearest example of their habit of pushing analysis further up the supply chain.
Simon Allen argues that the AI infrastructure debate focuses too narrowly on data centers.
Power, water and carbon at the data center level matter, they say, but the upstream semiconductor supply chain deserves more attention.
Advanced chips require advanced manufacturing, which in turn demands electricity, water, chemicals, grid resilience and energy security.
They shift the question from where data centers will go to what infrastructure sits behind the chips.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful for a brand seeking a voice that connects data center siting to semiconductor and industrial policy. The supply chain claim is asserted and linked, rather than analysed in the post; ask for the supporting analysis.
This post explains who Simon Allen works with and what they do at industry events.
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It shows what the Quantum Infrastructure Council does in practice and how quantum is positioned alongside mainstream data center concerns.
Simon Allen reports attending Platform UK on behalf of the Quantum Infrastructure Council alongside co-founder David Snelling, describing the event as unusually focused on the UK market.
They list the themes grounding the discussions: planning reform, grid constraints, regional growth, investment appetite, supply chain delivery and skills.
Delegates, they say, are starting to treat quantum readiness as a practical infrastructure question rather than distant hype, connecting it to power, cooling, site design and long-term strategy.
The post is largely an event account and thanks a number of named organisers.
For brands planning a campaign
This is the strongest evidence that Simon Allen connects quantum positioning with day-to-day UK data center delivery concerns.
A campaign aimed at UK infrastructure audiences could use the quantum-readiness angle.
For claims about quantum's timeline or economics, ask for a separate argument: this post is an event report.
This post shows what Simon Allen does in front of an audience and which subjects they are trusted to chair.
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It is the clearest evidence of their moderator role and the constraints they address.
Simon Allen announces they will moderate a Capacity Europe 2026 panel titled “Scaling Under Scarcity: Delivering Projects Amid Shortages.”
The panel will examine how operators and suppliers are responding to constraints around power equipment, chips, cooling, supply chains and skilled resources.
Topics include standardisation, alternative sourcing, smarter procurement and delivery strategies, and what the industry needs to keep Europe's infrastructure build-out on track.
The post cites event scale figures of 4,000 decision-makers, 2,500-plus companies and 90-plus countries, and invites contacts to get in touch.
For brands planning a campaign
A practical entry point for a brand or agency seeking a moderator or speaker on delivery risk, procurement and supply constraints. It also offers a content angle: scarcity is a delivery and sourcing problem, not just a demand story.
Allen uses conference attendance to compare how infrastructure events frame their markets.
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They describe London gatherings as international and broad, while Platform UK stayed grounded in UK realities: planning reform, grid constraints, regional growth, investment appetite, supply chain delivery and skills. They argue that this domestic lens makes conversations sharper and more actionable, and tie it to a UK data center sector that is both under pressure and full of opportunity.
Uses a single event as a comparison point to argue how the market should be discussed, rather than report news.
For brands planning a campaign
A strong fit for UK-specific infrastructure campaigns, policy and planning discussions, regional growth stories, or anything that needs a speaker who can connect national delivery constraints to investment decisions. Less suited to purely global or technology-abstract positioning.
Quantum readiness as an infrastructure question, not hype
Through the Quantum Infrastructure Council, Allen positions quantum as a practical planning issue for infrastructure operators rather than a distant technology story.
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They report steady delegate interest in what quantum means for power, cooling, site design and long-term strategy, framing it as part of a proper examination of the domestic ecosystem.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful for campaigns moving quantum from speculative technology messaging into infrastructure planning, power and cooling conversations. Brands can assess whether Allen makes an emerging technology legible to operators and investors.
Allen argues the AI infrastructure debate focuses too heavily on data centers.
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They say power, water and carbon at the site level matter, but advanced chip manufacturing also brings demands on electricity, water, chemicals, grid resilience and energy security. They shift the question from where data centers go to what infrastructure sits behind the chips themselves.
Reframes a familiar industry question to redirect attention to a less-discussed part of the supply chain.
For brands planning a campaign
Suited to semiconductor, chemicals, grid resilience and energy security campaigns that need an audience already fluent in data center economics. The value lies in connecting two usually separate supply chain conversations.
Allen asks which humans AI itself depends on, not just which jobs AI disrupts.
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They estimate that energy and power, data center infrastructure, and chips and advanced manufacturing together cover roughly 2.2 percent of the global workforce, about one in 45 workers, and map the chain they support: electricity, substations, transmission, data centers, cooling, chips and networks. They name power engineers, electricians, data center designers and operators, commissioning engineers, cooling specialists, semiconductor engineers and technicians as strategically important roles.
Pairs a reframing question with a rough-order-of-magnitude workforce estimate and a step-by-step map of the physical stack.
For brands planning a campaign
Relevant for workforce, skills, apprenticeship and recruitment campaigns in infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, and for brands arguing that AI's constraints are physical and human rather than purely computational. The practical detail suits briefs aimed at operators and hiring audiences.
Allen moderates a panel titled Scaling Under Scarcity: Delivering Projects Amid Shortages, covering how power equipment, chips, cooling, supply chains and skilled resources shape delivery.
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The stated themes are standardisation, alternative sourcing, smarter procurement and delivery strategies, aimed at keeping Europe's infrastructure build-out on track. The appearance demonstrates a format beyond posting: on-stage moderation and audience facilitation.
Panel topic and audience are clear from the event description.
For brands planning a campaign
Brands can assess Allen as a moderator or panel host for supply chain, procurement and delivery-constraint sessions, not only as a commentator. The framing suits events and content programs about scarcity, standardisation and project execution.
Simon Allen represented the Quantum Infrastructure Council, connected the organisation to Platform Markets Group, and will moderate an industry panel at Capacity Europe.
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Ask for the post dates.
Quantum Infrastructure Council
Mention
Simon Allen represented the Quantum Infrastructure Council alongside co-founder David Snelling at Platform UK.
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Their role or title at QIC is not stated.
Original disclosure
Great to attend Platform UK yesterday – representing The Quantum Infrastructure Council (QIC) alongside co-founder David Snelling.
Simon Allen writes about AI and digital growth as a delivery problem, not a software story.
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Across their posts, compute depends on a physical chain — power, substations, transmission, cooling, chips and networks — and on the people who build and run it, putting the key questions upstream of the data centre.
Readers can move from the short piece on the semiconductor supply chain behind chips, to the post on the physical workforce AI depends on (roughly one in 45 workers worldwide, by their estimate), to the account of a UK conference where they argue that a domestic lens makes infrastructure conversations more actionable.
A Capacity Europe post shows the same subject matter in a different mode: they moderate a panel on delivering projects amid shortages of power equipment, chips, cooling, supply chains and skilled people.
Together, the posts are useful for anyone tracking where AI demand meets grid, procurement and skills constraints, particularly in the UK and Europe.
Both argue that AI compute has become industrial infrastructure, not a model race.
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Rodic traces a single deal through electricity, land, grid connections, cooling, chips, regulatory approvals and the country where the compute sits, then draws out board-level questions: where data is held, where inference happens and who controls the infrastructure. Readers who follow Simon Allen's expansion of the AI conversation beyond the data centre will find the same move, with more geopolitical detail.
Rodic uses a repeatable board-memo structure — why it matters, who gains power, who loses power, what to watch next — anchored in specific deals and published capacity figures.
They extend the energy thread into European LNG and defence production.
Allen draws more on conference settings and supply-chain framing, with a UK and European delivery lens and less of Rodic's sovereignty vocabulary.
Both make the case that power has shifted from an optimisation variable to the constraint on compute.
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Freedman describes hyperscalers refusing server expansion because of regional power limits, and argues that power, cooling, water, capacity and equipment state are now part of the systems architecture, not dashboard metrics. They also frame the move to liquid cooling as a change in how operators run facilities — the operational side of Allen's argument that physical constraints shape delivery.
Freedman brings a background in distributed systems and storage research to their work on industrial data infrastructure at Tiger Data.
Their posts target software and controls engineers, covering operational control loops, real-time data history and an upcoming conference talk with a controls-automation vendor.
Allen approaches the same ground from an infrastructure strategy and market standpoint, addressing operators, investors and event audiences rather than developers.
Both cover the AI build-out as an industrial infrastructure race, breaking down spending to show that power, cooling and facilities carry as much weight as silicon.
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Gitter points to memory supply concentrated among a few AI customers and argues that the market is splitting between companies aligned with hyperscalers and everyone else — the commercial reading of the constraints Allen describes in supply-chain terms.
Gitter writes directly to the IT channel, advising managed service providers and systems integrators on which partnerships to build and where to position a business, with vendor economics and dollar figures to back it up. Allen focuses on infrastructure and energy, including workforce, UK planning conditions and quantum planning, with little prescriptive business advice.
For an investment or advisory firm weighing Simon Allen as a speaker or advisor on AI infrastructure constraints, power and semiconductor supply chains, the information supports a limited placement decision.
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They have a LinkedIn following of roughly 31,500 and post about digital infrastructure, data centers, energy and quantum readiness, including for event audiences such as Platform UK and Capacity Europe.
Buyers can treat the channel as a plausible route into UK and European infrastructure event and professional circles, but should request audience data before assuming investor, executive or engineering decision-maker presence.
Ask for recent post-level engagement on comparable topics and formats, plus any audience survey or documented source covering job role, seniority, employer type and geography.
Simon Allen's posts show no paid partnership offer.
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They document industry-event participation: representing the Quantum Infrastructure Council (described as a partner of Platform Markets Group) at Platform UK and moderating a panel at Capacity Europe 2026.
These are industry-forum appearances, not a published sponsorship format.
No media kit, rate card, sponsored-content policy, disclosure practice, or official inquiry route appears in the posts.
Buyers considering a paid placement, sponsored post, or event collaboration should ask Simon Allen directly about commercial terms.
A UK or European digital infrastructure operator, investor or advisory firm planning a programme on delivery constraints is the strongest fit for Simon Allen.
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At Capacity Europe 2026, they moderated the panel “Scaling Under Scarcity: Delivering Projects Amid Shortages,” covering power equipment, chips, cooling, supply chains and skilled resources, as well as standardisation, alternative sourcing and smarter procurement.
It’s a direct example of leading the conversation this programme needs.
The subject matches the buyer’s decision set: they argue that the AI infrastructure debate stops too early at the data center, while advanced chip manufacturing brings its own demands on electricity, water, chemicals, grid resilience and energy security.
They make the workforce challenge concrete, estimating that energy and power, data center infrastructure, and chips and advanced manufacturing together account for roughly 2.2 percent of the global workforce, or about one in 45 workers.
They also name the roles involved: power engineers, electricians, data center designers and operators, commissioning engineers, cooling specialists, semiconductor engineers and technicians.
The UK-market lens strengthens the fit for a domestic programme.
At Platform UK, they singled out planning reform, grid constraints, regional growth, investment appetite, supply chain delivery and skills as themes that made the event actionable—framing an infrastructure investor or operator can use directly.
For a campaign touching emerging technology, the Quantum Infrastructure Council offers a secondary angle: quantum readiness as a practical question of power, cooling, site design and long-term strategy, rather than distant hype.
When to choose a specialist
A global enterprise-software vendor selling AI governance or automation tools to non-technical executives is a poor fit.
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To reach a general business audience, the vendor needs a creator with a track record in long-form explainers and measured audience data.
The material available here consists of four short LinkedIn posts in a specialist infrastructure niche.
There is no long-form article, video, podcast or transcript to assess how Simon Allen addresses a general business audience, and no post-level engagement or audience data—such as job role, seniority, employer type or geography—to show whether followers are the executives the vendor wants to reach.
The subject is also a mismatch: their central argument is that the AI conversation underweights physical infrastructure and the people who build it, making their content a poor vehicle for a message about software-layer governance.
Commercial terms are unconfirmed.
The posts provide no media kit, rate card, sponsored-content policy, disclosure practice or inquiry route.
The commercial-adjacent activity described is industry-forum participation and panel moderation, not a published sponsorship format.
A buyer considering a paid placement, sponsored post or lead-generation package should ask Simon Allen directly about availability, terms and format before proceeding.
A worked campaign example
The firm wants to assess Simon Allen as a thought leader and potential speaker or advisor on AI infrastructure constraints, power and semiconductor supply chains, and needs a due-diligence summary and content angle.
Shortlist decision. Include them for a client-facing session on delivery constraints and advisory input on the physical supply chain behind AI. Their case rests on their moderator role and public argument: scarcity is a sourcing and delivery problem, and AI’s footprint extends upstream of the data center to chip manufacturing’s demands on electricity, water, chemicals and grid resilience. The theme recurs across their posts, making it worth checking during due diligence.
Proposed engagement. Run a moderated client roundtable on “what the AI build-out actually depends on,” followed by a short written constraint map the firm can use with portfolio companies. Structure the session around the chain they lay out publicly—electricity, substations, transmission, data centers, cooling, chips and networks—and the roles they identify as strategically important, keeping the discussion focused on deliverable bottlenecks rather than demand forecasts. Close with procurement and sourcing responses: standardisation, alternative sourcing and delivery strategies, the themes of the Capacity Europe panel. For a UK-weighted client base, add the domestic layer they used at Platform UK—planning reform, grid constraints, regional growth, investment appetite and skills—to turn a global story into decisions clients can act on in this market.
Why these choices. Panel moderation is the clearest format precedent, so recommend a chaired session rather than a keynote. The one-in-45 workforce estimate is a memorable statistic and a natural discussion prompt. The upstream chip framing distinguishes them from data center-only commentators and should anchor the opening segment. The quantum-readiness material is secondary: it is framed as a planning question, not a near-term market.
Due diligence before contracting. Confirm the current scope of their Quantum Infrastructure Council role and whether it limits external advisory work. Request recent post-level engagement on comparable topics and audience data by role, seniority and geography. Ask directly about fees, availability, disclosure practice and existing sponsor relationships.
Pick Aleksandar Rodic when the firm's audience is investors, boards or policy-adjacent clients and the question is where AI compute will physically sit and who controls it.
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Each post takes a single development and runs it through the same fixed format: why it matters, the board-level implication, who gains and loses power, and what to watch next.
The first covers Anthropic's first Australian data-centre lease, a planned 2.16-gigawatt campus used for inference from 2027, alongside Nvidia's planned 2 GW of Australian capacity against roughly 1.6 GW today, and turns it into questions about jurisdiction, grid connections, approvals and who pays for new grid capacity.
The second does the same for European energy security, tying gas storage at about 67% full, lost Qatari and UAE volumes and Asian spot prices near $40/mmBtu to rearmament, industrial competitiveness and AI build-out.
That repeatable structure suits a firm wanting a recurring written briefing or a session on sovereign compute siting, and the Europe post suits a client base of European industrials or utilities.
The posts are macro and geopolitical: they explain what a siting or energy constraint means for countries and sectors, not how a developer sources power equipment, standardises designs or secures cooling capacity under shortage.
A firm whose clients need procurement and delivery answers gives up the operator-level detail in Simon Allen's scarcity panel.
Both posts are single-issue briefings, with no moderated session, workshop or client-facing format described.
Ask Rodic whether they have experience chairing a roundtable. for a chaired roundtable, Simon Allen is the closer fit.
Pick Michael Freedman when the audience is technical — infrastructure and platform engineers, controls engineers, systems integrators, data teams — and the firm wants the operational argument for why power, not chips, now sets the compute envelope.
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The longer post traces the shift from power treated as an optimisation variable, through late-2000s work on energy-proportional computing and power-aware systems, to power as the binding constraint.
It supports the argument with a market signal (a proposed $67B NextEra–Dominion deal read as a direct response to AI electricity demand) and a firsthand example: hyperscalers refusing server expansion not for lack of hardware or demand but because of regional power capacity limits.
It ends on the operational control loop, dense and liquid-cooled designs, and why power, cooling, water and equipment state have moved from dashboard metrics to system architecture.
The second post shows a talk format for controls engineers and integrators on combining industrial control with Postgres that scales to physical-world data volume.
Use this for a technical deep-dive or a session about the operational data layer.
The framing is practitioner-level and tied to Freedman's own product context (Tiger Data, creators of TimescaleDB), so an investment or advisory audience gets a systems explanation rather than market appraisal: where capital goes, which suppliers are constrained, and what the supply-chain economics are.
The posts show a written essay and a conference talk, but no panel moderation or chaired client session.
For a roundtable on delivery constraints, Simon Allen's moderation of that exact scarcity panel is the closer match.
Pick Eric Victor Gitter when the firm's target audience is the IT channel or mid-market technology providers — MSPs, systems integrators, resellers — or when the firm wants the spend-composition view of the AI build-out.
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The first post splits the projected $6.7 trillion data-centre build to 2030 into silicon and compute against power (15–25%), cooling (10–15%) and facilities and real estate (5–10%).
It flags utilities facing a $1.3 trillion capital call, names direct-to-chip and immersion cooling and modular design as the bottleneck-solving categories, and argues the opening is for mid-sized industrial and energy suppliers and the channel that serves them.
The second covers supplier concentration — the Stargate memory deals securing around 900,000 wafers per month, Micron's consumer-brand exit, over 90% of memory supply focusing on a few AI customers — and turns it into positioning advice for channel businesses, including where hyperscalers will not own the ground, such as sovereign AI and edge deployments.
That combination suits a channel-facing session or a market-structure briefing.
The writing advises channel businesses and closes with a call to action about where to position, so a firm wanting neutral, firsthand analysis of delivery constraints gets a positioning argument rather than an operational account.
Neither post shows a chaired panel or roundtable format, or the grid, cooling, site-design and skills detail Simon Allen brings to a delivery programme.
The spend percentages are stated without named sources; ask Gitter for the underlying sources before presenting them as audited figures.
The posts here are four full public LinkedIn posts from Simon Allen's account, read end to end rather than summarized from titles.
They cover each post's argument, examples and named organisations in the summary, ideas, relationships, discovery and campaign-fit sections.
The sources are short written posts, so nothing here reflects a full transcript, long-form article, podcast or video, and the posts do not include post-level engagement figures, follower demographics, a media kit, rate card or any documented sponsorship or fee arrangement.
Where a post mentions an outbound link rather than stating a point directly, what the linked material says is not described here.
Posts that could not be dated are not assigned dates, and the posts do not show how Allen's work has changed over time.
A campaign seeking paid speaking, sponsored content or advisory availability should confirm those terms directly, because Allen's posts do not say whether they are available.