Hundreds of people across the south west benefited from over sixty presentations on digital technology at the recent three-day Festival of the Future which took place on line.

And many more are still catching up on the wealth of information available as most of the sessions are available on the Digital Dorset YouTube channel.

The Festival, which was part of a national week-long event organised by Digital Leaders, had something for everyone and the organisers are keen that people catch up on the sessions they missed.

The most popular session was Leading in a Digital World.  Nearly 500 people registered for the live session with others choosing to catch up by watching the video on YouTube after the event.

The session looked at the challenges which face leaders in a digital world including considering the perspectives of different generations in the workplace and the importance of using technology to be a help rather than a hindrance.

Craig McHugh from Living Your Learning, who delivered the session, said: ‘In the digital world and with everything going on at the moment, agility is absolutely crucial, and we have to develop our people and our businesses to be agile. 

‘Technology can be a challenge because some people were almost born with a mobile device in their hands but there are other older people who are not comfortable with technology, so we have to help people to get used to the technology and embrace it because it really can help them and make a difference.’

The Festival aimed to increase people's knowledge and understanding of what ‘digital’ means and to excite them about the future opportunities and benefits of technology.

It was a chance to showcase some of the great digital work taking place in Dorset and was an opportunity to highlight career opportunities in the public sector.

Although the event was aimed at people living and working in Dorset and the south west, it reached much further afield with several thousand registering from across the UK and over 600 people registering from abroad.

Cllr Peter Wharf, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Development and Change, said: ‘The Festival of the Future was a stunning success and I was very proud and pleased to be connected with such a ground-breaking event.

‘It was meticulously planned and brilliantly executed. The sessions were all incredibly relevant and informative and the speakers were quite astonishingly varied as well as knowledgeable.

‘It was a huge credit to the organising team from Dorset Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group from the NHS and has further cemented Dorset’s place on the map as a leader in technology.’

Anyone who wants to see any of the recorded sessions can go to the Digital Dorset YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLRVmhR9mDrzZXJ8rgYUgbA