THE digital world is descending on Newport today and tomorrow for Digital 2015, the third annual sector conference being held at the Celtic Manor Resort.

The South Wales Argus is media sponsor of the event and the editor, Kevin Ward, will be taking an active role in proceedings by chairing the digital Workplace panel tomorrow.

And, as part of our sponsorship, tomorrow's Business Argus will be dedicated solely to the digital sector with interviews with some of the key-note speakers at the two day event and insights into what the future could hold.

The two-day event is set to attract more than 2,000 people including representatives from global organisations, young people, academia and indigenous inventive start-ups which are coming together for collaboration and partnership building.

Digital 2015 will also welcome the event’s official ‘Digital Dozen’ – 12 companies from Wales and South West which are championing pioneering uses of tech and making waves in the industry. They include Gwent-based Blurrt, which specialises in sentiment analysis and has worked on this year’s General Election; Schoop, a tool for keeping schools and communities connected and Veeqo, an online stock management platform which has just become the first Welsh company to raise £1m through crowdfunding, as well as music collaboration tool Musiqli.

The conference will unveil the ‘Future Five’ which are based on the views of more than 1,000 industry professionals including event speakers from Microsoft, Tata Steel and Moneypenny, and include Cloud and Computing Everywhere as the top three tech inventions which will infiltrate our everyday lives and affect how we live in the future.

The official Future Five – top five new technologies that will change our lives, as predicted by the industry are: The Internet of Things (IOT) – Objects, animals or people that are connected to the internet, Cloud, Computing Everywhere – mobiles becoming our key computers, Invisible Analytics – embedding analytics into devices to get data quicker and faster and 3D Printing.

Ian Stewart, Head of Channel for IoT at communications infrastructure company Arqiva, which is leading a panel topic at Digital 2015, said: “IoT is very much the hot topic of the moment in the tech world, proven by the research being unveiled today. Having indigestible chips in your medicine which instantly update your doctors about conditions may seem like a ridiculous space-age fantasy but these futuristic inventions really are the now – and businesses should take advantage of the incredible opportunities available to them as soon as they can.

“Our panel today will really get under the skin of what exactly IoT is and show examples of it in action in businesses large and small. We’ll be showing the value it can bring to an organisation’s bottom line, no matter what their sector, and how they can use it to fuel business growth.”

With a major focus on these new technologies and ensuring the UK has the skills, commercial know-how and capabilities to adopt them for economic gain, the event will be covering four distinct themes that reflect the changing industry – Digital Showcase, Digital Skills, Digital Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurs.

Monday will open up with a keynote speech from Ian Livingstone, dubbed the ‘Father’ of Tomb Raider and the man behind franchises such as Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy.

As Creative Industries Champion for the Government’s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Livingstone will lead panels on both the Skills and Cyber Security stage including a PolicyMeet that will debate how the UK and devolved governments can ensure a digital agenda is placed at the heart of education and learning.

Other speakers will include Dave Coplin, Microsoft’s Chief Envisioning Officer, who will lead a talk on ‘The Rise of the Humans’; Cliff Evans, Global CTO of management consultancy Capgemini alongside key players from the DVLA, Logicalis, We Predict, NHS and the National Library.

Monday will also see the UK launch of EdTech UK, a new organisation that will help accelerate the growth of the nation’s education technology sector and support businesses in their journey to becoming self-sustainable and beneficial to the economy. The brainchild of Ian Fordham, Co-founder of the UK’s first cross sector think tank the Education Foundation, it will be a voice for the entire learning technology sector and benefit educators, startups, large corporations, investors, regulators and policy makers.

To follow the event live, follow @Digital_2015 #D15 or download the app at: http://www.digital2015.co.uk/.