Never before have we seen such a large group of people being so enthusiastic on a Monday, but that’s what happened when Digital Festival brought together 2,000 people for its sixth year.
The festival took place on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 May at Wales Millennium Centre, an epic venue in Cardiff Bay. Above the main entrance of the centre is a monumental inscription by Welsh writer Gwyneth Lewis: “In These Stones Horizons Sing,” and the Welsh inscription: “Creu Gwir Fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen,” which translates as “Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration,” and it certainly was an inspiring setting for the festival.
Hosted in Wales and catering to a global audience with a diverse speaker line up, the Digital Festival programme covered more than 60 sessions and 100+ speakers. This included Wales’ Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, Kevin Skates AM and Wired UK’s founding editor in Chief, David Rowan, plus GoCompare’s Chief Technology Officer, Jackson Hull, as well as Keith Teare, founding shareholder at TechCrunch and the person who founded RealNames in 1997, which is ultimately the reason that you can type keywords into the address bar of your Internet browser without www.
The biggest highlight for us was the wide range of panel discussions with speakers from a dynamic mix of backgrounds, which made for exciting and relevant discussions about tech with real world application. Experts shared their insights on discussions covering themes such as data and privacy, cyber security, AI, robotics, 5G, healthtech, IoT and the impact of digital technologies, and representatives from Mind Map Pro created mind maps of the freshest thoughts from the panels in real time to create a digital legacy of the discussions.
Most of the panel discussions took place in BBC’s Hoddinnott Hall, a legendary area of the Wales Millennium Centre that is one of the most sophisticated orchestral rehearsal and studio provisions in Britain. We projected the mind mapping live on screen in the Hoddinnott Hall so that the audience could interpret the discussion with a visual guide.
Paul Seed, CEO of Mind Map Pro said: “Digital Festival was a fantastic experience. It was great to see so much innovation; the community is certainly thriving and inspiring. Personally I found it very rewarding to see Mind Map Pro being used for the live panel discussions, and the reaction of the speakers and attendees. I’m looking forward to the next Digital Festival!”
Each mind map is available to view or export, so you can access a copy of our digital notes: https://www.mindmappro.com/. To continue the discussions, you can also sign up to join this team and add comments within Mind Map Pro.
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