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Celebrating Dorset’s innovation
Dorset Council has won recognition nationally for our digital and innovation work and this has been celebrated in our Festival of the Future events.
In 2020, our first Festival of the Future, was entirely virtual due to the pandemic.
It included 60 online sessions covering a wide range of topics and was held during Digital Leaders week – attracting a large and varied audience.
Throughout that week we showcased the innovation taking place in Dorset, provided insight to the different aspects of digital, and discussed the future opportunities digital provides.
In 2021 and 2022 we took the festival on the road to different venues across Dorset and enabled an online audience to also tune in to make them a truly hybrid affair.
Our festivals highlighted the role digital has in making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit.
The festivals focused on the future to excite people and engage as wide an audience as possible.
They raised awareness on the digital and innovation work that is crucial in developing and maintaining talent and skills and attracting investment to assist economic growth. The events also showed how digital can improve the lives and wellbeing of our residents.
The festival in 2021 focused on a different topic area each day – business, education, tourism, countryside and health & social care.
We showcased the latest tech from businesses and the MOD, demonstrated the potential of Virtual Reality in education, demonstrated the latest agritech and highlighted how technology can help people live independently for longer in their own homes.
The 2022 festival saw the biggest in-person audience we’ve had to date while retaining the ability for people to watch the event online.
We featured over 50 representatives from digital and tech companies across Dorset, showcasing a range of topics and tech innovations and talked about digital inclusion and careers available in the sector.
The festival also involved local school children, through an interactive activity and a stop-motion workshop.
Our Festival of the Future broadcasts can be viewed on the Digital Dorset YouTube channel.