Debut data festival proves a hit for Scotland’s ever-growing tech industry

With the aim of engaging data businesses in Scotland, the first Datafest was a success, writes Chris Mccall

The inaugural Datafest has been hailed as a success after attracting more than 2,000 people to 24 events across the country last month.

The festival was organised by The Data Lab, a publicly-funded innovation centre, with aim of cementing Scotland’s status as an international hub for the booming big data sector.

Data - the process of collecting and acting upon usable trends - is increasingly viewed as the future of sectors as varied as healthcare and media.

The mix of events included a travelling art gallery and a recruitment exhibition aimed at postgraduate students from Scotland’s universities looking to find work in the data field.

The biggest event of the festival was the two-day Data Summit, an international conference held at The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh and billed as the first festival to promote data innovation in Scotland.

The first day focused on “proof ” – current applications, experience and challenges in delivering value from data – while the second day will concentrated on “hypothesis”, or the future of information.

Gillian Docherty, CEO of The Data Lab, said: “We are overwhelmed by how well the first Datafest has been received. The feedback has been fantastic and it is clear that Scotland is stamping its position on the international data stage. The event has also recognised the strength of the data community here from the grass roots up. It is essential that we invest and build on this and continue to nurture talent to attract further interest from near and far.

“The data industry is predicted to contribute £20bn to Scotland’s economy by 2020 and Datafest17 demonstrated how much of an appetite there is from both individuals and businesses around learning about the commercial possibilities of data.”

Firms attending the two-day conference in Edinburgh were challenged to use their data expertise to help developing countries.

Nuria Oliver, head of research in data science at Vodafone, told delegates that the ubiquity of mobiles means it is now possible for largescale aggregated and anonymised human behavioural data of entire cities, countries and even continents to be collected and analysed.

0 Data Fest was held across Scotland