Leeds Digital Festival returned this year with more than 240 events designed to celebrate and explore the city’s leading role in digital enterprise and innovation. Established in 2016, the festival is an open, collaborative collection of digital culture that showcases Leeds’ tech eco-system to a national and international audience.

Running from the 18th – 29th September, the festival offered its usual open-platform program packed full of brilliant tech and digital events, hosted by the city region’s most exciting organizations. It’s designed to inspire and encourage collaboration with the aim of promoting the strength of the sector in the city to a global audience.

“The Leeds Digital Festival continues to evolve to meet the needs of industry. This year hundreds of events inspired delegates and encourage collaboration to highlight the strengths of the digital community in the city,” said Stuart Clarke, the festival director. “The program had something for everyone, with events from data to sustainability.”

Amongst the itinerary there was the Yorkshire Data and Digital Conference, as well as events focused on the metaverse, cyber-security and artificial intelligence. Delegates could attend the festival in person or virtually with a range of events from the region’s leading digital organizations, including Accenture, Microsoft and KPMG.

The Data and Digital Conference, part of the festival, had a dynamic program of speakers debated key topics which impact business, with themes including the future of artificial intelligence (AI), women in tech, removing barriers for entry to the world of tech and how to build a world-class business community here in Yorkshire.

Meanwhile, the University of Leeds launched its new digital learning space, HELIX, which enables students to create cutting edge content by collaborating on innovative entrepreneurial projects. They can use state-of-the-art equipment such as the only Omnideck in the UK – which allows unrestricted motion inside VR environments.

As part of @LeedsDigiFest, join us on Thursday 28 September and explore Helix, our brand-new digital innovation space. You’ll be able to drop-in, join a tour or book a hands-on session and see how the University is bringing a digital campus to life. pic.twitter.com/ru6PI5gQf5

— University of Leeds (@UniversityLeeds) September 21, 2023

The festival featured the Leeds Digital Careers Fair on 26th September at Leeds Arena, showcasing over 100 employers and training providers and over 1,500 attendees. Other events included a webinar from Open Velocity on effective marketing strategies and a workshop by Reprise on tips and tactics to improve brand’s performance.

“With such a comprehensive and diverse range of events this year, we’re confident of igniting excitement among attendees and encouraging collaborative working to highlight the strengths of the digital community in the city,” Simon Wright, acting UK CEO of PEXA, one of the sponsoring companies of the event, said.

Join us for another fantastic day of events at #LDF2023! 🥂📷

Today brings you advice on how to build a #sustainable future and grow your #tech business, alongside #metaverse chats, #marketing tips, and designing an innovative #digitalhospital using SMART technologies. 📷 👇 pic.twitter.com/O3Sa6hYEHp

— Leeds Digital (@LeedsDigiFest) September 19, 2023

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