Devices tracking your rubbish across the globe, planes showing the real-time skyline of your destination and shared taxi journeys reducing traffic by 90 per cent were just some of the hot new technologies showcased at Digital 2015 earlier this month – the biggest and most exciting gathering in the event’s three year history to date.

The event saw global organisations, young people, academia and indigenous inventive start-ups come together for two days of collaboration and partnership building. We promised a major focus on these new technologies and to get under the skin of exactly what businesses needed to do to adopt them for economic gain. As such, the two-day event covered four distinct themes – Digital Showcase, Digital Skills, Digital Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurs.

Day one saw ‘Father’ of Tomb Raider Ian Livingstone give a keynote focusing on the need to turn consumers into digital creatives.

As Creative Industries Champion for the Government’s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Livingstone urged educators and businesses to play a bigger role in making sure young people are equipped with the right problem-solving and coding skills needed to be digital citizens of the 21st century.

Anthony Vanky from world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology opened up the second day of talks, delving into some of the institute’s latest research on ways to make modern city living more convenient and sustainable.

Returning to the stage, Gianni O’Connor joined us once again to this time launch his brand new platform $tock Tickler – a way to quickly and easily buy completely commission-free stocks and shares, the project is aimed at letting consumers buy a part of their own favourite brands and earn from the products they love.

What’s even more exciting is that the platform was developed with 15 children to make it as relevant and accessible as possible and was inspired by his conversations with young people at Digital 2014.

With the Future Five results in high anticipation, the industry-led research was revealed on the first day showing everyday objects being connected to the internet, such as texting our ovens and ‘smart’ babygrows (The Internet of Things), as our top prediction on what is going to dramatically shape how we work, live and play in the future – reinforcing what subjects tomorrow’s workforce need to be upskilled in in order to thrive.

And here are the five technologies that you think will have the greatest impact:

1. The Internet of Things (IOT) – Objects, animals or people that are connected to the internet

2. Cloud

3. Computing Everywhere – mobiles becoming our key computers

4. Invisible Analytics – embedding analytics into devices to get data quicker and faster

5. 3D Printing

The event has also been championing the organisers’ official ‘Digital Dozen’, 12 companies from Wales and the South West that have been making waves through their innovative use of technology and are helping to shape the UK’s digital economy, which included speakers Blurrt, Veeqo and Musiqli.

These are just some of the indigenous businesses that have helped put Wales on the tech map; The digital sector in here is made up of around 3,000 businesses and employs in excess of 24,000 people. The Welsh digital economy is worth £860 billion pounds with the potential to exploit even more growth through new careers opened up through technology.

Earlier this year, Tech Nation even named South Wales as the UK’s fifth fastest-growing tech economy. Ninety-eight per cent of tech businesses in Wales expect a rise in the revenue within the next 12 months.

Digital 2015 brought the buzz of the global industry to the heart of Wales, with all eyes on Newport as conversations turned to what’s in store for the sector and how businesses across the country can take advantage.