Thousands of people get switched on at Leeds Digital Festival events

Highlights of the 10-day programme included an appearance at Leeds University by Col Needham, founder of film website IMDb.

Festival director Stuart Clarke said: “This year’s festival has been a real tribute to the innovation and talent we have in Leeds.

“From startup companies with one person to digital giants like Sky Bet and NHS Digital, the whole digital sector has been involved.

“We have seen hundreds of Leeds companies speaking, presenting and collaborating, which will help to grow the sector. Leeds truly is the digital capital of the North.”

Emma Cheshire, a director of the Futurelabs tech hub, which served as DigiFestHQ for this year’s festival, said: “Leeds Digital Festival is a brilliant 10 days of seminars, workshops and talks which celebrate the diversity of digital business in and around Leeds.

“Futurelabs also hosted 10 per cent of the events on the festival programme with topics ranging from games and health to legal advice and speed mentoring for startups and we welcomed over 700 people through our doors.”

The festival also included the staging of the latest Leeds Digital Job Fair at the city’s First Direct Arena.

Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, Infinity Works and LexisNexis are among the exhibitors who have hailed the success of the fair.

Graduates, tech professionals and job seekers flocked to the day-long event to find out more about the 500 career opportunities that were on offer.

Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance’s head of marketing, Theresa Lindsay, said: “If you’re looking to get in front of some of the best IT talent in the region, then the Leeds Digital Job Fair is definitely the place to do it.”

The event was once again organised by Amy De-Balsi, founder of digital jobs board Herd, with support from LeedsBID, Leeds City Council, Leeds Beckett University and the arena.

Ms De-Balsi told Digital City: “The Leeds Digital Job Fair is vital in bringing employers who are creating so many new, well-paid vacancies together with the highly-motivated, highly-skilled workforce that we now have in the region.

“The success story goes on and Herd is proud to be playing our part in quickening the pace of achievement in local digital and tech.”

The Yorkshire Evening Post runs a regular Digital City column in partnership with Sky Betting & Gaming.

The platform is designed to highlight the giant strides being made by a sector that boasts around 3,000 organisations in Leeds.