Rona Dougall is a broadcaster, freelance journalist and also a popular TV presenter best known as the host of STV’s flagship current affairs programme ‘Scotland Tonight‘. The thirty minute live programme takes an in-depth look at the big news stories of the day, along with sport, politics, business, art and entertainment. Before becoming a Scottish Television anchor, Rona was Sky News Scotland correspondent for over 15 years. During that time she covered many headline stories, including the Dunblane massacre, the trial of the Lockerbie bomber at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, the death of Princess Diana from Balmoral, the opening of the Scottish parliament and several Scottish elections. She was also part of the British Bafta award winning team which covered the terrorist attack at Glasgow airport. Off duty Rona Dougall is a mother to her two children, a keen runner and a voracious reader.

Natalie Lafferty has recently joined UCISA, the member-led professional body for digital practitioners in education as Head of Representation and Policy. She joined UCISA from the University of Dundee where she was Head of the Centre for Technology and Innovation in Learning at the University of Dundee. At Dundee, Natalie led the development of Dundee’s approach to Generative AI in teaching and learning, developing guidance for staff and students and staff development. With over 20 years experience of digital education Natalie is also a trustee of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), where she has co-led work supporting the development of its Framework for Ethical Learning Technology (FELT).

Mark's been involved with innovation for almost the whole of his life, certainly since his teenage years when his father – a researcher, inventor and innovator [though he preferred the word ‘engineer’] – realised Mark would be a good lab rat. Mark is also one of those rare animals who’s developed long and successful track records at the highest levels of the digital and creative industries, in multiple disciplines - as a creative practitioner, as a business lead, as an economic development strategist, and latterly as the guiding force behind CivTech Scotland, the world’s first successful public-sector-focused innovation accelerator. With the ability to range from big visions to the tiniest detail, he couples strategy with successful, genuine and impactful on-the-ground effort. He graduated from St Martin’s School of Art, London and became London’s [and probably the world’s] youngest commercials editor, then its youngest commercials director, making films across the world for clients including Coca Cola, Walt Disney, Volkswagen, Ford, Unilever and Procter & Gamble. Business-wise, he first took charge of the fortunes of a start-up at the age of 22 and helped it grow into one of the most successful commercials post-production companies around. It means he’s worked in, and with, start-ups and SMEs pretty much ever since. At the same time as working in film Mark took on many other challenges. In 1996 he became the world’s first Creative Head of a Premiership football club – helping to massively increase the brand power and commercial activities of [the then fashionable] Middlesbrough AFC. He was also co-founder and creative head of radical and highly successful training company ClickHere Ltd – sold to Tanfield Plc in 2003. Mark has also sat on numerous advisory and regulatory boards at local, regional and national level, including Audiences North East, the Film and Television Skills Advisory Group, North East England [2003 – 2007], the Tees Valley Learning and Skills Council [2002 – 2006], and the Creative Industries Advisory Group Member, ONE North East [2001 – 2005]. In 2003 he took over DigitalCity in the Tees Valley, North East England: in the eleven years under his leadership it went from ‘troubled’ paper exercise to a fully-fledged and brilliantly successful creative and digital cluster initiative, acknowledged as one of the greatest projects of its type anywhere in Europe. Mark was its 'architect' and champion, and with a mission to create and maintain a vibrant, successful and self-sustaining digital and creative supercluster. It delivered everything a regeneration project should do [which they often don't], including massive company growth, hundreds of jobs, significant private sector investment and huge local economic impact. In his time there, Middlesbrough – the centre of the initiative - went from plumb bottom of over 400 areas in England to fourth place in terms of the proportion of high-growth-potential tech companies [Experian]; and in 2013 it was identified by the Financial Times as one of the UK’s digital hotspots – the only one in the UK north of Birmingham. Key partners in the DigitalCity were the region’s local authorities, and with DigitalCity actually based out of Middlesbrough Council, Mark became all too aware of the challenges and barriers faced by councils – especially those that are custodians of deprived areas. Mark’s history in tech has been a long one. The film industry has always been an early adopter, and Mark ordered some of the first non-linear editing systems for the editing company he ran back in the 1980s. At DigitalCity he started his long association with tech accelerators: there in 2009 he co-founded The Difference Engine – Europe’s first true, intensive tech accelerator, and on moving to Scotland in 2014, designed and executed Scotland’s first accelerator – the UP Accelerator. And in 2015 he was part of the team that gor CivTech off the ground. Now, some 90 or so Challenges later, it’s regarded as a singular success story, acknowledged in the Uk as the ‘gold standard’ in innovation systems, and internationally. CivTech is a key component of the Scottish Government’s transformation strategy, centred on driving daring and innovation in the Scottish public sector by collaboratively solving challenges to make people’s lives better, with an absolute focus on citizen-centred design and co-development, it pure and simple ‘tech for good’. He still walks the walk creatively and is currently developing a potentially huge cross-gender, worldwide children’s entertainment franchise - a future-based action-adventure story universe the world’s most popular sport, at its heart. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with his wife Janet Archer. And when he has time he escapes to the wonderful, rugged landscapes surrounding the city because he’s a passionate, 'double badass' [for those of you who know the Rules of Cycling], but very slow cyclist.

Gillian Cameron is the Programme Manager for the Supplier Development Programme (SDP), a business support initiative, supported by Scottish Government, Scottish Local Authorities and Agencies. The Programme’s aim is to help Scottish SMEs improve their performance in winning contracts in the public sector. Gillian has over 25 years’ experience in public sector procurement, previously working on many high-profile supplier engagement projects with the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and London 2012 Olympic games. She is a member of the Scottish Government’s Procurement Supplier Group, which aims to inform, influence, and engage with procurement strategy and derive the maximum economic benefit from public sector purchasing.

Alastair is an infrastructure programme delivery specialist currently working with Transport Scotland and local authorities to accelerate the delivery of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across Scotland as well as exploring ways to mobile private sector capital to support infrastructure delivery in this sector. Former roles have included managing the delivery of complex infrastructure projects and programmes in the education, waste and water sectors. Alastair also has a degree in Civil Engineering and an MBA.

Zoe is the founder of Bodacious, a strategy studio focused on illuminating and navigating the new frontiers of innovation and emerging technologies within the worlds of brands and entertainment. Her client roster includes Nike, Netflix, EA Games, Lego, Snapchat and many more. She crafts ground-breaking strategies combining rigorous business intelligence, with 20+ years of brand strategy know-how and a futurist lens. Prior to Bodacious, she spent her career moving between trailblazing creative agencies; such as Droga5. Best-in-class entertainment companies, like Ridley Scott Creative Group and 77X, the sports x youth culture studio, founded by NBA superstar Luka Dončić. Forward-thinking innovation consultancies such as Undercurrent. And world famous celebrities such as Enrique Iglesias and DJ Khaled.

Tom is the Chief Data Officer at the Scottish Government, with extensive hands-on experience working across Data Science, Data Analysis, Data Architecture, Software Development and Data Engineering. With his wealth of experience working in various UK government departments, he has spent several years developing and improving organisations’ use of data to inform policy and operational decisions.

Denis is Head of the Procurement Services Division at the Scottish Government, delivering collaborative digital technology agreements for the Scottish public sector with particular interests in strategy development, commodity leadership, sustainability, supplier access and stakeholder engagement.

Simon is Head of Strategic Sourcing for NSS National Procurement (NP). NHS NP manages around 450 national contracts on behalf of NHS Scotland. These are managed via their Category Teams including Medicines, Medical Equipment. Medical & Surgical Supplies, Paramedical, Non Medical, Estates and Facilities, ICT software, Equipping and Innovation.