Welcome to the first issue of Conference Call for 2017, which is shaping up to be a year of celebration.

Scotland is marking the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, whilst in the capital we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of Edinburgh’s New Town, not to mention the 70th anniversary of three of Edinburgh’s major arts festivals. In this issue’s Destination feature, we speak to Director of Edinburgh World Heritage, Adam Wilkinson, about our wonderful history and what can be done to ensure the conservation of the Old and New Towns.

Adam will also be speaking about the unique place held by Edinburgh on the world stage at our first Innovation Nation lecture of the year, which will take place on World Heritage Day on 18 April. He will be joined by Janet Egdell, Operations Director at Registers of Scotland, who will discuss the digital transformation of Scotland’s land and property data. This is the first of several free public lectures in 2017; there will also be spotlights on robotics, the Edinburgh Festivals and the Forth bridges to coincide with the opening of the new Queensferry Crossing. Read more in Highlights at the EICC and book your free tickets on our website.

Tech entrepreneurs in Edinburgh also have much to celebrate this year, with the capital currently revelling in its status as the best place in Europe to establish a tech start-up. Informatics Ventures’ Dr Steve Ewing, Cally Russell from shopping app Mallzee and John Peebles from training platform Administrate discuss what makes the city such a great place for start-ups and how the industry can continue to flourish.

Last but not least, we reflect on the first conference of the year. Fertility 2017 was last held at the EICC eight years ago; Simon Whitfield, Managing Director of the conference organisers, tells us why it was even more of a success the second time around.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Conference Call and please do get in touch if you have any feedback.

Marshall Dallas
Chief Executive