Four local authorities, a population of 500,000, and a pledge to transform the Tay Cities into an international knowledge hub based on cutting-edge life sciences, agri-tech and cybersecurity excellence.

That is the £300m pledge from Scottish and UK Governments – with a further £400m to be leveraged from investment partners – which forms the historic Tay Cities Deal, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regenerate a region of Scotland that was once at the heart of the industrial revolution.

Dundee – with its illustrious history of Jute, Jam and Journalism – is now poised, like its new V&A Museum of Design, to thrust itself back onto the world stage as a 21^stcentury melting pot for cultural, scientific and digital change.

Boosting historically low productivity levels and addressing long-standing inequalities are front and centre of the vision for the Tay Cities, and the joined-up regional focus - with Angus, Dundee Fife and Perth & Kinross all working strategically together - marks a new era of cooperation.

FutureScot's latest iteration of the Digital Cities & Regions nationwide series of policy and technology conferences will be the hotbed for digital and economic discussion as the Tay Cities move from strategy to operational reality; join us as we check progress on the Deal, test leaders' thinking and forward-plan economic activity for 2019 and beyond.

• Using data to drive inclusive growth activity in the region;
• Accelerating growth and dealing with the opportunity and threat landscape;
• Sustaining future growth: building regional consensus to deliver innovation-led economic prosperity; 
• Building a cyber cluster and digital forensics centre of excellence;
• Creating high-quality jobs in the knowledge economy;
• From sensor to insight: connecting physical data networks to build a city-region for the future.