A THREE-DAY digital skills festival is being staged to help businesses identify stars of the future.

Talent 2017 will run from Wednesday March 15 to Friday March 17 across Brighton and Hove with venues including City College in Pelham Street and the Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront.

It is being organised by Wired Sussex and is expected to attract more than 1,200 delegates across a range of events, making it the biggest digital skills festival south of London.

Wired Sussex is the membership organisation for the digital, media and technology sector in Sussex.

Brighton and Hove’s digital and creative sector is now worth more than £1 billion to the city each year and is a driving force behind the city’s economy.

Wired Sussex managing director Phil Jones said: "When we talk to digital businesses locally they say that finding the right people with the right skills is their number one challenge.

"It is clearly limiting their ability to grow in the way they want to.

"Talent2017 is designed to help those businesses attract great new talent to our sector and also to ensure that we have the best trained and most motivated digital talent in the UK."

Greater Brighton’s recent devolution bid supported the ambition of doubling the value of its creative and digital industry cluster in a matter of years.

However research conducted by local universities warned of an emerging skills gap that could prove to be a "critical issue" and a potential "barrier to growth" for the sector.

To sustain and grow the digital sector, digital businesses need to attract more and more talented people and help those they employ grow their skills to keep pace with the needs of the industry.

Juliet Tzbar, CEO of digital business Plug-In Media, said: "Wired Sussex have helped us find great staff in the past and as competition for talent grows this is another great initiative from them to support the sector."

Day one will be a jobs and skills fair and is expected to attract more than 1,000 people looking for jobs in digital.

Day two is a Skills Summit for businesses to share and discuss best practice in training and retaining staff, and day three is Experience Day, giving school students and other young people a hands-on opportunity to understand more about what working in a digital company means.

City College is supporting he Skills Summit and Wired Sussex is keen to engage with other businesses and organisations that also want to support the event.

Call 01273 692888 or log on to wiredsussex.com for more information.