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Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will both be playing their part at next week's National Digital Inclusion Conference, providing video messages to get delegates thinking and talking.  

Gordon Brown's message will be followed-up in person by Digital Britain Minister Stephen Timms MP, who will be opening the Conference on Wednesday 10 March with Champion for Digital Inclusion Martha Lane Fox.  He'll be talking about the new National Plan for Digital Participation, which was launched earlier this week, while Martha Lane Fox will be talking about her plans to collect 'digital promises' from more than 10,000 private, public and charitable sector organisations.  Meanwhile, Shadow Minister Jeremy Hunt will be there on the 11^th to present a Tory vision for a digitally inclusive Britain.  

Now in its fifth year, the NDI10 Conference will take place across two days - Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 March, at the Vinopolis Conference Centre in London.  It aims to get cross-sector and cross-party digital inclusion partners together to discuss digital inclusion issues, and plan actions for 2010 and beyond. 

Conference founder Robin Knowles explains:  "NDI10 is all about getting the people who make digital inclusion happen in one room, working together to make even more happen, in more places, reaching more people.  It's great to get party leaders Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg involved in the discussions, and we'll be continuing the cross-party theme with our live Question Time, let by Conference chair Matthew Taylor." 

The Question Time will also take place on the 10^th.  Matthew Taylor will be asking Derek Wyatt MP (Labour), Baroness Warsi (Conservative) and Lembit Opik (Lib Dem) about their personal opinions and party-lines on digital inclusion, getting input from Ofcom's Stuart Purvis and Age UK's Tom Wright as part of the panel.  

Also speaking at the Conference reviewing 12 months of digi-inc action is Helen Milner, Managing Director for UK online centres.  She adds:  "I'm really excited about next week, and looking forward to what's set to be a really interesting couple of days.  It's wonderful to see support for digital inclusion coming from the top, and just before a general election is testament to the fact this is now central to the wider agendas of economic growth, social justice and the improvement of government services.  Digital inclusion is suddenly super-relevant, and the Conference is our chance to hear how each party plans to respond to the challenge of digital exclusion, and to have our say on how priorities and plans should be shaped for the future." 

Delegates will get to have their say from the floor in Q&As during the main plenary sessions, and will be working in four workstream groups to come up with their own digital inclusion promises.  The Digital government for all workstream is being led by Directgov, and will feature input from New Media Age, Microsoft and DC10 Plus.  Digital Skills for all is led by UK online centres with contributions from BT, Ofcom, Becta, NIACE, School of Everything and many more, while Health and Well Being is chaired by NHS Choices, with partners AbilityNet, StartHere and Capita.  The final workstream is led by the Peabody Trust, and is all about Social Housing Plus, taking inspiration from Nottingham City Council, Solihull Community Housing and Citizens Online amongst others.  The promises from each workstream will be given to Martha Lane Fox to feed into Race Online's wider work.  

Alongside the keynote speakers and workstream sessions, NDI10 will also have an interactive exhibition, with an open soap box as another opportunity for delegates to feeback thoughts or talk about their own projects.  

For more information on the Conference, or to follow on the live webstream next week, please visit www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk and follow Twitter hashtag #NDI10.  You can also join the debate early on the Conference Ning - http://net.digitalengagement.org/ 

For more information, or for a free press pass, please contact Abi Stevens at astevens@ufi.com, or on 0778 666 0689.  

Notes to editors: 

• Press release published 4 March 2010
• For more information on the Conference, or to follow on the live webstream next week, please visit www.nationaldigitalinclusionconference.co.uk, follow Twitter hashtag #NDI10 and join the digital engagement Ning http://net.digitalengagement.org/. 
• The National Digital Inclusion Conference (NDI10) is now in its fifth year, and run by Civic Agenda, with key partners UK online centres, and supporters including Becta, BIS, BT, Business Link, Citizens Online, CLG, CTT, Digital 2020, Intel, Microsoft, NHS Choices, Nominet Trust, Ofcom, Peabody Trust, Race Online 2012, Regenerate IT, StartHere and Youthnet.  Civic Agenda is a specialist conference development and organisation agency delivering public and social focussed conferences across the UK. Civic Agenda works with a range of partner organisations and draws on the expertise of sister organisations Civic Regeneration, Regenerate IT and Market Squared to support conferences that explore key areas of social, economic and community policy for an audience of the public, private and voluntary sector. For more information please visit www.civicagenda.co.uk or call 0207 378 0422.
• UK online centres provide millions of people with access to technology and support in using it.  They offer free or low cost access to the internet and email, deliver online courses and encourage people to progress onto further learning.  For more information please visit www.ukonlinecentres.com.  UK online centres are managed by Ufi, the organisation also behind learndirect.