'New curriculum should mean digital excellence'

He said: "The normal pattern is for education bureaucrats to take months and months and years and years to decide what to do about improving digital education but we just can't work in the modern world like that.

"We need to get the right people teaching and give them ability to say: 'Right, my whole curriculum is going to be based around digital platforms.' The best teachers are already doing this.

"We need to use the inspection regime to encourage teachers to innovate. The pace of innovation in education is way, way too slow.

"If you made a simple change like demanding of the teacher population that they all innovate in digital skills and inspect them on that basis, you would very quickly see behaviour changing. Risk management is good, but it doesn't mean no risk: positive things may come if you take the brakes off digital engagement in schools."

Van der Kuyl, former chief executive of online technology Bright Solid, is chairman of The Entreneurial Exchange and a visiting professor at Abertay University. 4J Studios is one of the developers of the online game Minecraft, which has sold 46 million copies worldwide.

He called for a sharper focus on Scotland's digital capacity: "Organisations like Scottish Enterprise and The Entrepreneurial Exchange, we should be really shouting about [digital business].

"The speed of change is phenomenal, there's a real tsunami now as Scotland's e-commerce success stories have confirmed. It has reached critical mass and if we don't jump on it now, the opportunity will pass."

Peter Mowforth, head of e-commerce supplier Indez, also spoke at the session. He said: "If there was anything I could ask of politicians, number one would be to mention e-commerce.

"It's the biggest thing in business today, according to the ONS growing at 13% a year, but if you do a keyword search of the Scottish Government website there is almost nothing about this lowest-hanging fruit to help Scotland achieve growth and exports."

Murdo Fraser MSP, chair of the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee and one of the conference hosts, said: "This was a fascinating session, and business people would have learned a lot from it. The scale and potential of digital technologies and e-commerce is something that most people in public life in Scotland don't appreciate.

"We need to recognise the ­potential, and do more to support it, and in particular look at the question of skills.

Fraser hinted at a potential future enterprise committee enquiry into the use of digital and e-commerce technology, something it had "never looked at specifically"

"In terms of future pieces of [committee] work, I think it's something we need to be paying more attention to.

"Given what we heard today about the level of knowledge and expertise we already have, this is a great opportunity for Scotland."

The eighth Business in the Parliament conference also featured a keynote speech by Ross McEwan, chief executive of RBS.

The digital business session led by Van der Kuyl and Mowforth was one of six conference workshops, which also included sessions on tackling Scotland's low level of investment in research and development, international trade and investment, workforce skills, low-carbon technologies, and improving access to finance.

A parliamentary official told the Sunday Herald: "The conference had about 200 attendees including 40 MSPs over the two days, good turnout from all the parties, and a good cross-section of Scottish business.

"The Presiding Officer was particularly encouraged by the number of businesswomen delegates, roughly a 50-50 split."