The first MJ of the New Year is as good a time as ever to do some crystal ball gazing, though for this I draw on an event that took place towards the end of 2014 called Future Decoded.

This was a forum organised by Microsoft in London's ExCel exhibition centre for its business partners and customers, attended by some 10,000 people, which gathered top thought-leaders – from Jeremy Paxman and Sir Martin Sorrell to Sir Bob Geldof and Dame Stella Rimington, as well as Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella – to give their views on the future.