When is UK Tech Week? Nationwide events for start-ups and entrepreneurs announced

A chorus of regional technology events in April will set out to prove that there’s life beyond London Tech Week.

The capital’s long-running conference drew 30,000 attendees last year, among them 3,500 start-ups. Even politicians wanted in, with Rishi Sunak interviewing Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, with Sir Keir Starmer warning that AI could worsen inequality.

Sensing that even a fraction of those numbers could provide valuable exposure for entrepreneurs in smaller, overlooked cities, a nationwide UK Tech Week has been announced.

It will consist of separate events held at tech hubs across the country, according to UK Tech News (UKTN). Wondering how to get involved? Here’s what you need to know.

UK Tech Week will see a host of simultaneous events take place in cities up and down the country.

These will be run by local organisations and festivals such as Birmingham Tech Week, Tech Week Humber, and TechNExt, but will be separate to their existing events.

The goal of the catch-all initiative is to shine a light on the “talent and innovation that can be found in all the nations and regions,” UK Tech Week founder Stuart Clarke explained on LinkedIn.

UK Tech Week will kick off with a launch event on April 22, followed by events around the UK from April 23-25.

Participating locations thus far include Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Humber, Manchester and as-yet unannounced cities in the North-East.

Described as an “open event platform”, UK Tech Week is inviting other conferences to get involved free of charge. 

Clarke told UKTN that he welcomes participation from London, adding that the three-day festival is about “bringing UK tech together”.

Although no speakers or keynotes have been announced yet, we can take an educated guess at the type of luminaries the events will attract based on previous guest lists.

Last year’s Birmingham Tech Week, for instance, played host to speakers including the mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street; MP Paul Scully, minister for London; HSBC UK CEO Ian Stuart; along with representatives from Amazon, Microsoft, BT, and IBM. 

Meanwhile, the North-East’s tech event, TechNExt, included a fireside chat with MP Chi Onwurah; a panel on investment opportunities for start-ups led by Vision Accountants, RBC Brewin Dolphin, NEL Fund Managers, and British Business Bank; and sessions on artificial intelligence, UX research and cybersecurity.

Back in the capital, Londoners can expect a busy schedule of tech and gaming events this year, including: