2026 Fringe Events

Don’t Sweat It! Extend Your Asset Lifespan with HP Refurb-as-a-Service.

As part of our commitment to championing decarbonisation, SCC is on a mission to become the UK’s largest OEM-certified refurbisher.

Join us at SCC Recyclea in Birmingham for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at our Refurbishment-as-a-Service (RaaS) in action. Discover how we breathe new life into used enterprise devices, returning them to a near-as-new condition.

What You Will See: During the event, we will demonstrate the comprehensive RaaS lifecycle, which includes:

The End Result?

Learn how your revitalised IT assets can be successfully diverted from landfills and prepped for:

Beyond the Build: The Missing Link explores the gap that often exists between web development, digital marketing and customer experience.

The event will bring developers, designers, marketers, agency professionals, founders and business owners together to discuss how better collaboration can create websites that work technically, communicate clearly and deliver better business results.

The session will include a short opening talk from me, followed by guided discussion, shared ideas and informal networking.

• Explore how AI is transforming businesses across a range of sectors
• Hear directly from specialists at Lloyds Bank, KPMG’s Microsoft team and DRPG
• Discover practical use cases that can improve efficiency and customer experience
• Learn how businesses are successfully implementing AI today
• Network with fellow business leaders from across the Midlands

A cyber incident can impact far more than your systems. From regulatory obligations and contractual risks to IP protection and reputational damage, businesses need to be prepared for every stage of a cyber event.

Join our specialists as they share practical guidance on:

✅ Managing legal, regulatory and reporting obligations
✅ Strengthening incident response and cyber resilience

✅ Safeguarding your brand from online threats and reputational harm

📅 Tuesday 20 October
🕘 9.00am – 11.00am
🥐 Includes breakfast networking

If you’re responsible for cyber security, legal, compliance, risk, IP or business operations, this session will provide valuable insights to help your organisation prepare, respond and recover.

Brum Builds with AI

Looking for Growth West Midlands (LFG) is planning an interactive Birmingham Tech Week Fringe Event, bringing together founders, developers, students, public sector workers and anyone else interested in building with AI to solve problems in the region.

The event will showcase ‘Ask Ozzy’, LFG West Midlands’ open-source civic intelligence platform, alongside other products and prototypes created by members of LFG West Midlands.

We will also be running a Hackthon-Lite, vibe-coding workshop, using AI-assisted tools to build products and prototypes on the day that can solve challenges we see in the city. Come along to see how you can just build things that make a difference.

What if the person who could unlock your next stage of growth was already in the room?

The Decision Room is a live founder experience from Female Techpreneur designed to move beyond panels, pitches and traditional networking and turn ecosystem connections into action.

Five selected female founders will each bring one real growth challenge into the room — whether that is securing customers, accessing capital, scaling operations, solving a technology challenge or entering new markets.

They are not pitching for a prize.

Instead, we bring founders together with investors, corporate leaders, buyers, technologists, operators, advisers and ecosystem partners and ask one simple question:

Who in this room can help move this business forward?

Each challenge becomes a focused live conversation, with the wider room invited to contribute relevant expertise, introductions, connections and opportunities.

The evening culminates in The One Introduction — a challenge for everyone attending to make at least one meaningful introduction that could help move a founder or business forward.

5 founders. 5 challenges. One room. Real connections.

The Decision Room is where the ecosystem stops talking about supporting founders and starts opening doors.

Who should attend?

Founders and entrepreneurs, investors and funders, corporate and business leaders, buyers, technology professionals, operators, advisers and ecosystem partners who can ask, answer, introduce, connect or open a door.

Join Ihsan Ventures at Birmingham Tech Week
At Ihsan Ventures, we believe great companies are built with more than capital.
​They’re built with intention, excellence, integrity and the right people around the table.
​That’s what Ihsan means to us: doing things with excellence and purpose.​

This Birmingham Tech Week, we’re bringing that community together at the NatWest Accelerator for a day of:
​🎤 Pitch Practice — sharpen your pitch and hear ambitious founders take the stage.
​🤝 Networking — connect with founders, investors, mentors and ecosystem leaders.
🍴 Food & Conversations — meet great people, exchange ideas and build genuine connections.
🚀 The Birmingham Tech Week Experience — get involved, take in the energy and be part of the ecosystem.​

Whether you’re a founder, investor, operator or simply passionate about tech, come into the room and be part of the conversation.

📍 NatWest Accelerator, Birmingham

An informal evening bringing the cybersecurity community together to connect, share insights, and discuss industry trends outside the lecture hall. Expand your professional network, build collaborative relationships, and unwind with fellow leaders in a relaxed atmosphere.

This exclusive networking event is designed specifically for international delegations, investment intermediaries, and global partners attending Birmingham Tech Week — offering a dedicated space to connect with regional stakeholders and alumni of the Global Growth Programme (GGP) who are actively building bridges between the West Midlands and international markets.

Whether you’re an intermediary facilitating investment links, or a delegate exploring the West Midlands’ tech ecosystem, this relaxed evening is your opportunity to forge new partnerships, explore collaboration with the West Midlands’ innovation community, and strengthen your international networks that drive global tech growth.

Artificial intelligence is moving beyond tools that help us work faster. The emergence of agentic teams – where humans collaborate with AI agents that can plan, execute tasks, support decision-making and work alongside people – represents a new stage in how organisations can operate.

But the future is not simply about replacing human work with automation. It is about designing new forms of collaboration between people and AI, combining human creativity, judgement and leadership with the speed, scale and analytical capabilities of intelligent systems.

Aston Centre for Enterprise, Coaching and Innovation is delighted to host this fishbowl event which will explore the rise of agentic teams and human collaboration in organisations and what that means for the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in the business and academic worlds.

What is it about? Free Money, Funding and Grants workshop. You’ll get a bunch of grant details and learn where to get the funding and support needed to scale your business. Whether you’re at idea stage, or have been running a social enterprise for years, this event is for you.

Why attend? We’ve helped founders just like you access over £8m in grants and £68m in funding

What else? Be the first to see the launch of the innovative Seghu – the UK’s first platform to connect social impact entrepreneurs to the right funding needed to grow your business.

Is there anything else? A mini-social impact marketplace, where you can speak with funders, investors, business advisors, legal advisors and organisations from the social sector in a relaxed & friendly setting. A panel on funding and governance hosted by the WMCA. Live entertainment provided by the wonderful Sharniya.

You will leave with great connections, access to tools and knowledge to access that impact funding.

As part of Birmingham Tech Week, SuperTech WM will convene an exclusive invitation-only roundtable bringing together financial services providers, FinTech innovators and key stakeholders from across the fraud prevention ecosystem.

Chaired by David Geale, Director of Policy, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the discussion will explore the future of fraud prevention, consumer protection, regulatory collaboration and innovation. Building on the themes emerging through the SuperTech Open Innovation Lab on Fighting Fraud, the session will provide a trusted environment for senior leaders to exchange insights, share lessons learned and discuss both the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of the sector.

The discussion will consider topics including Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud, Investment Fraud, payments infrastructure and the impact of emerging technologies such as Agentic AI, including both the opportunities they present and the risks they introduce. Drawing on practical experience from industry and regulatory perspectives, the session will explore implementation opportunities, barriers to collaboration and areas where collective action could drive stronger outcomes for consumers and businesses alike.

Discussion questions and facilitation will be led by David Geale and the FCA in line with the overarching theme of the session.

How can organisations move beyond experimenting with AI and begin using it to transform everyday work?

Hosted by the AI Work & Skills Forum in partnership with ollo, this interactive fringe session combines insight from leading voices in AI with the opportunity to build something practical for your own business.

The session begins with a 30-minute panel exploring what it takes to create a successful AI-powered workforce. Speakers will discuss how organisations can introduce AI effectively, prepare their people for new ways of working and turn emerging technology into meaningful business value.

The panel will feature entrepreneur Husayn Kassai, co-founder and CEO of Onfido, the British AI company acquired in a reported $650 million, alongside other leaders working at the forefront of AI, skills and workforce transformation.

In the second part of the session, ollo will lead a live AI agent build for attendees. You will see how an agent can be designed around a genuine workplace need and receive access to an agent that you can explore, test and apply within your own organisation in a secure environment.

You will leave with fresh insight, valuable connections and a practical AI agent to begin experimenting with immediately.

BusinessCloud is one of the UK’s most respected names in business and tech news, with a particular focus on founder stories.

Earlier this year, we published our inaugural Founder 250 list, celebrating 250 of the UK’s best founder-led and founder-influenced companies.

On October 22nd, we’ll be hosting a roundtable during Birmingham Tech Week, bringing together several Birmingham founders and some of the leading names from the city’s tech ecosystem.

• University of Birmingham – explore UoB’s role in supporting innovation, business and technology
• Energy Systems Catapult – discover their expertise and support for climate and clean energy innovation
• Sustainable Ventures – hear more about their work supporting ambitious climate and clean technology businesses
• CIP success stories – hear directly from businesses from previous cohorts about their experiences and journeys
• Tyseley Energy Park tour – get behind the scenes and explore the facilities and wider innovation ecosystem

Whether you’re a business, entrepreneur, investor, partner or simply interested in climate and clean technology, this is an opportunity to meet people working across the ecosystem, hear what’s happening in Birmingham and explore potential opportunities for collaboration, support and connection.

Every scale-up journey is defined by a handful of pivotal decisions. Some unlock extraordinary growth. Others become hard-earned lessons.

Join some of our portfolio founders from high-growth businesses as they share the real stories behind the moments that shaped their companies. From hiring senior leaders and expanding into new markets to fundraising, product strategy and navigating founder challenges, this session explores what actually happens when businesses scale.

Expect an honest, practical discussion focused on lived experience rather than theory. Hear the decisions that accelerated growth, the mistakes that nearly derailed progress, and the lessons founders wish they’d learned sooner.

Designed for founders, operators and business leaders navigating their own growth journey, this session will provide candid insights, actionable takeaways and a rare opportunity to learn from those who have successfully scaled through the challenges you’re facing today.

Your intellectual property could be one of your strongest growth assets but is it ready for investor scrutiny? Join Partners& and HCR Law for a practical expert panel on protecting and valuing IP, avoiding due-diligence pitfalls, and turning innovation into investment readiness.