Bristol Technology Festival is back for its third year from 10-15 October 2021. The city will host over 50 events with themes spanning the breadth and depth of Bristol’s growing tech and digital sector. The current plans are to hold the events in a hybrid model with a selection of online talks and others at limited capacity venues, stay tuned for ticket releases coming soon.
Engine Shed will be the host venue for the launch of the festival, alongside Deloitte Digital, to bring together key people in the sector to understand how tech will support the growth of the city in the future.
Bristol Technology Festival (BTF) was born in 2019 with a mission to showcase the sheer scale of technology that had been developed in the local ecosystem, whilst sharing the stories of those entrepreneurs, engineers and creatives behind the tech with the people of the city and further afield. Last year’s festival hosted 53 events, attracting over 5,000 attendees dialling in from places as far flung as Singapore and San Francisco. The target for 2021 to reach an even greater audience.
Bristol has a long-standing history of tech innovation and the ecosystem is booming, with the most productive tech talent in the UK (TechNation 2019). It feeds industries all over the world with breakthrough engineering and digital innovation. The region is famed for its creative approach to technological challenges and was recently recognised as the best city for startups in the UK outside of London, with notable companies including IMDb, Graphcore, Ovo and Dyson.
BTF 2021 will seek to capture people’s hopes and predictions for the next decade, exploring the prevalent questions such as: in what ways will technology influence how we live and work? What impact will the tech cluster have locally, and globally?
BTF is coordinated by a group of volunteers from across the ecosystem including representatives from Hargreaves Lansdown, Newicon, TechSPARK, and Engine Shed.
Events throughout the festival are crowdsourced from organisations across the city.
These include tech companies, public bodies, schools, community interest groups and charities. Events are open to people in the tech sector, business leaders from across sectors, visitors wanting to know more about the region, and anyone wanting to know more about the city’s digital industries. Some of events include:
For the 9th consecutive year, TechSPARK will host their annual SPARKies awards. The awards will gather 500 people to shine a light on the very best people, products and companies that make up the tech sector in Bristol, Bath and the broader West of England region.
FinTech West will host their annual fintech Summit to deep dive into the latest innovations, connect business in one of the UK’s key fintech communities.
2021 will also see the launch of the Festival Community Partner initiative where businesses across the city show their support by becoming one of 50 community partners, with all money invested into giving the festival a long-term sustainable future.
Softcat has become the headline sponsor of the festival in 2021. Rob Parkinson, CIO at SoftCat says: “We are delighted to be involved in the 2021 Bristol Technology Festival. Bringing together local technology communities and shining a light on all the innovation the region has to showcase is an important way to drive collaboration and industry growth.”
Marty Reid, Head of Engine Shed, says: “The last 18 months have been a real challenge for many industries but the tech sector has shown itself to be pivotal in driving recovery. We are pleased to continue to support the Bristol Technology Festival as the biggest platform in the region to bring people together to share ideas, opportunities and actions.”
About Bristol Technology Festival
Dates: October 11th – 15th Bristol Technology Festival is all that is brilliant about the inclusive, collaborative and varied ecosystem that is Bristol Tech all in one city, all in one week.
Bristol has a long-standing history of tech innovation and the ecosystem is booming, with tens of thousands of job openings a year in the sector. Feeding industries all over the world with breakthrough engineering and digital wizardry, it has been difficult to truly understand the breadth of companies operating in the region. Not anymore.
Bristol Technology Festival seeks to showcase the entire ecosystem, from the weird and wonderful, to world leaders in their field, and everything in between. Events are crowdsourced from organisations across the city.
https://www.bristoltechfest.org/
Press Enquiries:
Ben Shorrock – ben@techspark.co