Final preparations are being made for next month’s Birmingham Tech Week, which is the UK’s largest regional tech festival.
The festival runs from October 10-14 and is on a mission to cement Birmingham & West Midlands position as the fastest growing tech sector in the UK.
The free event runs across five days and is expected to attract over 5,000 attendees in venues across the West Midlands to hear from the likes of Microsoft, Accenture and Slack.
The West Midlands has nearly 6,000 tech companies employing over 38,000 people. The region is also a global leader in e-sports with Leamington Spa known as ‘Silicon Spa’ due to a cluster of 130 companies being responsible for 25 per cent of the UK’s gaming output.
Heavyweights get behind Birmingham Tech Week as sector investment grows
Tech companies that have emerged from the region include; Wise, CrowdProperty, Kagool, Nourish3d and PM Connect.
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Birmingham Tech Week has become a real highlight in the city’s business calendar – which is apt given the West Midlands’ status as the UK’s fastest-growing tech sector.”
Yiannis Maos, the founder and CEO of Birmingham Tech, the organisation responsible for delivering the week, commented: “The week was founded on encouraging collaboration, celebrating regional success and inspiring people from all walks of life to get into technology. We are really excited about this year’s festival as the region’s tech sector has seen a real transformation and the week will act as a catalyst for future growth.”
Topics that will be discussed at the festival include artificial intelligence, web 3.0, robotics, big data and digital transformation.
Kate Lawlor, CEO at Bruntwood SciTech, said: “Birmingham Tech Week aligns brilliantly with our commitment to supporting the growth of the tech sector across the West Midlands. Through this partnership, we can provide the environment, ecosystem and community that the tech sector across the region needs to form, scale and grow at a local, national and global level.”