The Leeds Digital Festival is set to go region-wide in the coming years after a decade of major expansion in its home city.
The 11th edition of the annual festival, which now counts more than 200 events under its umbrella, is taking place this week and next.
This is the first edition under the directorship of Deb Hetherington after founder Stuart Clarke MBE moved to a chair role in its organising body Leeds Digital and handed over the reins.
Hetherington wears many hats, with specialisms in developing innovation ecosystems through real estate as well as advising growing companies. She has served as an executive director at Leeds Digital since 2019.
She was joined on stage at the launch of this year’s Leeds Digital Festival by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin – and there was a special significance given her plans in the coming years.
I caught up with Hetherington after the speeches and asked her how it felt to take the mantle given how BusinessCloud Northern Leader Clarke has built a true powerhouse of a programme in his decade in charge.
“Daunting! What an amazing legacy he’s left,” she told me. “I know it’s a really cliché thing to say, but standing on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before really is a ‘pinch-me’ moment.
“What he’s built is unreal, and I’m so excited and privileged to be able to take it forward over the next 10 years. The foundations that he’s built are amazing.”
The launch event at the city centre offices of headline sponsor CGI celebrated the findings of company database The Data City that there are now 853 tech companies based in the city, more than any other local authority outside the capital – and ahead of Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham.
Asked for her plans for the coming decade, she replied: “I also advise startup companies – and I always say don’t think that far ahead because whatever you think your business model will be in 10 years’ time, you can rip it up!
“It’s not about having loads more events – it’s making sure it’s quality over quantity, that the people that are coming to events are getting the absolute most out of them in terms of knowledge transfer, learning and building out their network.
“We want to shine a spotlight on Leeds as a super tech power, which we absolutely are, and we want to just continue pushing that forward.”
This year will see the launch of Tech West Yorkshire, a new umbrella organisation backed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and championed by Mayor Brabin.
The body will operate across all five of the region’s districts – Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees – drawing together technology businesses, universities, investors, entrepreneurs and skills providers under a single regional banner for the first time.
Combined Authority figures show some 9,700 digital, tech and AI businesses now operate across West Yorkshire, employing more than 50,000 people, and the region boasts more technology scaleups than anywhere in the UK outside London and the South East.
Hetherington continued: “We do also have a plan around taking Leeds Digital Festival to a regional level. We’ve got Tech West Yorkshire coming online in the next couple of months – so it will expand what already exists and take it geographically a little bit wider.
“But it’s not about going to Wakefield, Bradford, Halifax or Huddersfield and saying ‘Leeds did it this way, you have to do it this way too’. It’s saying ‘this is what we’ve learned, and we want to partner with you and work collectively to build something sustainable for your city’.
“That will positively impact the wider region as well.”
Hetherington, who is from a military background, lived all over the world – but after studying first in York then Leeds, she “fell in love with Yorkshire”.
Around half of the events at this year’s Leeds Digital Festival are around AI, which she says reflects the market.
“We’ve probably teetered around 30% for the last couple of years, with AI events around experimentation and defining AI,” she explained.
“But now it’s about ‘what can we do with AI for our business to improve productivity?’
“So it’s got a real solid enterprise lens to it – but it’s also looking at governance and safety and human consequence.”
Asked for some other event tips for people attending this year’s festival, she answered: “If you’re a student, we’ve got some really cool student hackathons. We’ve got some Leeds Beckett’s putting on a really great event around how to get into teaching careers.
“We’ve also got really cool stuff around HealthTech and health innovation; as well as financial services, legal technology, advanced manufacturing.
“It totally depends what sector you’re in and what you’re trying to learn. I would say go yourself – and also if you’re a decision maker and a leader, send your teams, get them to get some information and bring it back into the business – because it will have a positive impact on your organisation.”
Leeds Digital Festival is the UK’s largest open-platform technology festival and the 11th edition will convene thousands of founders, software engineers, corporate leaders and international investors from 21st September to 2nd October.