Birmingham tech events this week: a NatWest engineer's story and Network One's Cocktail Club circuit

Last week did the heavy lifting. The Lunar Society packed Unity Trust Bank on Tuesday for "Navigating AI — The Big Disruption," an expert panel on how AI is reshaping business and ethics. On Wednesday the Power BI crowd handed their July session over to Circyl for the #PBIBRUM Takeover at Eleven Brindley Place, while Network One and The Birmingham Network both ran busy rooms at Albert's Schloss on the same night. If you were out three evenings running, nobody would blame you for wanting a quieter week.

You are not getting a quieter week. You are getting a better-focused one — a single strong headline, then a dense Wednesday you can actually plan around.

The Big One: a NatWest engineer's story, told properly

The headline this week is Tech Talks with Asia Sharif & Julia Gray on Tuesday 28 July, hosted by Women In Tech Birmingham. It's free, it's in central Birmingham, and it carries the strongest speaker line-up on the Birmingham calendar this month.

Asia Sharif is a software engineer at NatWest Group, and the draw here is the story: going from teaching herself to code to building software inside one of the country's biggest banks. Paired with Julia Gray, it's the kind of concrete, career-shaped talk that beats an abstract panel every time — you leave with a sense of the actual path, not just the buzzwords. If you're early in your tech career, thinking about switching in, or you just like hearing how people really got there, this is the one to hold your Tuesday for.

One practical note: the venue is still listed as central Birmingham TBC, so keep an eye on the event page for the confirmed address before you set off.

Who should go where this week

If you're a builder — engineer, data scientist, ML person — Tuesday's talk is your evening. After that, Wednesday's Network One AI & Machine Learning edition at The Cocktail Club is a relaxed, no-pitch room where you can actually talk shop.

If you're a founder or small-business owner, Wednesday 29 July is your night twice over. The Birmingham Network's founders, professionals and investors evening and Network One's Small Business Owners & Entrepreneurs edition both run at The Cocktail Club, both free. Pick the room that matches whether you want early-stage investor conversation or peer founder talk.

If you want the low-key regular fixture, the Birmingham Tech Mixer & Social kicks off the week on Friday 24 July upstairs at The Wellington on Bennetts Hill (£3). Developers, data folk, security and product people — no agenda, just drinks and conversation to open the weekend.

If you make games, the Brum Indies Gamedev Meetup lands late on Wednesday at Cherry Red's Cafe Bar — programmers, artists, audio people and hobbyists, all welcome.

Organiser spotlight: Network One's Cocktail Club circuit

Network One has quietly become one of the most dependable engines on the Birmingham calendar. This week they run three separate editions on the same Wednesday night — the AI & Machine Learning room, the Small Business Owners & Entrepreneurs room, and, alongside them, The Birmingham Network's own evening — all at The Cocktail Club on Temple Street.

We're spotlighting the AI & Machine Learning edition because it's the sharpest of the set: an informal, no-pitch evening built specifically for Birmingham's AI and ML community, whether you're an AI founder, a practitioner, or just curious. But the wider point is worth saying plainly — Network One runs a reliable weekly circuit, and rather than list all three Wednesday rooms as separate must-attends, treat them as one clustered choice. Turn up to the room that fits you, and you'll bump into the same friendly regular crowd either way.

Worth knowing (a couple of corrections)

This is where we earn our keep. Two things to save you a wasted trip:

• fizzPOP open nights are likely off. Our listings still show the fizzPOP Makerspace public open night for 22 and 29 July, but our latest run intel says fizzPOP has cancelled its open nights while it moves to a new building. Treat these as cancelled — we're not recommending them this week — and check fizzPOP's own channels before travelling. We'll update the listings as the move settles.
• Silicon Canal has gone quiet. The long-running Silicon Canal channel is no longer an active source for what's on in Birmingham, so if that's where you used to check the week's tech events, it's worth switching to a calendar that's actually being kept current.

FAQ corner

Are these events really free? Most of them, yes. Tuesday's Women In Tech talk, both of Wednesday's Cocktail Club networking rooms and the Brum Indies meetup are all free. The only paid pick this week is the Friday Tech Mixer at The Wellington, and that's £3 on the door.

Can I just walk in, or do I need to register? It varies by organiser. The relaxed evening mixers — the Tech Mixer, the Network One and Birmingham Network rooms — are come-as-you-are, though registering helps the hosts plan numbers. For a seated-talk format like Tuesday's Women In Tech session, register on the event page so you're guaranteed a spot and get the confirmed venue address.

Browse the full week and grab your spots on the Birmingham listings page. Running something we should cover? Send it our way — we're always looking to champion more of the Birmingham scene.