Tech events in Birmingham this week: one community runs five of them (9-15 October 2026)

Last week we told you Women in Tech Birmingham had moved Monday's session to Alpha Tower. It has, and it is the 22nd floor - the least interesting thing about WITBHAM's week. The same community is running five of the twenty-seven tech events on our Birmingham page between now and Thursday, in five buildings, with five hosts, none charging at the door. So we have sorted this week's networking events in Birmingham by who is putting them on.

Women in Tech Birmingham, five times over

Women in Tech Communities and Cyber Security event - Mon 12 Oct, 13:30, Alpha Tower, free. The city's tech communities meet the cyber profession for an afternoon across two worlds that rarely share a room.

AND Digital x WITBHAM: Ada LoveLace Breakfast - Tue 13 Oct, 08:30, AND Digital, Brindleyplace, free. Ada Lovelace Day marked properly: short talks, then breakfast.

WITBHAM: Women in Tech Breakfast - Wed 14 Oct, 08:30, Boston Tea Party, free. The regular one. If the bigger events feel like a lot, start here: a cafe, a conversation.

Barclays Eagle Labs X WITBHAM Women in Tech Female Founders event - Wed 14 Oct, 17:30, 6 Brindley Place, B1 2JB, free. Pitching, mentoring and networking for women building technology companies - the best-connected evening here.

CGI X WITBHAM: Women breaking into leadership - Thu 15 Oct, 17:30, 2 Chamberlain Sq, free. What the step up into technology leadership requires, from women who have made it.

Five corporate hosts opened their offices in one week for a volunteer community. That is how a scene gets built here.

The Big One: FabFest brings a free Fabric day to Millennium Point

FabFest 2026 - Thu 15 Oct, 09:00, Millennium Point, free.

A full day of Microsoft Fabric and AI sessions, speakers from across the data platform community, no ticket price. One of the larger free data events this city gets all year, run by Joe Billingham and Lewis Prince rather than a vendor marketing team - which is why it is worth the day off.

CREST, two days at Austin Court

Security people get the week's best-value tickets. CRESTCon UK: Incident Response & Security Operations - Wed 14 Oct, 09:00, IET Birmingham: Austin Court, GBP 17. Then CRESTCon UK: Pentration Testing - Thu 15 Oct, 09:00, same venue, GBP 16.96. Practitioner-led, two days, under GBP 34 for both. The typo in the second title is CREST's, not ours.

fizzPOP, and the people who build things

Public Open Night and Our Friends Electric - Software and Electronics Social run together at fizzPOP Makerspace, Wed 14 Oct, 18:30, both free. Laser cutters, 3D printers, electronics benches, members who will show you how to start. Bring a project, a bug or a board. The least self-important room in this guide, and one of the most useful to a beginner.

The rest of the week

Wednesday has the week's sharpest technical talk: Dave Manton: Reading Between the Log Lines - Building Your Own Web Analytics at Bluetel Solutions, 18:30, free, hosted by Birmingham .NET & MAUI. Analytics from your own logs rather than a third party's, from someone who has done it.

Also: Data Centre Peer-to-Peer Networking at Cosy Club, Tue 13 Oct, 17:00, free - power, cooling, the Midlands build pipeline. Search Marketing: AI Search Tips & Tricks at The Church, Mon 12 Oct, 18:30, free, on structuring content so LLM answers cite it. Innovators Evening at STEAMhouse - Thu 15 Oct, 17:30, free, makers and researchers in one room. And Saturday belongs to the Black Business Arena at the Legacy Centre of Excellence, 12:00, free: a showcase day for Black-owned businesses across the West Midlands.

By the numbers

Twenty-seven events, twenty-one free. Wednesday carries ten on its own; Friday has one, Sunday none. The six paid tickets run from GBP 10 for the Birmingham Creatives Autumn Social at The Red Lion on Friday to GBP 108.55 for Big Ballers: Dinner with Entrepreneurs on Saturday, whose venue our row gives as "Restaurant of the Week" - so, venue on registration. The West Midlands Annual Conference is GBP 36. Five free community evenings run the same week.

Across the network

Manchester has Data Decoded MCR at Manchester Central on Wednesday 14 October, free, the day before FabFest. Two free data conferences, two hours apart on Avanti, same week. Do both.

Who should go where

Builders - the strongest week Birmingham has had in a while, nearly all free. FabFest on Thursday if you touch data, Dave Manton on Wednesday if you touch the web, CRESTCon both days if you work in security, fizzPOP if you build with your hands. No overlap, no mixers required.

Founders - Wednesday at 6 Brindleyplace is the one: female founders get pitching, mentoring and the Eagle Labs network in one free evening, which no paid programme matches. Otherwise Birmingham Entrepreneurs Meetup at 1000 Trades (Tue 13 Oct, 18:30, free) is the honest informal option. Skip the general professional mixers - there are five and the specialist rooms are better.

Sales and marketing - Monday's AI search session at The Church, free and practical. Then Agency Slap Summit at Millennium Point, same day, 10:00, GBP 103.63, if pricing and retention are your problem.

Investors - quiet. No demo day, no pitch night. Wednesday's female founders evening is where the earliest-stage conversations are.

Worth knowing

The Alpha Tower move is confirmed. Monday's WITBHAM cyber afternoon is at Alpha Tower, 22nd Floor, Suffolk Street Queensway, B1 1TT, not Millennium Point. If you booked in September, your confirmation names the wrong building.
fizzPOP's Wednesday is on our page four times. Four rows, two real events: the public open night and the Our Friends Electric social, both at the makerspace, both 18:30. Two rows lost their venue on the way in - Our Friends Electric and fizzPOP Public Open Night (14 October) read as venue-on-registration when the address is just fizzPOP. Turn up at the makerspace anyway.
Birmingham Tech Network is listed twice for Tuesday - the October edition and Evening drinks. One set of drinks, 19:00, Slug & Lettuce Brindleyplace, free.
We do not store end times, and that is a real gap. Nothing in our pipeline accepts them, so when a reader asks how late something runs, we ask the organiser. We did that for the Digital in Brum Social: it finishes at 21:00. Need a finish time for anything here? Ask us.
Next week is the big one. Birmingham Tech Week runs 19-23 October, main and fringe programme now on the page in full. Book the evenings you want before the weekend.

Before you go

Twenty-seven events, twenty-one free, five run by one community nobody pays. All of it is on the Birmingham listings page. Running something here we have missed? Tell us - this calendar grows faster than any crawler, and the gaps get filled by the people in the room.