Tech events in London this week: the week Sifted Summit ate (25 Sep-1 Oct 2026)
London tech events 25 Sep-1 Oct: Sifted Summit takes Shoreditch, nine rooms orbit it - one sold out, four invite only - and 25 of 34 events are free.
Nine of the 34 tech events on our London page this week belong to one conference. Sifted Summit lands in Shoreditch on Wednesday, and the days around it have been engineered rather than scheduled: a run club, two private dinners, a leaderboard launch, a lunch and a closing party. Four of those rooms are invitation-only, and a fifth has already sold out. So: one anchor, its constellation sorted by who gets in, then the counterprogramme for everyone without a badge. Twenty-five of the 34 are free, and the best free room has nothing to do with Sifted.
The Big One: Sifted Summit 2026
Sifted Summit 2026 opens Wednesday 30 September, 09:30, at Protein Studios, 31 New Inn Yard EC2A 3EY, £399, and runs to Thursday 1 October.
It is the closest thing European tech has to an annual gathering of its own press, founders and funds. On the bill: John Thornhill, innovation editor at the Financial Times, Laura Connell of Atomico and Hala Fadel of Leap Ventures. Sifted publishes lists, which is why the satellites exist: an AI 100 and a Sifted 250 both land this week, and the dinners are built around them. The honest calculation on £399: you are buying the corridor, not the stage. If your raise depends on European investors knowing your name by Christmas, that is fair. If not, there is a lot of free week left.
The orbit, sorted by whether you can get in
Open to anyone. Runway by Sifted — Summit Edition is Monday 28 September, 18:00, from The Edinboro Castle, 57 Mornington Terrace NW1 7RU, free — Sifted's run club, founders and investors running together. The cheapest way into Summit week is a pair of trainers.
Inside the £399 badge. Two Wednesday evening rooms carry the Summit's price because they need the Summit's ticket. Sifted 250 Launch and Networking Drinks takes the main stage at 17:40, unveiling the 250 leaderboard with drinks after. EIC Investor Drinks — Scaleup Europe Fund and EIC Fund runs in the speaker lounge from 17:00, with Keith Sequeira, Head of Unit at the European Innovation Council, and EIC Board member Milla Marinova. Badge-holders: the highest-value hour of the two days, and not on the main programme.
Sold out. CTO Grand Rounds: Sifted Summit Edition — Tuesday 29 September, 18:00, venue on registration, free, and gone. The format explains the demand: CTOs bring one technical decision too big to guess at, and the room answers it.
Invite only, all four. Tuesday holds two private dinners at 19:00: Sifted x Intent HQ Dinner at The Ivy Asia St Paul's, for investors, with Intent HQ CEO Jonathan Lakin; and Sifted x N47 Dinner at Bob Bob Ricard City, for founders named in this year's AI 100. Thursday closes the same way — the 100 Women in Tech Lunch at Amelios, 14:15, with Roxanne Varza, and the Sifted Summit Final Pour at The Light Bar & Dining, 17:00, from HubSpot for Startups. All four list as free; none is bookable. We would rather name the gate than send you to a guest list.
The other London
Saturday is the best day on the board if you build things. House London #2 | Data Hackathon runs 10:00 at Newspeak House, 133-135 Bethnal Green Road E2 7DG, free — a one-day sprint on London's housing crisis using planning data that already exists, with data scientists, urban planners and policy people in one room. The only event this week flagged both featured and hot outside the Summit.
Same morning, MeasureCamp London 19 opens at 08:30, etc.venues Fenchurch Street, free — the analytics unconference whose agenda is written on the day.
The free investor rooms are Monday and Tuesday. Taking a Seat at the Table is Monday 08:30 at Level39, One Canada Square, free, on how investment committees actually decide — for founders who keep hearing no without hearing why. Then Female Founders Pitch Night with Octopus Ventures and Alma Angels, Tuesday 18:00, free, venue on registration — Novabook hosting, with Maria Callaway of Octopus Ventures and Lenka Elekova of Alma Angels. Second-highest heat score on our board, and no badge required.
Wednesday, badge-free. Open House London, a free ClickHouse user conference, 09:00 at CodeNode, 10 South Place EC2M 7EB. That evening, She Bytes Back x Funding Circle, 18:00, free, venue on registration — testing, observability and review for agentic workflows.
Thursday is the fullest non-Summit day. Black Women in Tech Summit 2026 at United Kingdom House, Oxford Street, 09:05, £55, with Microsoft, AWS, Spotify and Capgemini Invent on the bill. Offcuts Live: The Great Flattening is breakfast and a live podcast at Forza Wine Soho, 08:30, free, with Sifted's Eleanor Warnock. Then the Hinton Lecture 2026, Prince Philip House, 18:00, £18, with National Grid CEO Zoë Yujnovich, and the free LJC Meetup at Engine by Starling at 18:00.
By the numbers
34 events, 25 free. Tuesday is the busiest day with ten, Wednesday nine, Thursday eight — and six rooms will not tell you where they are until you register.
Who should go where
Investors. The best week in the network, and most of it is gated. With a badge, Wednesday 17:00 in the speaker lounge with the EIC beats anything on the main stage. Without one, Monday at Level39 is free and Tuesday's pitch night puts you in front of pre-seed female founders with two active funds in the room.
Founders. If you only have one evening, take Tuesday's pitch night over any satellite you can get into. Raising in Europe within six months? The £399 is defensible. Pre-product? It is not — Monday teaches the same lesson for nothing.
Builders. Saturday at Newspeak House, then Wednesday's ClickHouse conference. Skip the Summit: it is a business-of-startups week, not a technical one.
Sales and marketing. Thursday morning at Forza Wine: what is left to differentiate on when every brand has the same models. Free, and done by mid-morning.
Worth knowing
Six London events do not publish a venue. The Female Founders Pitch Night, CTO Grand Rounds, Copilot Dev Camp Summit, the FiftyOne vision workshop, She Bytes Back and Managing AI Spend in 2026 release the address with the RSVP. Register early rather than diarising a blank.
Free does not mean open. Five Sifted-orbit rooms list at £0 and none is bookable by a stranger — one sold out, four by invitation. Normal for conference week, and something most listings omit.
One summit has no reliable start time. Forrester Technology & Innovation Summit EMEA 2026 runs two days from Wednesday 30 September at the InterContinental London — The O2, paid, no published figure. Our record carries no usable start time: take the day from us and the hour from Forrester.
Before you go
One conference, nine rooms, four closed doors — and a free Saturday hackathon that is quietly the best thing on the board. The full week is at anopenroom.com/london. If we have listed your event without a venue, send us the address.