Bristol — Week of 20 Apr 2026

First workshop in a six-part NatWest Accelerator Funding Accelerator series for Bristol founders. A practical session on aligning growth goals with the right funding strategy — clarifying objectives, understanding funding options, avoiding misaligned capital and building a concrete roadmap. Includes a Growth Lab follow-on session afterwards.

Monthly gathering of Bristol's AI ethics community. News roundup, keynote and Q&A on the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence — from bias and fairness to governance and societal impact. Hosted at Torchbox, a Bristol-based B Corp digital agency.

Bristol Creative Industries’ monthly freelancer drinks at The Square Club — one of the best recurring rooms for digital creatives, designers, and agency folk in the city.

CodeHub Bristol's twice-monthly hack night — bring a personal project or new idea and code alongside Bristol's developer community at DeskLodge House. All levels welcome; pizza and conversation.

An intimate 15-seat brunch for Bristol's creative founders and digital doers at Boston Tea Party in Clifton. Focus: creative ideas — what's working, what's stuck, what the group can help unstick. Hosted by Helena Traill of nooh Studio with ongoing WhatsApp community access included.

SETsquared lunchtime briefing for AI founders and scale-ups. Mike Ahyow (Partner at RWK Goodman, 15 years advising tech businesses) walks through the legal, regulatory and strategic priorities that investors, funders and enterprise customers actually care about when assessing AI companies — and the risks that derail otherwise promising rounds. Online but hosted by SETsquared Bristol, one of the UK's top university accelerators.

A free lunch-and-learn at Engine Shed for founders and innovators navigating intellectual property. Patent Attorneys Oliver Leason and Michael Blake cover how to protect, manage, and commercialise your IP — practical and actionable for any tech startup or scale-up.

Bristol's top AI room — Mindstone brings three talks on LLMs, productivity, and AI impact to Origin Workspace, capped with pizza and proper networking.

Monthly relaxed co-working jam night for Bristol's indie game and app developers at Replay, a board-game bar on Cheltenham Road. Three hours of pure jam time on personal projects with the community alongside — bring your own laptop.

Drake Music launches DMLab Bristol — a new workshop series bringing musicians and makers together to prototype accessible, DIY instruments for people who face barriers to music-making. Held at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio, one of Bristol's key creative technology spaces. A distinctive niche for engineers, designers and accessibility technologists.

Researcher Artemis Bear presents a lunchtime talk on why society should move away from major tech corporations and what realistic alternatives might look like. In-person at Pervasive Media Studio at Watershed, with a simultaneous YouTube livestream. A rare critical-lens event for Bristol's tech community.