Tech events in bristol

Session five of the NatWest Funding Accelerator's six-part series, and the one about the numbers: which financial and trigger metrics make a business fundable, how to present them to an investor or a lender, how to forecast cash flow, and what to change to improve the picture before you ask. Interactive rather than lecture-style, and you can attend it on its own. Welcome from 9:30, workshop 10:00 to 12:00, break to 12:30. Entrepreneurs and finance experts lead it; speaker bios were still to follow at the time of writing. Free, at the NatWest Accelerator hub, 2 Avon Street, BS2 0PT. You are asked to download the Accelerator app and apply to join the Funding Group first. General information only, not individual financial advice, and photographs are taken for social media. Why go: worth it if you are raising for the first time and your model has never been read by someone who lends for a living. Founders past a priced round will find it basic.

A one-hour working session on AI Optimisation and Generative Engine Optimisation: how models such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview decide what to say about a company, what part earned media plays in that, and what you can change. You audit your own AI visibility in the room, find gaps and quick wins, and leave with three actions. Part of Future Space's Innovation Forum series, 12:00 to 13:00, face to face and interactive. The listing frames the content around media coverage, thought leadership, content structure and digital PR, and carries a profile of Purplefish, a Bristol technology PR agency; no individual presenter is named. Free, at Future Space, Filton Road, Stoke Gifford, BS34 8RB, on the UWE campus north of the city. Why go: a short, practical slot for marketers and founders who have watched organic search traffic fall and want to see where they actually stand inside AI answers. Read the PR framing as a point of view, not neutral ground.

with Glyn Wintle (Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Tradecraft)

A chapter night on SAML - how the protocol actually works, how it gets attacked in the wild, and what holds up as a defence. Glyn Wintle, co-founder and CTO of the UK security consultancy Tradecraft, is taking the talk, and he is going through real attack techniques rather than a standards walkthrough. Doors at 6pm on the 7th floor of Prologue Works, the usual OWASP Bristol room. Ping Identity provide the venue and refreshments; Made Tech are putting on the food. Free, 23 people signed up so far. The format is the chapter's standard one: time to mingle either side of the talk. Why go: identity and access management is where most real breaches start, and this is the one Bristol room where the people who run SAML in production compare notes on how it breaks. Best for AppSec engineers, platform and identity teams, and developers who own authentication.

Three hours of quiet, laptop-open working time for people making games. Programmers, artists, designers and solo developers bring whatever they are currently building and work on it alongside others doing the same, with conversation kept low so everyone can concentrate. Bristol Indie Developers run it as a drop-in rather than a talks night: bring your own hardware, take a table, arrive and leave when you like. It runs 18:00 to 21:00 at Replay, the board game bar on Cheltenham Road, where food and drink are available at the bar. The group keeps a Discord going between sessions. It falls on the fourth Wednesday, its monthly slot. Free to attend. Organisers may take photos for the group's Discord; you can ask not to be in them. Why go: it is one of the few Bristol rooms where game developers actually work in front of each other, which is how collaborators and honest feedback get found. Best if you have a project in progress, not just an interest.

A three-talk evening on what people are actually building with AI, followed by pizza, drinks and open networking. The three talks mix one build story, one hands-on demo and one wider argument about where AI is heading. The published line-up is "What I Learned Building With LLMs", a technical demo covering real lessons from shipping an AI product; "Beating the Lotto, with AI" from Jason Holloway, a step-by-step walkthrough of speeding up work with AI tooling; and "What Does The Future Look Like With AI?", a theoretical look at AI's effect on work and society. Doors at 18:00, done by 21:00, at Origin Workspace on Berkeley Square. Free, but spots are limited. Set up a Mindstone profile before you arrive and bring your login details for check-in. Why go: the talks lean on real builds rather than vendor decks, and Mindstone bills it as Bristol's biggest practical AI meetup, which makes it a good room for engineers and product people who want to see what actually works.

A working peer-support session for people learning data science, machine learning and AI, rather than a talks night. Members bring whatever they are stuck on: a course module, a half-built project, a paper they cannot parse. The room works through it together. The group runs a rotating set of formats across its fortnightly sessions: a course spotlight where one or two free courses or modules get picked apart, a project roundtable where members put up projects, blockers and ideas, member-led demos of DS, ML and AI tools, a paper club on a recent paper, and occasional two-hour mini hackathons. Each format is open for contributors. Hosted by CY Y. and Sam D., 18:30 to 20:30 at DeskLodge House on Redcliffe Way, ground floor. Bring a laptop; friends are welcome. Free to attend. Why go: it is a genuinely hands-on room for anyone mid-way through learning ML, and the contributor-led format means you get specific answers rather than a general introduction.

A facilitated peer group for founders, run by for the FOUNDERS at the Lexus Bristol site in Patchway rather than in the city centre. The format is a circle rather than a talk: a small group works through what each person is actually stuck on, with a facilitator keeping it honest and on track. Morning session, starting 9:30. Free for for the FOUNDERS Core and Inner Circle members; GBP 65.71 otherwise. Patchway is a drive or a train to Patchway station, not a walk from Temple Meads, so budget the travel. Why go: Bristol has plenty of rooms where founders network and very few where they say out loud what is going wrong. The paid tier and the small format are what make that possible. Best for founders past the idea stage who want a standing group to think with, and who will get more from being challenged than from another set of business cards.

A peer meet-up rather than a networking event: you bring a live business challenge, question or opportunity, and the room works on it with you. Coming without one is fine too. Run by the Bristol NatWest Accelerator with Enterprise Nation as part of the Catalyst series. Hosted by Dan Martin, a freelance journalist who has written about entrepreneurship and small business for over twenty years and presents Enterprise Nation's Small Business Sessions podcast. 10:00 to 12:00 at the Accelerator Hub on Avon Street. Free. Bring photo ID - you need it to get into the building. Cameras will be at the event and photos may be used on social media. Why go: the Catalyst sessions are usually a speaker and a slide deck; this one puts your own problem in front of twenty other small business owners instead. Best for founders and owners of small businesses who have something specific they are stuck on.

Future Space puts one resident company on stage per edition, with founder insight, the behind-the-scenes story and a live product demo. This one spotlights Ferryx, a health-tech company developing a next generation of probiotics for chronic gut conditions. Its product Ferrocalm is described as the first probiotic designed to work during stress or an IBS flare-up, when conventional probiotics struggle; Future Space cites consumer trials in which 76 percent reported improvement in key IBS symptoms within eight weeks and 88 percent would take it again. Run by Future Space, the high-tech incubator on the UWE Bristol campus, as the evolution of its Beer and Pizza nights. 16:00 to 18:00, deliberately relaxed, with beer, pizza and networking around the talk. No individual speakers are named beyond the Ferryx team. Free to attend. Why go: a rare chance to hear a research-born life sciences company explain the commercial path out of the lab, demo included. Best for deeptech and health founders, and for anyone tracking what comes out of UWE.

Bristol AI Ethics' monthly evening on how AI is actually being used and where that goes wrong. The running order is fixed and brisk: arrivals and networking from 6pm, a monthly news roundup at 6:30, the main talk at 6:50, Q&A and open discussion at 7:20, drinks at 7:35, and a Positive Actions slot at 7:50 where the room commits to something concrete. Wraps by 8pm, with the building open for talk until 8:30. Hosted at Torchbox on the third floor of 15 Colston Street - buzzer at the door, lift or stairs. Free. The October talk was still listed as TBC when we checked. 50 people are signed up and the event is full, with 9 on the waitlist. Why go: the Positive Actions slot is what separates this from the usual AI-worry panel - people leave with something to do. Best for anyone shipping AI into products who wants the ethics conversation held by practitioners rather than commentators.

The Friday morning leg of Bristol Co-Workers' standing rota, in the Watershed cafe bar on the harbourside. Writers, software engineers, designers, students and freelancers turn up with laptops from 9:30, work through the morning, break for lunch around noon, and some stay on into the afternoon. No obligation to arrive on time - people join when it suits. Up the stairs from the Watershed cinema entrance and right into the cafe; the group sits on the big table on the raised platform and leaves a stuffed crab out so you can find them. Plug sockets are usually available. Free, on the understanding that you buy something from the cafe while you are there. Why go: it is the simplest answer in Bristol to working alone all week, and the Watershed is the best of the three venues the group rotates through. Best for freelancers and remote workers who want company and a change of desk rather than a programme.

Jessica Warren (Hoffmann) on a recent collaboration with Bristol City Council that used arts, culture and immersive technology to do neighbourhood visioning in South Bristol - asking residents what a place should become, and using immersive tools to let them see it rather than read about it in a consultation document. One of the Pervasive Media Studio's weekly Lunchtime Talks, 13:00 to 14:00 at the Watershed on the harbourside. Free, and part of Open Studio Friday, so you can take a hot desk in the Studio for the rest of the day either side of it. Why go: immersive tech in a civic setting is usually pitched rather than reported on, and this is a practitioner saying what actually happened with a real council and real residents. Best for people working in creative tech, civic tech, planning or public-sector innovation.

Rebel Meetups' monthly Bristol gathering, running since 2013 and now in partnership with techSPARK locally. Casual networking for founders, creators, freelancers and anyone adjacent, with an occasional fireside chat from a founder or business owner. No agenda and no dress code. Drinks at the bar. 18:00 to 20:00 at The Square Club, 15 Berkeley Square. Go in through the main reception of the Berkeley Square Hotel to sign in and they will send you downstairs. Free, underwritten by the venue and volunteer hosts. 24 people signed up, and the group carries a 4.8 rating across 421 reviews. Why go: a thirteen-year run and a techSPARK tie-in mean the room is reliably made of people who actually build things, which is not true of most free networking nights. Best for freelancers and early-stage founders who want a low-stakes first door into the Bristol scene.

Ten SETsquared Bristol startups pitch live and compete for a Best Elevator Pitch award voted on by the audience, with a further eight companies exhibiting around the room. Pitching companies include Attacus Acoustics, Heddle, Hidden Signals, MindsetOS, Nimbus Agri-Tech, Novi and Visible Data; exhibitors include Altrix Labs, Builders AI, GlimpseML and Surveyr. Sectors span healthtech to greentech. Published agenda: 18:00 welcome drinks, exhibition and networking; 18:45 welcome speech; 19:00 elevator pitch competition; 19:30 audience voting and interval; 19:40 Best Elevator Pitch award; 19:45 closing remarks and networking; 20:30 close. Organised by SETsquared Bristol, part of Bristol Innovations at the University of Bristol, and sponsored by law firm VWV and IP firm Stratagem. Free, at the Sloane Robinson Building on the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus. Registration closes 30 October. Why go: eighteen named companies in one room with a structured pitch slot is unusually high signal for a free event. Go if you invest, advise or want a current read on what Bristol's incubator pipeline is building.

A monthly peer-support meet-up at Pervasive Media Studio for 18-30(ish) creatives who are building a practice or starting out in the creative industries. It runs as a structured conversation rather than a talk: 18:00 what everyone is working on and stuck on, 19:00 goals for the next month and the support needed, 20:00 social and next steps. Hosted by the Watershed Make Shift team alongside Studio Residents and producers, with a route into the wider Pervasive Media Studio community and partners including Creative Youth Network, who run guest speakers and one-to-one mentoring across the programme. Free, and part of Watershed's Tuesday-evening Make Shift strand, supported by Arts Council England and Bristol City Council. Why go: Bristol's creative-tech scene runs on the Studio's network, and this is the cheapest way into it early in a career. Best for 18-30s making immersive, digital or creative work who want producers and residents to look at it; not a room for established practitioners.

CodeHub Bristol's fortnightly social coding evening at DeskLodge House. People bring a side project, something they want to study, or a set of coding challenges, and work on it alongside others, solo or paired, in any language and at any level. The agenda is 18:00 gather on the ground floor, 18:30 intros, 18:45-20:15 hacking, 20:30 close. Hosted by James R., Stephen Leach and Ray for CodeHub Bristol, which also runs workshops, mentorships and study groups and keeps a #hacknight channel on its Discord. Bring a laptop. Reception closes after working hours, so arrive by 18:30 or you may not get in. Free; 8 signed up at the time of writing. DeskLodge hosts as the regular sponsor. Why go: the most reliable low-pressure room in Bristol for developers who want company while they work rather than a talk to sit through. Best for anyone with a stalled side project, and genuinely fine for beginners.

with Ben Seiler (Speaker, Bristol WordPress Meetup Group)

Ben Seiler on why polished, fast WordPress sites still fail to convert, and why the fix is usually positioning rather than the theme or the plugin stack. He works through the Value Proposition Canvas - what customers are actually trying to get done, what is blocking them, which arguments land - and then translates that into a page structure you can build section by section. Real before-and-after examples, a short hands-on exercise on one of your own projects, and a reusable page template to take away. Temple Studios, doors 6:30pm, free, refreshments provided. The group runs monthly and keeps a no-show policy because they order food in advance. Why go: it is the rare WordPress night that treats the site as a commercial problem rather than a build problem. Best for freelancers and agency teams who ship client sites and keep getting asked why the traffic is not converting.

Bristol AI Shed at Engine Shed on what AI changes about leading, developing and looking after people at work: how roles evolve, how to build confidence rather than anxiety, and what good leadership looks like when half a team is working alongside AI tools. Psychologist and coach Ed Cornfield, co-founder of MindsetOS, opens with a keynote on the mindsets that help people and teams adapt under uncertainty. A panel of practitioners then gets into what is actually working inside organisations right now and what is not. It closes with networking and hands-on demo stations showing AI tools built for people teams. Doors 08:15, programme 08:45 to 11:20. Aimed at HR directors, People and Culture leads, L&D professionals and business leaders. Ages 18 and over. Why go: most Bristol AI mornings are for the people building the tools. This one is for the people who have to carry a workforce through them. Best for anyone responsible for hiring, development or change.

A monthly morning session for female founders and business leaders at the Bristol NatWest Accelerator. This edition is a wellbeing workshop rather than a business clinic: why being present matters when you are running a company, simple seated yoga movements that need no equipment, a guided mindfulness exercise, a reflective journaling activity on what self-care means to you, and practical ways to carry calm back into work. Led by Katie Hodge, founder of Zenaa, who has created more than 50 retreats across the UK, Europe and Sri Lanka and founded Zenaa Online. Runs 10:00 to 12:00 at the NatWest Accelerator on Avon Street, with networking either side. Free. NatWest notes the content is for information only and is not individual advice. Why go: the draw is the room, not the curriculum, and it is one of the few recurring women-founder spaces in Bristol with an accelerator behind it. Go for the peer contact and the hour off founder mode; skip it if you want fundraising or growth tactics.

A panel on how the West of England turns green investment into local jobs and energy security, run by UWE Bristol's Sustainability Team with the South West and Wales Young Professionals branch of the Energy Institute. The evening doubles as the launch of UWE's MSc Sustainable Technology, and a good part of the discussion is about what the 2050 regional energy workforce looks like and who trains it. Networking drinks from 17:00 in the Z Block atrium, panel at 18:00 in room 3Z015, close at 19:00. Free, at Frenchay Campus. The organisers ask people to come by bus or bike and run a booking form for the few parking spaces. Part of UWE's Green Fortnight. Panellists were not named at the time of listing. Why go: cleantech skills and hiring in this region get discussed in policy documents far more often than in a room with the Energy Institute and a university engineering school in it. Best for engineers, sustainability leads and people weighing a move into energy.

A two-hour workshop on getting a CRM working properly: what to track, how to organise leads, and which sales numbers actually tell you something. The Accelerator team hands out a CRM template to work from, and the session covers sales performance indicators, how to build your own CRM and a Q&A with their experts, with founders describing what has worked for them. It is followed by an Action Lab hour where you implement one change with the team and the other founders in the room rather than taking notes home. There is pre-work: download the NatWest Accelerator app and join the Bristol Sales Accelerator group, which is approval-gated. Free, at 2 Avon Street. Why go: most sales advice stops at the principle. This one ends with your CRM actually changed. Best for founders still running sales out of a spreadsheet.

An hour with IAAPS, the University of Bath's propulsion and automotive research centre, on using simulation and system modelling to test an idea before building the hardware. The pitch is evaluating concepts earlier, cutting development risk, and having evidence for funders and customers that does not depend on a physical prototype existing yet. Worked examples of comparing concepts, understanding real-world performance and building a case for investment. Aimed at founders and technology businesses developing new products, systems or technologies. In the Hawking meeting room at Future Space, UWE North Gate, Filton Road. Free. Why go: digital engineering is the kind of capability regional manufacturers are entitled to use and mostly do not know is there. Worth an hour if you are building anything physical and burning money on prototypes.

An hour of pitch practice at the NatWest Accelerator on Avon Street, covering how to talk to potential customers, how to pitch investors, and how to tell the story of the business so that people stay with it. It is a standing Accelerator session rather than a one-off, so the format is short input and then work on your own pitch. Spaces are limited and it is free. The published detail is thin: there is no named coach or speaker on the listing, and no agenda beyond those three headings. Why go: pitching only improves by doing it out loud in front of people who will tell you where they lost interest, and there are few free rooms in Bristol that offer that. Best for early-stage founders who have a deck but have not yet had to defend it.

A panel discussion with live demonstrations, the chance to meet researchers and a tour of the lab, on how robotics and assistive technologies could make daily life more accessible. The conversation spans rehabilitation, mobility, AI and assistive robotics, and asks who gets to shape these technologies and whether people trust them. UWE Bristol hosts at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, marking the lab's 20th anniversary, as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series and Being Human Festival 2026. Registration opens at 18:00 in the foyer, the panel starts 18:30 in Waterside 3, Q&A at 19:15, the programme ends 19:45, then networking and drinks until 21:00. No speakers are named on the listing. Free. Step-free access, accessible toilets, assisted listening, quiet spaces and captions are provided, and filming takes place for UWE promotional use. Why go: the demonstrations and the lab access are the real draw, and the accessibility framing keeps the robotics grounded in who it is actually for. Best for people working in assistive tech, health robotics or inclusive design.

with Janine Hirt (Chief Executive, Innovate Finance)

The eighth FinTech West annual conference, a full day at We The Curious on where financial services and technology meet in the South West. The published shape is keynotes, panels, fireside conversations and a FinTech pitch showcase, with sessions across AI, smart data, cyber security and funding. Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, the UK industry body for financial innovation, is confirmed as a keynote. Last year drew over 250 attendees. The room mixes startups and scaleups with large institutions, universities, policymakers and professional services firms; S&W returns as primary sponsor, with PEXA and Howden new this year. The agenda was still being finalised when this was written. It falls on the Friday before BRAZEN week, Bristol's tech festival. Why go: the one day a year the region's fintech community is in a single room, and the national policy view turns up with it. Best for fintech founders, product and risk leads, and investors with South West interests.

The Friday leg of Bristol Co-Workers' weekly rota, in the Watershed cafe bar on the harbourside. People arrive with laptops from 9:30, work through the morning side by side, break for lunch around noon, and some carry on into the afternoon. Writers, software engineers, designers, students and freelancers all turn up, and arriving at 9:30 is a suggestion rather than a requirement. Up the stairs from the Watershed cinema entrance and right into the cafe bar; the group takes the big table on the raised platform and leaves a stuffed crab out so you can spot them. Good WiFi and plug sockets. Free, on the understanding that you buy something from the cafe. Why go: the lowest-commitment way into Bristol's freelance and developer scene, and the Watershed is the best of the venues the group rotates through. Best for remote workers who want company rather than a programme.

with Liam Maxwell (Former UK Government Chief Technology Officer, ) · Ric Hill (, Ghyston) · Emily Hill (, Ghyston) + 5 more

The opening morning of the Brazen Summit: four sessions for senior technology and business leaders on where technology investment is paying off and where it is not. It starts with the launch of Ghyston's State of Tech Leadership Report 2027. Ric Hill and Emily Hill present the findings, then a panel chaired by Sam Deacon, with Sue Turner OBE, Richard Potter and Tom Heath, tests them against practice. The second half turns to execution: a fireside chat between Ric Hill and Mike Whitehead on modernising legacy systems without stopping the business, then Liam Maxwell, the UK government's first Chief Technology Officer, closing with a keynote on risk, regulation and resilience. 09:30 to 12:30 at St Nicholas Church. Paid; techSPARK has not published a face price. Why go: this is the CTO and board room of the festival, and Maxwell is a first-hand account of running technology at state scale. Best for technology leaders, CIOs and non-executives.

A minibus tour of three Bristol companies that build physical technology, run as part of techSPARK's Brazen festival. Roughly half an hour inside each of Open Bionics, WASE and Smartbox. The organisers put the range as bionic arms through to compact fusion reactors, and the point is to see the labs and talk to the people who work in them. Itinerary: 9:30 Open Bionics (BS1 2NB), 10:10 WASE (BS5 0SP), 11:05 Smartbox (BS1 5PU), ending at 11:30. The bus starts at Open Bionics and finishes at Smartbox rather than returning, so plan the journey on from BS1 5PU. Places are limited and two further identical tours run later the same day. Why go: working labs are not usually open to visitors, and this is the quickest way to see what Bristol actually manufactures. Best for engineers, hardware founders and anyone hiring into deep tech.

A minibus tour of three Bristol companies that build physical technology, run as part of techSPARK's Brazen festival. Roughly half an hour inside each of Open Bionics, WASE and Smartbox. The organisers put the range as bionic arms through to compact fusion reactors, and the point is to see the labs and talk to the people who work in them. Itinerary: 12:00 Open Bionics (BS1 2NB), 12:40 WASE (BS5 0SP), 13:35 Smartbox (BS1 5PU), ending at 14:00. The bus starts at Open Bionics and finishes at Smartbox rather than returning. This is the middle of three identical tours on the day; the others run at 9:30 and 14:30. Places are limited. Why go: working labs are not usually open to visitors, and this is the quickest way to see what Bristol actually manufactures. The midday slot is the one to pick if you want to keep the morning free. Best for engineers and hardware founders.

with Katie Martin (, Hidden Signals) · Duniya Moore (, Illumo Digital)

A 25-minute session on what changes when you stop doing the work and become responsible for the people doing it. Two people who reached the CEO seat from opposite directions compare notes. Katie Martin of Hidden Signals moved from finance into the top job. Duniya Moore of Illumo Digital went from CEO to co-owner, and had to lead founding partners rather than a team she had built herself. The brief is the specifics rather than the principles: what broke, what worked, and what they would tell themselves on day one. Part of Brazen's Community Track at The Station, 13:35 to 14:00. Why go: two different routes into the same chair, which is rarer than it sounds, and short enough to fit around the rest of the festival. Best for first-time founders and anyone about to start managing instead of doing.

with Christopher Penfold (Commercial Director, ForrestBrown) · Kate Sikora (Managing Partner, Noble Performance) · Tom Harber (, Aer Studios)

A 50-minute panel on why founders choose to build in Bristol, and what keeps them here once they could go anywhere. On stage: Christopher Penfold, Commercial Director at ForrestBrown; Kate Sikora, Managing Partner at Noble Performance; and Tom Harber of Aer Studios. The framing is the city rather than any one company - what Bristol offers ambitious businesses that other places cannot, from its creative industries through to its deep-tech side. Part of the Brazen Community Track, at The Station on Silver Street. Why go: three people who have each made the stay-or-go decision from a different vantage point, in under an hour. Useful if you are deciding where to base a company, or if you spend your time persuading other people to base theirs here.

A minibus tour of three Bristol companies that build physical technology, run as part of techSPARK's Brazen festival. Roughly half an hour inside each of Open Bionics, WASE and Smartbox. The organisers put the range as bionic arms through to compact fusion reactors, and the point is to see the labs and talk to the people who work in them. Itinerary: 14:30 Open Bionics (BS1 2NB), 15:10 WASE (BS5 0SP), 16:05 Smartbox (BS1 5PU), ending at 16:30. The bus starts at Open Bionics and finishes at Smartbox, and this tour is followed by casual drinks at Smartbox. Places are limited; the same tour also runs at 9:30 and 12:00. Why go: working labs are not usually open to visitors, and of the three tours this is the one with drinks at the end, which is where the conversations actually happen. Best for engineers, hardware founders and anyone hiring into deep tech.

with Helene Jewell (Owner and Director, Jewell Facilitation) · Rachel Jannaway (Founder and Director, Jannaways)

Four speakers, one slide and ten minutes each, on leading through change, uncertainty and new technology, with an open Q&A at the end. Helene Jewell of Jewell Facilitation opens with what a six-person relay swim of the English Channel taught her about holding a team together when conditions keep changing. Rachel Jannaway of Jannaways follows with 'Human in the Lead, Not the Loop': whether the person you have named as accountable for an AI system actually has the authority to stop it. Two further talks complete the hour. Run by Bristol Creative Industries at The Station as part of Brazen. Why go: ten-minute slots force one point made properly, and the AI-accountability question is the one most organisations have answered on paper only. Best for team leads and founders who have started delegating to systems rather than people.

The last Bristol AI Shed of 2026, in the Watershed cinema, built around what actually worked this year rather than what might. Doors 08:30 with coffee and breakfast, introductions and AI show-and-tell from guests at 09:10, then a panel at 09:35 on where AI made a real difference in people's work and businesses, and where it did not or should not. Demo stations run alongside. On the panel: Kian Bakhtiari, founder of The People and a Forbes writer; David Sequiera, Global Executive VP at Skai; and Abby Salmon, UK&I People and Talent Partner at First Table. Co-founders Jake Hewlett and Stephen Honight host. Sponsored by VWV and Albert Goodman. 18+, breakfast included, and the organisers expect it to sell out. Why go: the panel brief is unusually honest for an AI event, with what didn't work getting airtime. Best for Bristol professionals putting AI into day-to-day work rather than building models.

NatWest Accelerator session on pitching — structure, story and what investors are listening for.

with Richard Godfrey (, Rocketmakers) · Adam Walker (, Rocketmakers) · Matt Harris (, Rocketmakers)

Rocketmakers on the gap between an AI-generated prototype and something you can ship. They took one of their own AI-built prototypes through to a deployable system, and will go through what broke, how they fixed it, and how they now design, build and deploy software in an AI-first world. Then it turns into table work: you join the table matching where you are - yet to try AI coding, sitting on a prototype and unsure what next, or already running something live - and work through it with Rocketmakers staff. Richard Godfrey, Adam Walker and Matt Harris are leading. Places are capped at around 30, and it is aimed at founders and corporate innovators rather than professional developers. Why go: the hard part of vibe-coded software is everything after the demo, and this is a working session on exactly that rather than a talk about it.

with Patrick Fraser (Head of Brand and Reputation, AMBITIOUS) · David Sloly (Founder, HarveyDavid) · Rebecca Steer (Partner, Keystone Law) + 1 more

An hour on what AI assistants say about your company when a customer, prospect or investor asks, and who controls that. The premise is that for a growing share of people the first introduction to an organisation is now a generated answer rather than its website or press coverage, and most companies have little visibility into how those answers are formed. Hosted by Patrick Fraser, Head of Brand and Reputation at AMBITIOUS, with a panel of David Sloly, Founder of HarveyDavid; Rebecca Steer, Partner at Keystone Law; and Greg Halse, Technology Lead at AMBITIOUS. Further speakers were still to be announced. At Our Media's office in Eagle House on Colston Avenue. Why go: the legal and reputational side of AI-generated answers gets far less airtime than the engineering, and there is a practising lawyer on the panel. Best for founders, marketing leads and comms people.

A two-hour working session on fixed versus growth mindset as it actually shows up in founders: how setbacks get handled, and how to treat advice and rejection as data you can test rather than verdicts. You bring one business task you have been avoiding and leave with a small experiment to run on it. Run by SETsquared Bristol and led by Jason Nichols, its Incubation Manager, a business coach who founded and exited the FMCG brand New Kings Coffee and has logged over 750 hours coaching more than 200 entrepreneurs. The format is deliberately interactive, mixing solo reflection, pair work and small-group discussion rather than slides. 14:00 to 16:00. Free, in person at the Sloane Robinson Building on Cattlemarket Road. Why go: mindset workshops are easy to dismiss, but this one is anchored to a concrete task and run by someone with an exit and real coaching volume behind him. Useful for early-stage founders stuck on a decision rather than on a product.

Make it Clear and Bluefuse on where AI genuinely speeds up digital delivery and where it still needs a person's judgement. The two agencies have worked together for over ten years - Make it Clear on branding and user-centred design, Bluefuse on building and running custom software - so the argument comes from people shipping client work rather than from a platform vendor. It ends with a live audience challenge: bring a business or digital product idea and they will work it through with AI in front of the room, limitations included. At Our Media, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, in the Brazen Community Track. Why go: the live challenge is the reason to turn up. Most AI sessions stay abstract; this one commits to being wrong in public. Best for product and design people, and founders about to spend money on a build.

with Alex Murrell (, Epoch) · Eoin Rodgers (, )

Four ten-minute talks on where AI goes next, from how we create and communicate to how we learn and compete, with an open Q&A at the end. Alex Murrell of Epoch revisits 'The Age of Average', his 2023 essay on how film, fashion, architecture and advertising all converged on the same look, and asks whether AI is accelerating it. Eoin Rodgers introduces 'AI reputation': the picture of your organisation that emerges when someone asks an assistant whether you are a good employer or how your product compares, assembled from old news stories, reviews and gaps in what is online. Two further talks complete the hour. At The Station, part of Brazen. Why go: both opening talks are about AI's second-order effects on taste and reputation rather than tooling, which almost nobody programmes. Best for founders, marketers and designers.

with Annie Legge (CEO, Tech4Good SW)

A panel on whether Bristol can lead on AI in a way that matches the city's politics rather than just its compute. Bristol already hosts Isambard-AI, one of the world's most energy-efficient supercomputers, and the question here is what that should mean for everyone else. Charity and social-purpose leaders, researchers and technologists discuss early findings on what stops social-purpose organisations adopting smaller, lower-impact language models, what the sector sees as the risks and opportunities, and how one Bristol charity uses AI day to day. Annie Legge, CEO of Tech4Good SW, is on the panel. At The Station, 16:00 to 17:00, part of Brazen. Why go: small-model adoption is where cost, carbon and capability actually meet, and this is the rare room asking charities rather than vendors. Best for anyone deploying AI on a tight budget.

with Annabel Gillard (Founder, LSE FORGOOD / Conversations on AI) · Su Crighton (Partner, KPMG) · James Hobbs (CTO, Aer Studios) + 2 more

An interactive panel on who decides what AI does to people, communities and work, and whether Bristol's own habits give the city a distinctive voice in that argument. Part of Brazen's Community Track. AI ethicist Annabel Gillard, founder of LSE FORGOOD and the Conversations on AI podcast, hosts. On the panel: Su Crighton, Partner at KPMG, on turning AI investment into measurable outcomes; James Hobbs, CTO of Aer Studios, on digital sustainability and responsible AI; Emmy-nominated documentary producer Vicky Matthews on AI in factual production; and Lisa Minogue-White of Immersive. The format pulls the audience in rather than keeping them in rows. 17:30 to 19:30 at KPMG's Queen Square office. Tickets zero to twenty pounds, pay what you can. Why go: it is the one Brazen room with a KPMG partner, a CTO and a film-maker arguing about AI ethics at the same table, and no technical background is needed. Best for anyone whose work is about to be reshaped by AI rather than built with it.

Electra's female founder dinner, this edition on leadership, in central Bristol.

South West Data's monthly social at the Watershed — an informal evening for the region's data and analytics community.

with Kester Brewin (Associate Director, Institute for the Future of Work)

Kester Brewin, Associate Director at the Institute for the Future of Work, on what AI is doing to jobs: which ones are changing, what it means for people entering the workforce, and what five centuries of anxiety about intelligent machines tell us about this round. Part of Brazen's Community Track. Brewin draws on his book GODLIKE: A 500-Year History of Artificial Intelligence in Myths, Machines, Monsters. He has written for the Guardian and presented on BBC Radio 4, and the evening is built to be funny and highly participatory rather than a lecture. Doors 18:30, talk 19:45 to 22:00 at Dareshack. Tickets zero to twenty pounds, pay what you can. AI West run their Conversations on AI panel at KPMG earlier the same evening, a short walk away. Why go: the jobs question usually gets handled by economists or by vendors. This is a researcher who studies work for a living, in a room that wants arguments back. Best for students, career-changers and anyone managing a team through this.

UWE Bristol session at Future Space on the innovation support and funding available to regional businesses.

with Louise Whitaker (Circular Economy Lead, Virgin Media O2)

A 30-minute panel on the roughly 400 million unused devices sitting in UK drawers, around 40 per cent of them reusable, set against the 1.5 million people with no access to a device at all. The framing is that reuse is a coordination problem rather than a business-model one: getting the right hardware to the right people, safely and locally. Speakers come from telecoms, secure data handling and the local community, including Louise Whitaker, Circular Economy Lead at Virgin Media O2; techSPARK says more are to be announced. The discussion covers what holds reuse back, from data-security fears to missing infrastructure, and where the West of England could lead. At The Station, part of Brazen. Why go: a concrete logistics problem with real numbers and an operator in the room, not a general sustainability session. Best for IT asset, hardware and social-impact teams.

with Kierra Box (Campaigner, Friends of the Earth) · Mayra Rodriguez (Research Fellow, AI & Data Science, University of Exeter) · Rory Murphy (Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Exeter)

Green Tech South West returns in person this autumn to examine what the rapid build-out of AI and data centres is doing to the environment and to the communities that host them. Expect a frank look at energy and water demand, siting decisions, and what the region's technologists can reasonably do about it, followed by discussion.

with George Proud (, Gendo) · Tomas Millar (, Millar + Howard Workshop)

Two talks on what generative AI is doing to architectural practice, from image generation at the front of a project through to what actually gets built. George Proud of Gendo covers how generative AI is changing architectural visualisation and creative workflows. Tomas Millar of Millar + Howard Workshop takes the wider question of what AI means for the profession, creativity and craft. RIBA Bristol & Bath host. Doors open 17:45 for an 18:00 start, the talks run into questions and open discussion, then drinks and informal networking until 20:30. Paid: general admission is £8.00 and a student ticket £4.00, before Eventbrite fees. No refunds, and ticket sales close at midday on 10 November. Why go: the pairing is the point, one speaker building the AI tools and one interrogating what they do to the craft, so it should be less credulous than most AI panels. Go if you work in architecture, design tech or visualisation.

Bristol AI Automations' November meetup at DeskLodge House on building practical AI automations.

PHPSW's last meetup of the year, given over to lightning talks of around ten minutes each. The call for speakers is still open, so the running order is not published yet; the suggested subjects are an AI product you actually use, anything in PHP and the wider ecosystem, or a good story from a Wednesday. Doors from 18:30 with food free thanks to the sponsors, welcome and community announcements at 19:00, talks from about 19:05, finishing around 20:30, then drinks. Lamp Bristol and Temple Studios are hosting. PHPSW has run for years and has about 1,350 members. Why go: an established Bristol engineering community on its end-of-year night, and the lightning format means you hear from working developers rather than a booked speaker. Best for PHP and web developers, and anyone who wants the local engineering scene without a conference ticket.

A one-day hackathon where teams of women use AI and real data to build tools that make the gender pay gap more visible and solvable. The rules are strict about output: something real and usable, not a concept note or another coaching app. Morning to form teams and pick an angle, afternoon to build with mentors, late afternoon for pitches, judging, prizes and drinks. Presented by SW*AID, the South West and Wales women in AI and data community, with Taught by Humans and Bristol law firm Ashfords co-organising. Part of the Brazen tech festival, at Hargreaves Lansdown, 09:00 to 17:30. Free but approval-gated: applications close 15 October, decisions the week of 19 October. Open to women based in the South West or Wales who are free all day. No tech background needed. Around 40 places. Why go: one sharp problem and a hard no on vapourware, which is rarer than it sounds. Go if you want to ship something in a day with mentors on hand, whatever your level.

with Tilly Lockey (Keynote, ) · Guy Singh-Watson (Founder, Riverford) · Gaynor Coley (, ) + 5 more

Day 4 of the Brazen Summit, aimed at founders, scale-up leaders and the people who back them: growing without diluting what the company is for, and getting ready to exit. Tilly Lockey opens with a keynote. Guy Singh-Watson, founder of Riverford, is then in conversation with Gaynor Coley on building an impact-led business on his own terms. Simon Davies, Chief Test Pilot at Vertical Aerospace, follows with what it takes to design, test and certify a new aircraft, and the scaling lessons that travel beyond aerospace. The morning closes on first-hand accounts of acquisitions, mergers and IPOs from Nick Sturge MBE, Heather Frankham MBE DL, George Sandilands and Lauren Crawley-Moore of the London Stock Exchange. Paid; no face price published. Why go: the closing panel is four people who have actually been through an exit, which Bristol rarely gets in one room. Best for founders past product-market fit and their investors.

Relaxed coffee catch-up at the Watershed for Bristol's creative freelancers and digital practitioners.

B2BX Bristol 2026 at the BAWA Conference Centre — the city's largest B2B expo, with exhibitors, seminars and open networking.

A 90-minute morning session on who is being shut out of digital access across the South West, and the risk that AI widens rather than narrows that gap. It opens with headline findings from The Connection Project's new national report and what they mean regionally, then AbilityNet on accessibility and AI, then short talks from local government, grassroots projects and businesses. Tech4Good South West presents, hosted by Annie Legge, in partnership with The Connection Project and AbilityNet, as part of the Brazen festival. The second half is facilitated conversation on what is already working and where collaboration could happen. 10:00 to 11:30 at RWK Goodman's Bristol office. Individual speakers are not named. Free. Guest details are shared with Brazen. Why go: it puts councils, charities and tech businesses in one room with actual research rather than opinions, and the facilitated half makes it more than a talk. Go if you build public-facing products or fund digital inclusion work.

with Bruce Gray (Founder and Chairman, Left Handed Giant)

A 25-minute founder session with Bruce Gray, who started Left Handed Giant brewing in borrowed tanks and now runs eight Bristol venues, backed by around 1,500 crowdfunding investors and certified as a B Corp. The subject is scaling without giving up the principles the business was built on: raising money from your own community rather than institutions, the trade-offs growth forces, and why being held to a higher standard has made the company stronger rather than slower. At The Station, 13:00 to 13:25, part of Brazen's Community Track. Why go: community equity is a route most founders here have only read about, and this is someone 1,500 shareholders deep in it talking about the obligations as well as the money. Best for founders weighing crowdfunding against a conventional raise.

Knowle West Media Centre's meet-up for projects that sit between community, arts and technology — people showing what they are building, dinner included. Free.

The Bristol Dynamics 365 & Power Platform user group's November meetup at Engine Shed.

We're an informal meetup group of people who wish to reduce the solitary nature of remote working by gathering at cafes and having casual work sessions together over a cup of tea/coffee. We welcome a diverse range of individuals, including writers, software engineers, designers, students, freelancers and anyone equipped with a laptop to join us. The Watershed cafe bar is a spacious, airy cafe with good WiFi and decent lunch options.

Monthly meet-up designed for founders, freelancers and creatives to connect.

A 90-minute workshop from Aer Studios and UX Crunch on hiring for skills that did not exist when the job description was written. The first half is talks on the changing skills landscape, what younger candidates want from employers, and what businesses actually need from the next generation. The second half is the work: as a group you take a conventional role and redesign it for the workforce you need next - what experience is genuinely essential, what can be taught, which skills matter most, and whether your recruitment process is helping you find the right people or filtering them out. At The Station on Silver Street, in the Brazen Community Track. Why go: you leave with a rewritten job spec rather than a view, which is more than most hiring sessions manage. Best for founders doing their own hiring and people leads in small tech teams.

with Amy Gettings (Managing Director, Hey! What?) · Hamish McWhirter (Creative Director, Hey! What?)

A 25-minute talk from Hey! What? on what brands can take from subcultures, festivals and scenes. The argument: culture does not move because something is sensible, it moves because something is different enough to notice, specific enough to believe in and interesting enough to pass on - so weird is not the opposite of strategy, it is often where strategy starts working. Amy Gettings, Managing Director, and Hamish McWhirter, Creative Director, are both speaking. At The Station on Silver Street, in the Brazen Community Track. Why go: short, and a real point of view rather than a case-study reel. Best for marketers and founders who keep producing work that is correct and ignorable.

with John Lanyon (Creative Partner, Studio Lanyon)

Four ten-minute talks from Bristol Creative Industries on getting people to care about complex products, with an open Q&A at the end. John Lanyon, Creative Partner at Studio Lanyon, opens on the psychology of why people decide emotionally rather than logically, using well-known tech campaigns to show it working, and finishes on something to try the next day. A second talk tackles the brand-building catch-22: a weak brand means low demand, low demand means every pound goes on squeezing sales out of that demand, which leaves nothing to invest in brand. Two further talks complete the session. At The Station, 15:00 to 15:50, part of Brazen. Why go: marketing advice for technical founders is usually either pure tactics or pure theory, and this hour aims at the gap. Best for founders doing their own marketing.