Edinburgh — Week of 12 Oct 2026

A three-hour workshop on equity investment: the routes (angels, venture capital, equity crowdfunding), what makes a business investable, how investors assess value, and how to tell when equity is the right option at all. The fourth session of the Royal Bank Accelerator's six-workshop, 12-week Funding Accelerator, though you can attend it on its own. Expect practical exercises on valuation, real founder stories and an Action Lab to leave with next steps. Guest speaker to be confirmed. 09:30 to 12:30 at the Royal Bank Accelerator, 142-144 Princes Street. Free. Why go: a structured morning for founders who want to understand equity before they are in a room with an investor. Best for early-stage founders weighing their first raise.

with Bethany McKenzie (Principal Recruitment Consultant, Harvey Nash) · Samantha Leeman (Product Owner / career coach, Lloyds Banking Group)

An evening on building and progressing a tech career as a woman or someone from an underrepresented background: what helped, what held people back, and how to get ahead. Speakers: Bethany McKenzie, Principal Recruitment Consultant at Harvey Nash, on progression, confidence and pay; and Samantha Leeman, Product Owner at Lloyds Banking Group and career coach, who left school at 16 and will talk honestly about the choices that didn't go to plan. Then networking, drinks and pizza from sponsor MosAIc. 17:30 to 19:30 at CodeBase. Free; open to women, LGBTQ+ people and allies, with only a handful of spots left. Use CodeBase's back entrance this time, as there is filming out front: go in via Argyle House, 3 Lady Lawson Street, EH3 9DS, and head to Floor J. Why go: frank career talk from a recruiter who sees the salary data and a product lead with an unconventional path. Best for anyone in Edinburgh tech plotting their next move.

A fortnightly social for Edinburgh's game developers: students, triple-A veterans, artists, musicians, community managers and hobbyists, anyone who works in or around games. Hosted by Fallible and Ewan F., 18:00 to 21:00 at OX184 Bar, 184-186 Cowgate. No agenda; if you have a demo or video of what you're working on, there's an eager audience for it. Plenty of people come for dinner and soft drinks, so there's no pressure to drink. The group's Discord carries this and other local game-dev events. Free. Why go: the broadest regular gathering of Edinburgh's games community, from studio staff to solo developers, in one room. Best for anyone looking for collaborators or a first audience for a build.

Scottish National Network's Edinburgh entrepreneurs meetup at Platform 5.

The first Edinburgh Data Science Coffee Club: a late-morning get-together for people working in data science, machine learning and AI, filling the months between Edinburgh Data Science and AI's speaker events. No talks, slides or pitches. Hosted by Emily T., it is coffee and conversation about current projects and problems, the tools and approaches that are working, and where collaborations might start. 11:00 to 13:00, downstairs at Black Medicine Coffee, 2 Nicolson Street, with the option to carry on over lunch nearby. Free. Aimed mainly at practitioners; people in the field who are visiting Edinburgh are welcome too. Why go: a calm weekday-morning alternative to evening meetups, backed by a well-reviewed community. Best for data scientists and ML engineers who want peers to compare notes with.

HUSTLE's entrepreneur networking evening in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Tech Network's informal monthly drinks for developers, product managers, designers and UX people — no talks, just conversation.

The October edition of Edinburgh Tech Network's recurring open evening.

Heriot-Watt's National Robotarium hosts a workshop on rehabilitation robotics in clinical and community practice — clinicians and roboticists in the same room, which is rarer than it should be.

A session at Clockwise Leith on buying signals and timing for small businesses.

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) 2019 Associate certification course, tutor-led, in Edinburgh.

The Association for Consultancy and Engineering's Scotland group meets at Mott MacDonald on George Street to look at next steps for the Scottish Government's infrastructure plans — and what that means for the firms designing and digitising it. Free.

Venture Café Edinburgh marks World Food Day with a gathering themed on food systems, agritech and the innovation around what we eat.

with Allan Brown (Founder and CEO, Evoke Partners Ltd)

The second Edinburgh Growth Clinic from Founders' Growth Club, at CodeBase on Castle Terrace. Founders, builders, marketers and operators work through real growth problems in the room rather than listening to a deck about them. October's theme is partnerships. Allan Brown, founder and CEO of Evoke Partners, gives the keynote on what to do and where and how to look for growth partnerships. Free, 17:00 to 19:00. The organisers ask you to bring a brief on a product or feature you have just launched or are about to launch, so the room can try it on the spot, give you feedback and help spread the word. Registration is open on both Eventbrite and Luma and there is no approval step. Why go: a small working room where you leave with feedback on your own launch rather than notes from a talk. Best for early-stage founders and the growth people around them in Scotland.

Edinburgh's Postgres community meets again at Paterson's Land — this edition in Room 1.21 on the first floor. Talks on database internals, production war stories and anything adjacent to Postgres or SQL, with pizza and refreshments, followed by a social at The Canons' Gait. Free and open to all levels — no approval or membership needed, but RSVP on the event page so the organisers can count heads for food. The meetup is bound by the PostgreSQL Code of Conduct. The organisers are actively looking for speakers, including non-technical and community-oriented talks; contact them via the event page. Sponsored by pgEdge.

A social media session for small businesses that would rather not, at Ravelston House.

The fortnightly founder co-working morning at the Bayes Centre, run with ScotlandIS. Bring your laptop, work alongside other Edinburgh founders, and stay for the conversations that happen over coffee rather than on a stage.

Edindies is Edinburgh's indie game development community, meeting every Saturday afternoon at LEVELS for co-working, playtesting and chat. Drop in with whatever you are building.