Tech Events at Cinema 1, Watershed, Bristol

In this opening session, we respond to the latest events in an attempt to better understand why economic uncertainty has defined 2026.

with Tom Clark (Principal Editor (chair), Resolution Foundation) · James Banks (Professor of Economics, University of Manchester / IFS) · Jane Falkingham (Professor, University of Southampton) + 2 more

A Festival of Economics panel at the Watershed on what it means for the UK to age rapidly while Africa and India stay young. Chaired by Tom Clark of the Resolution Foundation, with James Banks (University of Manchester and IFS), Jane Falkingham (University of Southampton), David Miles (Office for Budget Responsibility) and Joe Studwell (Overseas Development Institute). 13:30 to 14:30, ticketed.

A Festival of Economics lunchtime panel in Cinema 1 at the Watershed, asking whether an undergraduate degree is still worth it in the age of AI — and who should pay for it. The question sits on top of nearly three decades of rising tuition fees and student debt, now colliding with AI's disruption of the graduate labour market. Chaired by the FT's Chris Smyth, with Gill Wyness (UCL/LSE, economics of higher education), Glen O'Hara (Oxford Brookes), Debbie McVitty (editor of Wonkhe) and Sarah Bevan (Universities UK). 11:30–12:30, ticketed, with group and school discounts. Why go: a well-sourced panel on a question founders and anyone hiring early-career talent should be chewing on — what a degree signals once AI can do the entry-level work. More policy debate than builder session, so come for the argument, not a how-to.

Festival of Economics brings FT work columnist Sarah O'Connor to Cinema 1 at the Watershed with a sharper version of the automation question: not that people are losing jobs to machines, but that work is becoming lonelier, less creative and less human. The session is built around her book We Are Not Machines, which reports from the front lines of technological change and also finds jobs made safer and better where workers took control of the new tools. She is in conversation with Heather Stewart, economics editor of the Guardian, and Sue Turner OBE, Professor in Practice in AI and Digital Technologies at the University of Bristol Business School and one of the Top 100 Women in AI Ethics. One hour. Paid ticket, with group (10+) and school discounts and no refunds. Why go: the best-sourced argument in Bristol this autumn about what AI does to work itself rather than to headcount. Best for people and operations leaders, policy people, and anyone putting AI into a team.

Is England really moving towards meaningful devolution, or just decentralised delivery of national policy?