Tech Events at Sloane Robinson Building, Bristol

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.

A public lecture from the University of Bristol's Digital Futures Institute on how AI chatbots are moving into the space of close relationships - companionship, advice, intimacy - and what society does about it. The listing frames it as how AI chatbots are reshaping our relationships, and how society can respond. It runs one hour on a Tuesday evening at the Sloane Robinson Building on the University's Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, part of BDFI's public lecture programme. The speaker isn't named on the booking page yet; registration is on Eventbrite. Why go: it's the research-institute take on a subject most AI events skip - the social and relational side rather than the build side. Best for anyone working on consumer AI, trust and safety, or product ethics who wants the academic angle rather than a vendor's.

An open afternoon at SETsquared Bristol's incubator for tech entrepreneurs and university researchers who are not members yet. The point is to see inside the programme before applying: what the business support actually covers, how the adviser and investor network works, and what membership gets you. The published agenda is talks from Entrepreneurs in Residence, a fireside chat with a current member, and a panel Q&A with the SETsquared Bristol team. No individual speakers are named on the listing. It runs 15:00 to 17:00 at the Sloane Robinson Building on Cattle Market Road, part of Bristol Innovations at the University of Bristol. Free to attend. Why go: the shortest honest route to deciding whether incubation is worth your time, with the people who run it and founders already in it answering questions in the same room. Best for pre-seed tech founders and spin-out academics.

A one-hour info session on Enterprising Women 5.0, SETsquared Bristol's free six-month programme for women founders in the West of England (Bristol, B&NES, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire). The next cohort of 24 runs January to July 2027, with eight half-day workshops, a 90-day plan, mentor and peer group, ending in a Demo Night pitch. Attending one discovery session is the first step to applying; applications close 18 December 2026. For women founders or teams at least 50% women, no company or revenue needed. Further sessions on 1 and 10 December. Free.

with Richard Godfrey (, Rocketmakers)

A two-hour workshop on the trap that AI and no-code tools have made easy: building the product before anyone has shown they want it. It works through scoping an MVP around your riskiest question rather than the most interesting one, telling technical risk from market risk, build-or-buy calls, and finding the cheapest test that still gives you an answer. Often that test is a form, a spreadsheet or a manual process, not a prototype. Led by Richard Godfrey, who has spent fifteen years building software for startups at Rocketmakers. Aimed at pre-revenue and early-revenue founders, especially technical founders and researchers who already know they can build it. 14:00 to 16:00. Free, in person at the Sloane Robinson Building, Cattlemarket Road. Why go: a builder telling builders when not to build is rarer and more useful than another MVP talk. Best for technical founders sitting on a half-finished prototype.

SETsquared Bristol's monthly peer-support session for its members. Founders work in small groups matched by stage; each gets a 20-minute slot to present an issue, take questions, hear feedback and commit to next steps. Open to SETsquared Bristol members only. Bristol Innovations Zone Lounge, first floor of the Sloane Robinson Building. 14:00 to 16:00, free.

with Tom Bright (Founder, Bright Evolve)

A hands-on sales session for founders who have found people with the problem but haven't turned those conversations into paying customers yet. It covers prioritising prospects and how to reach them, qualifying on who decides, what budget exists and how buying works, then moving from a first call to a proposal and asking for the business. You also set up a simple pipeline and follow-up routine. Run by Tom Bright, founder of the B2B sales consultancy Bright Evolve, with 25 years in B2B sales across more than 30 UK and US companies. You work on your own real prospects in small groups and paired practice, and leave with a ten-day plan. 14:00 to 16:00. Free, in person at the Sloane Robinson Building, Cattlemarket Road. Why go: founder sales advice from someone who has carried a number, applied to your own pipeline in the room. Best for pre-revenue B2B founders and those with a handful of customers.

with Ruth Oulton (undefined, undefined)

Bristol Innovations and QTIC convene a panel on what happens when post-quantum cryptography and increasingly autonomous AI collide and nobody has written the governance framework yet. The organisers' case: the encryption most organisations still rely on is on a closing clock, agentic AI is being deployed faster than the oversight around it, and funding and policy still treat the two as separate problems. The panel is set to mix a professor working at the research edge, an enterprise leader making real deployment and risk calls, a startup founder and a policy specialist. Ruth Oulton is named in the line-up; the rest were still TBC when this was written. Arrivals 16:30, panel 17:00, Q&A 18:00, nibbles and networking to 19:00. Free. QTIC is the University of Bristol's quantum hub. Why go: the rare Bristol room where quantum and AI governance are argued together rather than in separate tracks. Best for security and compliance leads, boards, investors and founders who have to make a call on this within the year.

with Andy Hickman (, )

A practical two-hour session on using AI assistants for the founder jobs that keep getting pushed back: market and prospect research, personalised outreach, drafting, summarising and planning. It covers better prompting, how AI tools handle multi-step tasks, where human judgement still has to sit, and the unglamorous parts: data privacy, confidentiality and licences. It's tool-agnostic. Presented by Andy Hickman for SETsquared Bristol, for solo founders and small teams at pre-revenue or early-revenue stage with mixed AI experience. Bring a laptop, a login to at least one assistant (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini or Claude) and one recurring task you want off your plate. 14:00 to 16:00. Free, in person at the Sloane Robinson Building, Cattlemarket Road. Why go: you leave with one working use of AI on a real task from your own business, not a list of tools. Best for founders who have dabbled and want it to stick.

with James Lucas (Product Adviser in Residence, SETsquared Bristol)

A customer-discovery workshop built around one question: who actually has a problem worth solving? It covers separating what you know about customers from what you're assuming, narrowing to one problem, one customer type and one route to market, and running discovery conversations that don't slide into a sales pitch. Led by James Lucas, a product and growth adviser who has built and commercialised startups and is Product Adviser in Residence at SETsquared Bristol. The format mixes individual reflection, paired exercises and practice conversations, and you leave with a validation experiment to run within seven days. 14:00 to 16:00. Free, in person at the Sloane Robinson Building, Cattlemarket Road. Why go: most early startups stall building for a customer they imagined, and this is a structured afternoon for catching that before it costs you. Best for founders before or just after their first build.

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, 6pm to 9pm at the Sloane Robinson Building on the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, Cattlemarket Road, BS1 6AZ. Registration closed on 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 two-hour practical workshop on pitch delivery rather than pitch content: presence and poise, using your voice, managing nerves, and preparing mentally and physically before you stand up. Led by Amy Armstrong, an award-winning leadership and resilience coach and senior clinical hypnotherapist, for SETsquared Bristol. It is built around the six Ps of compelling pitching, with time to practise, reflect and take feedback in the room. 14:00 to 16:00 on Tuesday 20 October. It is designed to complement SETsquared's separate Elevator Pitch workshop, which covers structure and content. Free, in person at the Sloane Robinson Building, Cattlemarket Road, BS1 6AZ. The registration page states no membership requirement or eligibility gate. Why go: delivery is the part of pitching most founders skip and the part an audience reacts to first. Go if you have something real coming up, a demo day, an investor meeting or a first sales conversation, and you know nerves get in your way.