Tech Events at The ICC, Birmingham

Birmingham Tech Week closes with the West Midlands Tech Awards black tie dinner at The ICC from 19:00, followed by entertainment and dancing. Six categories are awarded: Startup of the Year, Scaleup of the Year, Tech Leader of the Year, Frontier Tech Champion, Diversity Champion and Tech for Good. Entrants must be registered in the West Midlands Combined Authority area, and judging runs through independent review, shortlisting and a final panel. Nominations closed on 31 July, so the shortlists are set. Tickets are on sale; the price is not published on the listing page. Why go: the closing night pulls in the companies and people who have had the year, and the room is more relaxed than anything earlier in the week. Best for anyone building visibility in the regional ecosystem, and for teams worth celebrating.

Birmingham Tech Week's technical day at the ICC, built for software engineers, developers, architects and technical teams rather than executives, with practitioner talks instead of high-level commentary. Keynotes from Steve Wade of Platform Fix on the communication habits engineers tend to skip, and from AI engineer Akash Joshi on why an API that works fine for a developer leaves an agent guessing. Nick Heap and Astrid Bowser of OneAdvanced ask who buys what you build when delivery is very fast. The programme covers infrastructure, AI tooling, DevOps, cybersecurity, developer experience and large-scale system design. Paid, not free: the organiser's registration page states tickets are £25 plus VAT, and programme partner DevOps Society circulated a £20 standard and £18 community rate on 13 October. Registration and refreshments from 08:00, welcome from TechWM chair Jason Sahota at 09:15, close at 16:00. Why go: the week's only room pitched at people who actually ship, and the agent-readiness and platform talks sit ahead of where most teams are. Best for engineers and technical leads.

Birmingham Tech Week's flagship AI day at the ICC, on what practical AI implementation actually looks like once an organisation moves past experimentation. Keynote from Tom Loosemore, founder of Public Digital and one of the architects of GOV.UK, with a welcome from TechWM board chair Jo Birch. The programme runs across keynotes, case studies, interactive demonstrations and adoption labs, covering AI workflows and automation, organisational readiness, data quality, human-AI collaboration, governance and trust, and the future of work. Speakers are asked to be honest about what failed as well as what worked. Free. Registration and coffee from 08:30, programme 09:15 to 16:00. Why go: the regional calendar's biggest AI gathering, and it is pitched at the people doing the adopting rather than at the infrastructure vendors. Best for operators and decision-makers who already have pilots running and need them to land.

A deep tech and culture day at The ICC, 09:00 to 16:00, responding to Birmingham Tech Week's Fast Forward theme through provocations, demos and critical discussion rather than vendor talks. Lara Jeetley, a young researcher at the Alan Turing Institute and a TEDx speaker, opens with a keynote on what AI does to education and future careers. Four panels follow, each on a theme: Faster Brains on EdTech, Faster Defence on the overlap between gaming and defence, Faster Horse on innovation and place, and Faster Focus on designing for the attention economy. Creators, researchers, gamers and entrepreneurs make up the room. Free. Why go: the programme takes creative technology and defence seriously as the same conversation, which almost no regional conference does. Best for researchers, games and creative technologists, and founders working at the edges.