Tech Events at The Station - Creative Youth Network, Bristol

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 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 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 Tom Swithinbank (Senior Project Manager, Bristol BID) · Mike Cowdy (Co-Founder and Director, MOOWD) · Hillary Cuddy (Director of Services, Design West)

Bristol BID launches the Green and Blue Vision for the city centre, developed with MOOWD: more greening, art, seating and reasons to use public space. Tom Swithinbank of Bristol BID and Mike Cowdy of MOOWD present the vision and where they want collaborators, then Hillary Cuddy of Design West reveals the three winning entries from the Big Green Ideas for Bristol Harbour competition, whose designers present their ideas. Questions and discussion follow. At The Station, 15:30 to 17:30, part of Brazen's sustainability strand.

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.

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.

with Rob French (Host, BLANKET) · Roni Size (, )

A live recording of the Nothing, Something Nothing podcast at The Station as part of Brazen, with host Rob French of BLANKET in conversation with drum and bass producer Roni Size about creativity rather than career: finding a sound of your own, what happens when an underground scene becomes globally recognised, and how making things changes after decades of doing it. Streamed live to a wider audience. 16:00 to 17:00.

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.

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.

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.

The evening opens with a short introductory talk on the risks of superintelligence, the latest developments making headlines, and what PauseAI is doing about them. That is followed by an open discussion where everyone can put questions and push back, and then the group heads out for a drink to carry the conversation on. Hosted by PauseAI West of England, with Chay Morris and Joseph Miller listed as hosts. PauseAI describes itself as a global grassroots movement calling for a pause on the development of powerful AI systems. Doors 18:30, finishing around 22:00, in the Engine Room at The Station on Silver Street. Free RSVP on Luma, no approval needed, with 21 people registered at the time of writing. Why go: it is an advocacy room rather than a commercial AI meetup, so expect argument about whether frontier development should slow down, not product demos. Worth it if you want to meet the people organising on AI risk in the West of England, or test your own position against theirs.