The University of Warwick will host events this week for Birmingham Tech Week, the UK’s largest regional tech festival.

The festival is organised by Tech WM, a not-for-profit organisation working to raise the profile of the West Midlands in the technology sector.

The University of Warwick is the Founding Academic Patron of Tech WM and is supporting them in their aims to boost growth in the region.

Taking place from 16-20 October 2023, the event will bring over 30 sessions and 150 speakers together, including tech founders, government officials and industry experts. Around 7,500 people are set to attend.

The festival aims to showcase the growth and innovation potential of the West Midlands, with the region hosting nearly 6,000 tech companies employing a diverse workforce of over 38,000 people – all of which contribute to an ecosystem that is now worth over £15 billion to the national economy.

The University of Warwick will host two events throughout the week to support the festival, including a session on the ‘mobility revolution’ at the National Automotive Innovation Centre on campus, and a networking dinner for leaders and policy makers within the technology sector in partnership with University College Birmingham.

David Plumb, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Warwick said:

“At Warwick, we recognise the unique role we play in helping the West Midlands become the fastest growing tech hub in the UK. The West Midlands region is successfully embracing environmental sustainability, evolving away from traditional combustion engines and carbon technologies, developing new digital skills and leading a new range of tech industries.

“Birmingham Tech Week is a great opportunity to showcase the impressive people, businesses, skills and groundbreaking initiatives from across the region and reflect on areas for growth.

“We will share learnings from successes such as our degree apprenticeships programme empowering Goldman Sachs to establish a robust cyber security practice in Birmingham, our incubator and accelerator programmes supporting over 2,000 ventures across a range of sectors since the Warwick Innovation District was launched in 2020, and our coaching, mentoring and access to finance helping our start-ups and SMEs raise over £150m since launch.

"At Warwick, we look forward to supporting Birmingham Tech Week as we establish the West Midlands as the UK’s tech capital.”

Warwick Innovation District is a key player in this transformation, working in concert with Tech WM and powered by the University of Warwick. Warwick Innovation District is an open and inclusive innovation ecosystem, uniting academics, visionary founders, investors, policy influencers, students and businesses to start, grow and pivot tech SMEs across the region.

Warwick Innovation District harnesses the University’s research and innovation activities for the benefit of local innovators and entrepreneurs, translating innovation into real-world impact.

CEO of Tech WM, Yannis Maos MBE commented:

“I'm delighted that the University of Warwick is a sponsor of Birmingham Tech Week in the way they are, and this builds on their patronage of TechWM.

“With unique fringe events to bring together digital leaders, as well as their involvement through Warwick Innovation District, their engagement across the week will help showcase the region's amazing tech sector to the world.

“One event I'm particularly excited about is our AI Roundtable that will be taking place during the week and it's great that the University will be playing a leading role in this important and strategic discussion - especially as a leading academic on the subject matter."

Find out more about Birmingham Tech Week and engage with Warwick Innovation District.