Cornwall, UK
12 - 25 February 2024
Countdown the Cornwall Festival of Tech
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Introducing
The 2024 Cornwall
Festival of Tech
Cornwall’s Festival of Tech is a two-week-long celebration of all things tech, digital and software in Cornwall. Featuring everything from tech demos, expos, talks, workshops, code clubs, networking, collaborations and more! Events will take place across Cornwall with activities for both the local and business communities.
Great Speakers
You’ll enjoy some incredible speakers from both the local community and outside of Cornwall on a huge range of topics, designed to inspire and teach and share.
New Experiences
The festival is run by the tech community, for the wider community. There will be something for everyone, whether you’re a seasoned tech enthusiast or brand new to digital and software technologies.
networking
The Festival of Tech has community at its heart. It’s designed to help you connect, not only with exciting technologies but with the people with the skills and knowledge to help you access them.
Community grants
Want to host and feature your event during the festival? Grants are available to help you do just that. They are designed to support grass-roots organisations and activities.
Why should I join Cornwall’s Festival oF Tech
You probably know that Cornwall has a rich history of innovation and is steeped in mining heritage that is still a prominent part of the landscape today. What you may not know, is that Cornwall also has one of the fastest-growing tech clusters in the UK.
Cornwall is as innovative as it’s always been, but the innovations today look a little different. Cornwall is home to some cutting-edge technology companies, writing and designing software products that serve global clients, manufacturing goods that ship worldwide, and harnessing natural energy that’s healthy for the planet.
The individuals who work in these industries are experts in software development, user-centred design, robotics, artificial intelligence, lean manufacturing, product design, data analytics, cyber security, project management, problem-solving and more.
Cornwall’s Festival of Tech will celebrate all things tech, digital and software in Cornwall to connect people both inside and outside of the industry to inspire, teach, share, learn and collaborate for the good of everyone that lives and works here.
15+
Events
1000+
Attendees
Cornwall
Why Cornwall?
Cornwall has a sense of community across a wide landscape; physical, industrial and even spiritual. The local tech, software and digital communities are a part of this. Innovation is in their DNA. The Cornwall Festival of Tech will build on this digital footing to create a solid presence in the character of Cornwall.
An Active and vibrant tech community
There are 80+ member companies and 1500+ individuals in the Software Cornwall membership ranging from massive software houses to startups. With tech hubs around the Fibre Hub (Camborne), Spaceport Cornwall (Newquay) and the Launchpad Venture Studio (Falmouth). Cornwall is perfectly positioned to drive purposeful innovations.
A rich history of innovation
Cornwall’s mining heritage is no secret. Yet Cornwall has been a hub of technology & innovation far more recently. The first transatlantic radio signal was transmitted from here, Goonhilly Earth Station has been pivotal in satellite communications for 60 years, the first commercial UK tea plantation was grown here, and Cornwall was the first European location to launch a rocket into space!
A thriving & engaged education community
Thanks to our links with education institutions across Cornwall, hundreds of young people have gone through our education outreach programme gaining work experience, coding skills and meetups with prospective employers to show them the exciting career pathways into tech. Cornwall is well-networked locally ensuring optimum opportunities for the next generation.
Get Involved
Ways to get involved
The Cornwall Festival of Tech is a collaborative effort from individuals and businesses in the local community. There are loads of ways to get involved.
Submit your event
The Festival of Tech is run by the community, for the community. If you would like to host your event during the festival fortnight and would like to feature it on our website and in our promotional material, simply complete the form and we'll add it to the roster.
Apply for a Grant
If you're a small community group or individual that has dreamed of launching your own community event then we might be able to help. We have grants of between £250 - £2000 for you to do just that! The event must have a tech, digital or software focus.
Volunteer
Volunteers are and have always been a key part of the Software Cornwall community. There are loads of opportunities to get involved. By volunteering, you'll gain work experience, the ability to make connections with others in the industry and most importantly, you'll have fun!
View events schedule
With loads of activities set to take place during the two-week Festival of Tech, there will be something for everyone. Browse our events schedule and register for something that interests you. Don't forget to tell your friends!
become a sponsor
Looking to raise awareness of your products and/or services? With a variety of activities taking place throughout Cornwall's Festival of Tech, there are lots of opportunities to gain brand awareness, attract new customers, recruit new team members and reach new audiences.
view our media pack
Do you write for a local/national newspaper or blog? Do you manage an Instagram account showing what's on in Cornwall? Do you host your own Podcast? Whatever your medium, we love to spread the word about the Festival of Tech and will support you in gaining exciting coverage to share with your audience.
Sponsors
Our sponsors
schedule
our event schedule
Here are a few of the events that are already confirmed to take place during the Cornwall Festival of Tech. More events will be added to the schedule as they are confirmed. Ensure you subscribe to our newsletter for updates.
FAQs
Frequently Asked questions
Will you be advertising outside of Cornwall?
For the first year, the focus will be on making sure people in Cornwall and Software Cornwall members know that the Festival exists (as we’re often told that people outside of the Software Cornwall bubble/network don’t know that we do). We’ll be making the most of our networks and connections within Digital Plymouth, Tech Exeter, Digital Somerset, Tech South West and London Tech Week so that we’re in a powerful position in year two to take Software Cornwall “on tour” and hopefully promote Cornwall Festival of Tech to the rest of the South West.
(Sidenote: We were asked by both Bristol and London Tech Week this year but could only make it to Bristol Tech Week in the time allocated.)
We’re putting together a strong programme in year one that aims to make promoters out of attendees and gives us time to create a series of events so good that people around the South West have to join us – we’ve already seen that we can do this with the other European and International events we run such as HalfStack, Agile on the Beach and Startup Cornwall.
We also believe that we are the first location outside of the UK’s big cities to host and run our own take on a “Tech Week”.
How will we be attracting key people outside of Cornwall to engage with the festival?
Even as a small team, we’re incredibly well connected. Our connections through Startup Cornwall, powered by Slush’d, Agile on the Beach, HalfStack and other UK digital clusters give us a network that reaches far outside of Cornwall. Certainly all over the UK, definitely into large parts of London, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Scotland, almost into parts of Europe and the beginnings of a network in the United States too.
What age groups are the kids workshops?
The Cornwall Tech Jams are aimed at children of 7 years and older. Younger children may often need assistance from their parents. We do request that parents remain at the event if the children are under 16 years old.
What age can you be to volunteer?
16+
How are you all such great speakers? Could be an opportunity for others to learn to be better.
Practice! And we all agree that none of us were good speakers when we first started out!
The Ctrl Alt Del event will be a great place for new speakers to submit a talk for as the TECwomen team are happy to support less confident speakers by making changes to the more traditional speaker setups if necessary.
Will there be content creation, streaming, and videos in the lead-up, during and post festival?
We’ll be documenting and sharing everything with videos, photography and social media during the festival and we’ve already engaged with local and national PR agencies to help us get the message out where appropriate.
Will you use local young people to help create this event?
Yes! By opening up the Community Activator Grants and The CreaTech Weekender grants to everyone and making them as simple to complete and apply for, we’re hoping this encourages people of all ages (and from all over the county) to run their own event as part of the festival.
Will there be a careers fair for adults/young people where businesses can meet people who are suitable for jobs? Interview speed dating?!
Yes, we would LOVE to do something like this. Our career-switcher programme and the TECwomen Digital Uplift programme shows that there are huge amounts of people in Cornwall who want to work in the digital and tech industries. For the moment we’re continuing to tackle it in this way but would welcome any ideas that people and organisations may have to further develop these ideas.