Welcome to TechSPARK’s regular events round-up, summarising the upcoming tech-related events in Bristol and Bath!
*Featured Event*
Low Carbon South West Business Breakfast, The Guild Coworking Hub
23 September @ 7:45am
Dream or nightmare for the occupier: Is PassivHaus the answer to low energy building design?
Join Colin Powell of gcp Architects and Consulting and Dr Nick McCullen of the University of Bath who will speak about the pros and cons, as well as emerging research relating to PassivHaus, an energy standard driven by thermal comfort with the potential to offer a simple-technology solution to low energy buildings.
Book your tickets for the Low Carbon South West Business Breakfast.
Bath Hacked: Air Quality Hack, The Guild Coworking Hub
20 September @ 9am to 6pm
Bath and North East Somerset Council have made their air quality data public and are funding a hack to find innovative ways to use it. Bath: Hacked are calling on clever people with lungs and technical skill to help make sense of the numbers.
They are currently feeding data from 5 monitoring stations across Bath into the city data store, updated every ~60 minutes. They also have historic readings going back to 2001. Your mission is to wrangle these numbers into something useful, educational, informative or just plain fun related to the air around us. Teams involved can win multiple cash prizes in categories ranging from ‘Most Educational Project’ to ‘Best Overall Project’.
There are only 8 spots left so be quick and sign up on the Bath: Hacked Meetup page.
Bristol Open Source User Group: Officially, um… Open! , The Watershed
22 September @ 7pm
A free meet-up group focused on open source software usage, design, development and support. If you use, contribute, support, develop or enjoy open source software then this is the group for you.
Multicore Challenge 2014, UWE Conference Centre
23 September
Now in its fifth successful year, the multicore challenge is a conference and tools event held every year near Bristol and Bath. It considers both the challenges and opportunities in building products based on multiple cores – from embedded industrial/consumer products and PC applications to mobile phones and high performance compute clusters.
Read more about the Multicore Challenge and register for your ticket.
SETsquared Workshop: The Business of IP Licensing, The Engine Shed
23 September @ 10am to 4pm
This SETsquared workshop will focus on the business and financial aspects of IP licensing. Aimed at businesses who want to license their technology to another company enabling the Licensee to make products for licensee fees, SETSquared will examine the ways in which IP should be protected before entering licensing discussions. The workshop will study which IP strategies are typically employed in the Hi Tech marketplace as well as covering several business models which can be utilised in licensing discussions.
Find out more about how to get involved with SETsquared workshop on IP Licensing.
UWE Student Enterprise: Startup Drinks, The Engine Shed
23 September @ 6.30 to 8.30pm
UWE Enterprise are hosting a drinks and informal networking evening for all those interested in start-ups and entrepreneurship.
This is a fantastic opportunity for you to meet other professionals, students and entrepreneurs from around Bristol, whether you are looking for a start-up partner, people to share ideas with or just to meet and talk with like minded people.
Sign up for free on the Startup Drinks Bristol Eventbrite page.
Agencies and Clients: Client Day, The Paintworks
24 September @ 9am to 4pm
Join UWE, Bristol Media, South West Marketing Leaders and The Chartered Institute of Marketing for Client Day at the Paintworks in Bristol. One of three special events analysing the fundamentals of the client / agency relationship using unrivalled, cutting edge research from the University of The West of England Applied Marketing Group. This event is open to clients and marketing consultants and is particularly suitable for those who work on a day to day basis with Agencies.
Tickets cost £70 (+ VAT) for non members and £55 (+ VAT). This event is expected to be particularly popular, so do book your tickets by emailing alli@bristolmedia.co.uk
Bristol JS: Javascript for accessible websites, BaseKit office
24 September @ 7-10pm
An introduction to building for accessibility while coding up your modern, dynamic web applications in Javascript.
In this talk, Jon Gibbins will explain how dynamic content works with assistive technology and demonstrate a few accessible coding techniques. Assuming some knowledge of JavaScript, he’ll introduce WAI-ARIA and show what it can do, and tool you up with some best practices for some common accessibility problems.
To find out more about Bristol Javascript and sign up to the event, check out their Meetup page.
umBristol Social, Small Bar
25 September @ 6.30pm
umBristol is a monthly meetup group for Umbraco users in the local area. Join them this month for an informal social gathering at the Small Bar in Bristol to get to, as the organiser Lee Kelleher puts it: “meet, talk Umbraco and drink nice beer”.
Join the umBristol Meetup group.
Bristol Ruby User Group (BRUG), Tobacco Factory
25 September @ 7pm
“We are a bunch of friendly Ruby developers, meeting once a month for some beers and talks.”
Find out more and sign up to the Bristol Ruby User Group.
Bristol Bright Night, The Waterfront
26 September @ 12pm to midnight
Bristol Bright Night celebrates the city’s place as a home for cutting-edge research, inviting the public to explore, innovate, challenge and discover through a programme of free activities across the centre.
Learn how to build a pedestrian bridge across Bristol Harbour; enjoy pop-up science theatre; and even cook and eat with researchers while discussing how their work impacts on Bristolians’ daily life. From bugs that glow in the dark to Robots vs Animals, and talks at the Watershed to exhibitions at @Bristol, the city streets will be alive with the latest research.
Find out more on the Bristol Bright Night website.
Engine Shed Briefing: Future Cities Catapult
26 September @ 12-1pm
What are the new Catapult Centres? How will they support innovation in the UK? And how can you get engaged?
Peter Madden, Chief Executive of the Future Cities Catapult, will talk about the work of his Catapult, fostering urban innovation, and also introduce that of the wider Catapult family. He will outline the opportunities in innovation for cities both in the UK and overseas.
He is also interested to hear first-hand your ideas on how the Future Cities Catapult might best work with SMEs and start-ups.
Sign up for a free guest ticket on the Engine Shed Eventbrite page.
SETsquared IR14 Day 1: The Value Proposition plus The Market & Selling, The Engine Shed
30 September @ 9.30am to 5pm
The purpose of this two day event is to help you prepare to get investment from business angels, venture capitalists , corporates, and banks. Even if you’re not looking for investment now this will help you be investment ready for the future.
Getting funds from any type of investor is a sales process and the seminar will take you through the investment journey, including presentations from a number of external contributors, together with investors and nationally recognised experts in their fields.
Buy tickets for SETsquared IR14 Day 1.
OpenCo Bristol and Bath, held at various tech offices across Bristol and Bath
2 October – All day
OpenCo conferences get you inside the offices of important companies to see what makes them tick. They are a fresh twist on the traditional conference + media platform, and this October they are coming to Bristol and Bath.
If you fancy hearing talks from some top South West tech innovators and seeing how and where they work, get signed up now!
Bristech: October Meetup, The Engine Shed
2 October @ 7pm
Join Britech this October for two talks from local developers on agile and open source. The first from David Thomas: “Why Scrum isn’t Agile but you should be” and the second from Upayavira on open-source licensing.
This is an extremely popular meetup group and, with over 50 sign ups already, you’ll need to RSVP pretty quick.
Join the Bristech and RSVP to the October Meetup.
If you have an upcoming tech event we haven’t mentioned in this list, tell us about it! And check out more events on our events calendar.

Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
She also oversees TechSPARK's social media, sharing the latest updates on everything from investment news to green tech meetups and inspirational stories.