Welcome to my weekly South West Tech News roundup, where you can get all the headlines from the past week in one place.
What has our busy tech and digital community been up to this week? From award wins and innovative breakthroughs to unmissable events and capital raised, take a moment to reflect on the hive of daily activity taking place in our region.
If you have a story to share, wizz it over to shona@techspark.co – I look forward to hearing from you!
Apply now for the next Natwest Accelerator cohort
You have until 16th August to be in with a chance of securing your spot on the upcoming Natwest Accelerator cohort. For more information and how to apply, check out the website here.
The NatWest Accelerator supports and empowers UK entrepreneurs to scale their businesses to the next level.
The free Accelerator programme specialising in wrap around support provides:
- One-to-one coaching with our experienced acceleration managers
- A programme of thought leadership and events
- Access to a network of like-minded peers, supported by our ecosystem managers
- Focused support with access to experts from across your specialism
- Use of the modern co-working spaces in one of our nationwide hubs
Learn the fundamentals of AI with Bath Spa University
Bath Spa University has unveiled its new AI Fundamentals course. As Artificial Intelligence becomes an increasingly essential tool in the 21st century, this course will guide you through various AI applications and help you critically evaluate AI technologies and their impact on today’s industries.
This two-day, online course will take place on 9 and 16 August and costs £199 per person. It’s perfect for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of AI.
AI Fundamentals provides you with a solid foundation in artificial intelligence (AI) concepts, techniques, and applications. Through hands-on activities and expert insights, you’ll gain the skills needed to understand and apply AI in various contexts.
Call for papers are open for the Bristol & Bath Cyber Con 2024
Once again, Bristol & Bath Cyber Con will be returning as part of the Bristol Technology Festival. We’ll be bringing together 300 delegates at the Watershed to learn, share and connect on all things cyber.
We’re reaching out to the key players in the local and national cyber community (aka, you) to present or host a workshop at the annual conference. Help us bring to life the learnings of the past year across one day by hosting a session; we’re keen to hear from everyone contributing to the sector in one way or another. Interactive sessions are particularly encouraged!
Search begins for innovators to test tech at Bristol Temple Meads
Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and place leadership, has today announced the opening of applications to join the next cohort of innovators developing their solutions as part of the Station Innovation Zone.
Now in its third year of operation, the Station Innovation Zone is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult and Network Rail, supported by Great Western Railway and funded by Innovate UK. It creates an environment for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop technologies that have the potential to improve the passenger experience. To date, the Station Innovation Zone has supported 17 innovative firms develop their ideas, with 6 undertaking live trials.
This year’s challenges centre on three themes, which applicants are invited to respond to:
- Accessibility: tackling barriers to travel and maximising the impact of accessibility improvements
- Sustainability: making the station greener as well as supporting data-driven decision-making for better resource and energy management.
- Personal security: creating an environment that feels safe and making it easier for people to report feeling unsafe
Signable becomes Slack's first UK SME partner for new co-marketing campaign
Signable, a leading electronic signature provider headquartered in Bristol, proudly announces its partnering with Slack, the AI-powered operating system for work, on an exciting co-marketing initiative. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for Signable as it becomes the first UK company to be involved with the SME co-marketing campaign, and underlines their shared commitment to help customers use technology to enhance productivity and collaboration.
Slack, a Salesforce company, is where work happens for millions of people everyday. The cloud-based platform for work centralises conversations and collaboration between employees and partners, makes it easy to automate business processes and delivers trusted generative AI that augments employees in the flow of work. By bringing people, conversations, apps and systems together in one place, Slack helps businesses of all sizes across more than 150 countries make work simpler, more pleasant and more productive.
Launching ADLIB's EDI Directory
The purpose of ADLIB’s “True Diversity” Content Series is to feature, collate and showcase the breadth of initiatives that are all on a mission to work towards True Diversity and Inclusion – to capture and share what these initiatives are all about, who they are, what they do, why it matters and how businesses can get involved.
There are many angles to consider and a wealth of EDI expertise available, if you know where to look. That is the challenge they wanted to address.
If you’re an employer wanting to find support and expertise to build truly inclusive teams, the new EDI Directory is here to signpost you to a range of initiatives that you can reach out to.
