FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Bristol Tech Festival

For attendees

No, you cannot book a ticket for the Bristol Tech Festival as a whole. The format of the festival is a collection of events, showcases, workshops, and panels running throughout the city.

These events are hosted by our festival partners and supporters, so if you are intending to attend any of the events, you must register for each event individually.

You can find the schedules for each day here:

Monday – Science Day
Tuesday – People Day
Wednesday – Awareness Day
Thursday – Resilience Day
Friday – Knowledge Day

We ask that all venues booked for festival events are accessible where possible.  In the event that an inaccessible venue is unavoidable, this will be clearly indicated on the booking page.

If you have any other access requirements, please let the organisers of each event you wish to attend know.  They will be happy to accommodate where possible.  

If you have any problems at all, feel free to contact us.

It would be fantastic if you could share your experiences of the Bristol Tech Festival while you are out and about. If you do, please use the hashtag #BristolTechFestival #BTF2023 and @Bristol Tech Festival or @techbristol.

You will notice, when booking to attend Bristol Tech Festival Key events that there is a requirement to make a donation.  Whatever you can give would be greatly appreciated.  This will help to cover the costs of the festival, and allow reinvestment into the ecosystem.

It is our aim to make as much of the festival as possible free to attend, however, there will be some events which you will need to pay to attend.  If you need a refund, these will be dealt with by the organisers of each individual event.  If the event is hosted on EventBrite, simply log in, find your ticket and request a refund.  

Even if an event is free to attend, please make sure, if you are unable to attend that you cancel your booking.  This will allow for more accurate catering, less waste and if an event is fully booked, for someone to attend in your place.

Events should reflect the diversity of our sector and wider society, we ask that events are welcoming to all.  If you feel this effort has not been made, please contact us. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Further to this, it is your responsibility to ensure that whilst attending events you respect that it is a safe space for all and that you do not use language or act in a way that may cause offence.

The decision to remove anyone from an event due to the above is the right of the event host.

Guidelines for hosting an event

Bristol Tech Festival will take place from Monday 9th October 2023 to Friday 13th October 2023. We are encouraging organisations to submit applications for events that will take place throughout the week. Events can be of any size and any target audience, should be free of charge and fit the festival’s daily themes outlined on the website.

We want Bristol Tech Festival to reach the widest possible audience within the region and celebrate tech, cyber and digital in all its forms.

We would love to see as many in person events as possible, online events may be accepted, but the reasons for not hosting in person must be clear.  For example, creating an opportunity for shouting about our region to a wider geographic audience.

Click here to chat with our team about contributing to the festival

It will be your responsibility to plan all aspects of your event, from finding a venue, organising content, catering, marketing and, really importantly, arranging the booking process.  For continuity, we ask that you use EventBrite to take bookings, it is simple and free to use.

We will of course help with the marketing of your event as per any agreement with our Partnerships team.

If you need any help or advice throughout any of this process, please get in touch.

Your event, or speaking slot is not an opportunity to sell a product.  Instead, it is a chance to help enhance the sector through knowledge sharing and/or providing a space for networking.  This does not mean that you cannot draw upon the experiences of yourself or the expertise of your organisation.

We ask you to commit to keeping green!  Wherever possible, please host your events within walking distance of the city centre, or within reach of public transport networks.  Ideally use venues with green policies in place, and where catering is concerned, aim for ingredients to be locally sourced.  You should also avoid unnecessary printouts.

We want the festival to be open to all, and therefore ask that all venues used are accessible, and provisions can be made for people with hearing impairments.

Events should reflect the diversity of our sector and wider society, we ask that events to be welcoming to all and ask that every effort is made to ensure your speakers and panels are of various genders, ages, races and ethnicities.

Further to this, it is your responsibility to ensure that the event you host is a safe space for all and that your speakers and panellists do not use language that may cause offence.

Follow this link to visit the SHIFT Speaker Database, highlighting the diverse tech and digital public speakers of the South West!

During your event, we ask that you take note of the following:

  • Number of attendees
  • Percentage of those with protected characteristics
  • An idea of the different stages of career of those attending

Please tag us on social media so that we can share and re-share. In addition to this, please send us any picture, quotes and testimonials you receive.