Key Takeaways from Birmingham Tech Week and TechMids

We were delighted to end what turned out to be a fantastic Birmingham Tech Week by supporting TechMids Conference with their annual event at the ICC in Birmingham, hosting world class speakers and a range of different Meetups including Brum.js, Golang and DevOps.

Key Talks James Constantinou, specialist DevOps recruitment consultant here at Spinks, had this to say about the event: “It was great to hear from both sides of the coin on some of the challenges that start-up founders face when growing their business in the scale-up/start-up zone. We had talks from founders of later stage scale-ups and early age start-ups, giving us an eagle-eyed view of some of the struggles they can face whilst scaling".

Another fascinating talk was the one hosted by PitchHub Ltd the IoD Fintech & Finance Group: “Funding Startups and Scaleups; The Roles and Opportunities for Corporate Organisations”. I was particularly interested in finding out how corporate businesses can have a fundamental impact on the growth of budding start-ups and scale-ups, as most typically assume the two are separated from each other, even sometimes seen as competitors within their markets."

Diversity and Inclusion We also heard from our very own Kirsty Thomas Brown with her talk “Beyond the Business Case: Embracing Diversity and Inclusion for Lasting Impact”. "Most businesses are aware that there is a strong business case for diversity, with studies suggesting that a more diverse workforce creates a better culture, working environment and performance. However, leading with diversity and thinking that this will create the increased performance, culture and profits is misguided, and it's important to recognise that a diverse environment does not mean it is inclusive by default. It is necessary to recognise the nuances in becoming "more diverse", and to ensure it is not seen as a tick box exercise that can inadvertently reduce people to members of identity groups rather than the individual they are."

The future of Tech in the Midlands With the recent announcement showing Birmingham becoming one of the fastest-growing UK startup ecosystems for venture capital investment in the UK, at +195% since 2019, it’s clear that the Midlands is on the right track for longer term growth in the sector. Of course, London is still the main player in the market, but its share of VC funds is starting to become more equally spread across the region. Martin Ward, West Midlands Tech Commissioner states: “This is exactly the effect we see for Silicon Valley relative to Austin, Miami and Dallas—it’s not a ‘winner takes all’ game and it’s clear the UK has space for regional tech superpowers alongside London.”

It was amazing to see so much passion and positivity about the Tech sector, and with the news that Birmingham is starting to see some real growth in the industry, we can look forward to a promising 2024 and beyond.