Last night myself and @samcambridge attended the launch event for Silicon Canal (@Silicon_Canal). It was a great night hosted by @simonjenner & @nickholzherr.
Silicon Canal is a volunteer organisation that aims to bring all elements of the tech sector in and around Birmingham together, like they have done in London/Silicon Roundabout and of course Silicon Valley/California, and develop an open ecosystem.
Over 350 people attended the event and it was great to catch up with old friends from Tech Wednesday and Multipack plus ex-clients and suppliers.
Silicon Canal launched a whitepaper outlining the problems and opportunities with the current Brum tech scene and also provided 29 recommendations to addresses these areas.
Their mission is simple:
To build a World Class Tech & Digital Ecosystem in Greater Birmingham
The main goals are to:
- Promote
- Collaborate
- Mentor
- Support
An array of speakers including @davemaclean (who eff’ed and jeff’ed through his speech, a personal highlight) and @doug_scott. Plus panels with startups and scale ups, visions of a unicorn in Brum(!!!), investors, lawyers and social change – all in one night!
The event was organised by the Ambassadors of Silicon Canal and supported financially by sponsors including Eversheds, GRIN, Talis and Technical Team Solutions. Apologies if I miss anyone, my memory is poor!
It was great to meet up with like minded people all willing to bring a real collaboration across the whole of Brum. Running a tech startup in a town on the edge of Worcestershire can be lonely!
I’m not a blogger or journalist and this isn’t intended to be a complete review of the night, instead in the spirit of Silicon Canal I thought it was appropriate to shout out about what a great city we live in and what a wonderful thing Silicon Canal is and can become.
Now that the beer has been drunk and the pizza consumed, the hard work begins…
Checkout the upcoming events here and get involved!!!!!
- Register your company
- Download the whitepaper
- Become an Ambassador
- Go to the events
See you at the next event,
Paul
