Wales Tech Week Confirmed to be Returning in 2025
In past years, we have covered highlights from Wales Tech Week, an autumn showcase of the Welsh tech ecosystem held by industry champion Technology Connected. Now they have confirmed that, after 2023’s successful event, it will be returning from 24th to 26th of November 2025.
The Welsh Tech Industry
Across the UK, national and local governments are focusing on scaling our tech industry. This is because it’s guaranteed to grow in the future, as we rely more on advanced technology to work, find entertainment and live our lives in the day-to-day.
Today, many workplaces rely on using emails and video conferencing to collaborate online. Those services rely on the internet, as do streaming services and a lot of entertainment-focused websites. Whole industries exist online, like iGaming, which engages with its audience online and allows them to play slot games with prizes using a computer and an internet connection. They also offer unparalleled variety in those games, using many different themes and digital art styles as needed. Without advancements in hardware, internet services and graphical quality, those games wouldn’t exist or would stagnate over time. The same can be said for many other industries which rely on the internet to create and/or deliver their service. To support these technologies, a lot of research and development is needed to provide both hardware and software for Wales’ burgeoning future.
Wales Tech Week is one of many events aimed at showcasing the latest developments in Welsh tech sectors. Others include the Wales Technology Awards, which recently wrapped up its 2024 March showcase. The awards are also organised by Technology Connected, who highlight success stories instead of focusing on the larger ecosystem like Wales Tech Week does.
Outside of Technology Connected’s efforts, the Welsh government also drafted a comprehensive innovation plan in early 2023. In it, they detail plans to grow Wales’ tech sector, continue pursuing renewable energy and harness AI developments that shook many industries last year.
Wales Tech Week Returns
The last Wales Tech Week event was held in October of 2023, attended by approximately 4,000 people including representation from over 1,500 organisations. Among them was the now-First Minister Vaughan Gething, as Minister of Economy at the time.
In his opening address during the event, Gething announced Wales’ collaboration with Innovate UK as part of the Collaborative Innovation Plan. This plan outlined a framework where research institutions can band together, forming associations to better compete for funding from outside of Wales. It marked the first time a devolved national government has sought cooperation with the Innovate UK agency.
AI was given particular attention by Gething. He noted that it has been used in many industries for a while but “the public debate is catching up with what’s already been happening.” This is largely because generative AI – the kind that took off after OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT – was much more sophisticated than the machine learning models we had been using for years. Now that he is First Minister, his interest surrounding AI innovation may be reflected in future policy.
Source: Unsplash
After skipping 2024, Wales Tech Week is returning in November of 2025 instead. In their announcement, Technology Connected wrote that it would “showcase Welsh technology, its ecosystem and champion the industry on the global stage.”
The planned event will be held where it was last year, at the ICC Wales in Newport. With the event more than a year away, there’s no telling what other tech developments might take place before some of Wales’ biggest industry delegates convene.