SmartSheffield Festival Meetup: StartUp Showcase!

The 2022 Sheffield Digital Festival takes place from Monday the 9th to the 13th of May, with the day-long "Main Event" on Thursday the 12th. On the opening evening, though, we'll be hosting the 19th edition of the SmartSheffield meetup at the Electric Works in the Digital Campus near the Train Station, and will be showcasing some fascinating early stage startups that are realising ideas and technologies at the forefront of city transformation.

While Covid-19 restrictions are no longer legally enforced, we do encourage everyone to test before coming and stay away if the test is positive or you are showing symptoms, and if you do attend - and we do hope you do, of course, as we have all missed the social side of these events! - by all means wear a good mask and keep a respectful distance from other attendees. We will try to ensure the venue is ventilated as much as it can be. We are also aiming to stream the talks and host the event online as well, as we did during the lockdowns, via Airmeet.

We'll be returning to our pre-Covid schedule, starting at 6:30pm, with food and drink provided by Creative Space Management who operate the Electric Works - huge thanks to them!

Schedule:

18:30-19:00 - Arrival and welcome refreshments.
19:00-20:00 - Talks.
20:00-21:00 (ish) - Food, beverages and networking.

As per usual, there will be four main talks of 10 minutes each, followed by a "SmartSheffiled News" update, delivered by yours truly. There will be no Q&A after the talks, as the speakers are available for conversations afterwards. We'll also ask them to join the Airmeet to engage with the online audience for a few minutes during the networking period as well.

As previously mentioned, we're taking the opportunity to provide a platform to the founders of some local startups that are applying digital technologies and innovative thinking to a diverse range of challenges that cities and communities are facing. They all need support to develop their ideas and trial their products and services, so please come and lend your expertise and connections as well as discovering some of the great work that's going on in Sheffield!

Speakers will be announced as they are confirmed, so please keep an eye out for updates, sign up to the newsletter at SmartSheffield.city and follow us on Twitter @SmartSheffield.

And reserve your ticket either for the in-person event or online straight away!

Note that there will also be a meeting of the The Things Network Sheffield, the community operated LoRaWAN telecommunications network for internet of things devices, at 5pm beforehand. This meeting will be held via Zoom, with conference facilities provided for attendees who will be at the Electric Works for the main meetup. Please book your ticket to this meeting when you register for the main meetup.

Please also share this announcement with your networks and anyone you think will be interested.

We really look forward to seeing you there!

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