Software Engineering Events in Newcastle upon Tyne

🎒🪪 Please be aware bag and/or ID checks may be in operation by our Security team at the entrance.

Background

The BBC has been broadcasting from Newcastle for over 100 years. Now it's also the base of our North East Technology Hub and home to teams from the BBC's Product Group, responsible for developing world-beating services like iPlayer, Sounds, Sport and Bitesize.

The event is informal, and the doors will open at 17:30, starting 18:00 running through to 20:00.

🔒 This month is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we've themed this meetup event on all things Cybersecurity!
If you're interested in learning more, our friends over at CyberNorth celebrate all things Cybersecurity within our region, and have plenty more similar events you can check out here.

Smart Threats, Smarter Defense: How AI
is improving malware, and how secure AI is
fighting back (Annie Wilkinson - Student at Northumbria University)
As AI rapidly evolves, so does the threat of intelligent malware. From vibe coding
to data cleaning, explore how modern cyber attacks leverage artificial intelligence,
and how cyber security teams are fighting back to combat it.
Join us to discover how you can stay one step ahead in the battle between secure,
defensive AI and AI-powered threats.

Securing the BBC's Recommender Systems (Kira Green - BBC)
Learn how we are securing data and ML / AI workloads at scale in the cloud to enable rapid acceleration of Personalisation across the BBC. Take away some practical ideas you can put into practice.

Unpacking AI Governance (Zach Anucha - CGI)

AGENDA:
18:00 - Introductions
18:05 – Brijesh Tanna: Data testing frameworks, scripts and notebooks
19:00 - Refreshments & networking
20:00 - Finish

BIO:
Brijesh Tanna is a Lead Test Engineer at the NHS Business Services Authority, with 13 years of testing experience across healthcare, pensions, auto finance, and health insurance. He works on the Data Hub platform, leading test strategy, automation, and data assurance for reporting products.
Session Description - Data testing framework, scripts and notebooks
Modern data platforms move data through migrations, pipelines, and reporting layers, where a single silent mismatch can undermine trust in everything downstream. In this session, Brijesh shares practical approaches to data testing.

He'll cover:

• Data testing framework - different aspects of testing data across the platform
• Data reconciliation automation scripts - a source-agnostic, reusable framework for source-to-target reconciliation
• Data testing notebooks - using notebooks to validate data directly within Fabric

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This event is kindly sponsored by Waterston's consultancy. You can check them out via the links below:
https://www.waterstons.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/waterstons/

Join us for an interactive, roundtable discussion in an unconference format. Everyone is encouraged to suggest topics related to software development, craftsmanship, or any tech-related challenges. After voting on the topics, we’ll focus on discussing the most popular ones.

It’s a great chance to dive into the issues that matter to you, share insights, and collaborate on practical solutions. Whether you're seeking advice, offering your perspective, or eager to learn from others' experiences, this is a space to tackle real-world problems together.

No preparation is needed, just bring your ideas, challenges, and curiosity!

Food and drinks are provided, with vegetarian and vegan options available.

Welcome to our December meetup! Pizza and soft drinks will be provided on a first-come-first-served basis from 6pm as usual. We have two excellent talks to look forward to. Full details below :)

Schedule

1800--1830h: Refreshments

1830--18:35h: Welcome

1835--1905h: Ishbel Carlyle @ Northumbria University
MCPs: A What, Why, How Guide

1905--1915h: Intermission

1915--1945h: Speaker 2
Talk 2

1945--2000h: News & Announcements

Talks

Ishbel Carlyle, PhD Researcher @ Northumbria University
MCPs: A What, Why, How Guide

Model Context Protocols (MCPs) are the industry standard of connecting your AI model to the outside world. But how do they do that? Why would you want to and how would you go about setting this up? I spent 3 months working at Jumping Rivers doing just that, so come learn how I used an MCP to connect Claude to diffify.com and let's find out if my MCP actually made Claude Code better or worse...

Bio: Ishbel is a PhD candidate in Space Weather and Data Science at Northumbria University. She recently completed a 3-month Data Science internship at Jumping Rivers, and has also worked as a Science Communicator at Kielder Observatory.

Speaker 2
Talk 2

Abstract 2

News and Announcements

Have a news item or announcement you'd like to make about upcoming data events or job opportunities in the North East? Comment below or email us at neds@jumpingrivers.com and we'll do our best to circulate this information during the session.

Please also get in touch if you'd like to volunteer yourself for a talk at a future meetup!

A quarterly forum for North East tech stakeholders to explore regional sector challenges, opportunities and developments.

How healthy is the North East's technology sector?

Join Sunderland Software City for the final North East Tech Quarterly of 2026, examining the performance, developments and direction of the region's technology economy.

We'll bring together the latest sector data, business developments and perspectives from across the ecosystem to explore sector developments with a nod ahead to 2027.
Director of Ecosystem Development, Jamie Hardesty will open with a data-led presentation examining annual sector data, including investment activity, business growth, innovation, policy and the wider conditions shaping the industry.

We'll then bring together a panel of technology founders, investors and ecosystem leaders to interrogate the findings, share their experiences and discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead.

What to Expect

• The latest data and developments shaping the North East's technology economy.
• Insights into investment, business growth and innovation.
• A panel discussion examining the health and direction of the sector.
• An opportunity to contribute to the conversation and connect with others across the ecosystem.

Whether you're building a technology business, investing in the region or helping shape its economic future, North East Tech Quarterly offers an opportunity to understand the bigger picture and contribute to an informed discussion about where we go next.
Free to attend. Registration required.

Further Information

At Sunderland Software City, we support and grow the North East tech sector by helping people explore careers, start businesses and grow their organisations.

If you have any questions regarding this event, please get in touch with our team by emailing info@sunderlandsoftwarecity.com