Tech Events in Brighton

Following the busy summer days full of events, the team at XR Initiative is back at it and we would love to invite you out for a drink!

Feel free to come along to The Prince Albert on September 23rd to network, chat about current projects or simply hang out with like-minded people within the tech, XR, immersive and creative spaces.

We hope to see you there!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) conference in Brighton, United Kingdom

Microsoft Foundry is a platform that makes it easier to discover, run, and experiment with AI models. In this hands-on session, we'll show you how to run a small AI model locally on your own machine, giving you more control over how and where your AI works.

• Learn how to run AI on your own laptop
• Set up and test a small language model step by step
• Understand when local AI makes sense vs cloud AI
• Leave with something working

✨Further details:

- Install Microsoft Foundry Local on your laptop
- Download and run a small AI model on your own device
- Chat with the model and explore what it can and can't do
- Learn the difference between local AI and cloud AI services like ChatGPT and Copilot
- Build a simple AI agent that can read and categorise documents
- Experiment with changing instructions to make the agent perform different tasks
- See how local AI can be used to process sensitive information without sending data to the cloud
- Leave with working examples you can continue to build on at home

This session is designed for beginners through to experienced builders. You don't need to be a developer, but you should be comfortable following step-by-step instructions on your computer.

Rather than just talking about AI, you'll get hands-on experience with:

• Running AI locally
• Understanding how AI models work
• Building simple AI agents
• Using prompts and instructions effectively
• Knowing when local AI is a better choice than cloud AI
• Turning AI from a chatbot into a practical tool for real work

By the end of the session, you'll have:

• An AI model running on your own machine
• A working AI-powered document sorting tool
• The knowledge to start building your own local AI projects
• A clearer understanding of how businesses can use AI securely and privately

Tech meetup in Brighton, United Kingdom

This month, returning presenter Will Martin will be joining us to tell us about
From Open Storage to Open Meaning: How Apache Ossie (Incubating) Completes the Open Data Lakehouse

Will writes:

The open data lakehouse has a solid data foundation thanks to Apache Iceberg and Apache Polaris: an open table format and catalog any query engine can share without lock-in. But openness in storage doesn't mean openness in meaning. Business context, like “revenue” and “active customer”, tends to sit in downstream systems, like notebooks and BI tools. These definitions tend to not agree and they don’t travel well between systems. That is, until Apache Ossie (Incubating), the newly Apache-incubated open spec for semantic layers and ontologies, backed by Snowflake, Dremio, Databricks, dbt Labs, and Salesforce.

This talk will explain the current open data lakehouse stack and introduce Apache Ossie (Incubating). We’ll discuss how open source projects provide vendor-neutral options without sacrificing performance, and why shared semantics is the next open standards fight in this age of agentic analytics.

Also, we've got a lightning talk lined up on Microsoft Fabric, straight from the trenches :)

The Fabric Tax

Mehmet Yolcu - BI Lead, Brighton & Hove City Council

What does Microsoft's so-called unified analytics platform actually cost data teams once the demo wraps and production kicks in? Mehmet's back at the Brighton Data Forum with a holistic look at Fabric after a year of real-world use. If you're weighing up Fabric, or already paying the tax, this is 15 minutes of field notes you won't get from the keynote.

Please be punctual, the event is hosted by our loyal hosts at Barclay's Eagle Labs in their Platf9rm offices, supported by Silicon Brighton and sponsored by Rittman Analytics.

Tonight we are delighted to be having two talks, the first from Andrew Cheeseman and then the second talk by George Oxley and Seb Davies

TALK 1:

From Zero to AI
How a Small Studio Rebuilt the Way It Ships Software - Andrew Cheeseman

Tonight, we are delighted to host longtime group member Andrew Cheesman's new talk on his experiences of implementing AI into software development projects that Andrew worked on with his team over the last couple of years.

TALK SYNOPSIS

Everyone’s talking about AI — but what does adopting it actually look like in a small company? Not a research lab, not a big-tech giant, but a handful of people shipping real software for real clients.

In this talk, Andrew Cheeseman shares the honest, unpolished story of how his studio went from using no AI at all to weaving it through the whole delivery process: writing and reviewing code, running DevOps and SRE, and even how the business communicates with and delivers for its clients — including a Fortune 500 account.

Expect the good, the awkward and the genuinely surprising: what worked, what quietly wasted time, where the team pushed back, and the judgement calls that mattered far more than any particular tool.

If you run or work in a small team and you’re wondering how to make AI a practical multiplier rather than a hype cycle, this session is for you.

WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY

• A realistic path from zero to embedded— no big budget, no big team required.
• Where AI genuinely earns its keep across coding, DevOps/SRE and client delivery — and where it doesn’t.
• How to bring a sceptical team along while keeping quality and review discipline intact.
• The pitfalls to sidestep, from someone who walked into a few of them.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

TALK 2:

From Prediction to Power: Building an AI Revenue Optimiser for a Solar Plant

How do you turn machine learning predictions into safe, valuable operational decisions in a real power plant?

George Oxley and Seb Davies, software engineers at Brighton-based DabApps, will share how the team built a revenue optimiser for a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in South Africa using Python and PyTorch.

At its core is a custom LSTM digital twin that predicts how the plant will behave, combined with an optimiser that searches for ways to operate the plant more effectively.

But predicting what might happen was only part of the problem. The much harder challenge was making sure the optimiser’s recommendations actually made sense in the physical world.

George and Seb will explore how they introduced real-world constraints around ramping, thermal storage and dispatch, worked with domain experts to refine the model, and tackled messy problems including unreliable sensor data, feature engineering and look-ahead bias.

It’s a practical look at what happens when machine learning leaves the prototype stage and has to make useful decisions within the constraints of a complex real-world system.

SPEAKER BIOS:

Andrew Cheeseman is a hands-on engineering and DevOps lead with 30 years across infrastructure, C#/.NET, AWS and Terraform. As Director and Chief Architect at Graffic Jam, he designed and built the cloud platform behind a Fortune 500 client’s global events programme, and now helps small teams adopt AI-assisted engineering and modern DevOps. Brighton-based.
You can find Andrew on LinkedIn @
linkedin.com/in/andrew-cheeseman-07a7527 ·

George Oxley is a Senior Software Engineer at DabApps with over five years of experience building Python and Django systems, including custom PyTorch models for applied machine learning. He is currently completing an MSc in AI at the University of Bath. His recent work focuses on taking ML from prototype to production in high-constraint industrial settings, with a strong emphasis on optimisation, reliability, and stakeholder-facing validation.

Seb Davies is a Software Engineer at DabApps with a strong physics background, having studied physics at MSc level and begun a PhD in the field. He works on applied optimisation and modelling problems where physical system behaviour and software implementation must align. His focus is practical: turning technical models into robust tools that operators can trust in real operational environments.

Doors open at 6:30pm with Andrew's talk starting at 7pm ish and George and Seb will start after the half time food and drinks break.

As usual there will be half time drinks and snacks.

Please sign up so we can keep track of numbers on the night?

I look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks, Gavin

MoTaCon is the largest quality gathering in the UK, come join us for a 1 day conference and associated chapter, dinner and social events surrounding it.

Full details and registration available in the MoTaverese: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/motacon

More details coming soon.

What does responsible AI look like when the stakes are genuinely high?

For our next Brighton AI event, we’re joined by James Michael Maltby, Head of Global Engagement at Save the Children UK, for a look at how AI is being used across humanitarian response and what responsible adoption looks like in practice.

James’ team supports more than one million humanitarians working in crisis response through online training and resources. He’ll share how the humanitarian sector is approaching AI, where the opportunities and risks sit, and what organisations are doing to embed responsible AI into their work. 💡

We’ll then open things up for a wider discussion on how AI-focused companies can work effectively with charities, including what good partnerships look like and where technology businesses can genuinely add value. 🤝

What we’ll cover

• 🌍 How AI is being used within humanitarian response
• 🧠 What responsible AI looks like in high-stakes environments
• ⚖️ The challenges charities face when adopting new technology
• 🤝 How AI companies and charities can work together effectively
• 💬 Open discussion and Q&A

Who is it for?

This event is open to anyone interested in AI, including founders, technologists, business leaders, charity and public-sector professionals, and anyone curious about how AI can be used responsibly in the real world.

📅 Wednesday 7 October
🕕 6pm–8pm

Come along to learn, connect and join the conversation around what responsible AI looks like when technology meets real-world impact. ✨

Brighton AI | Learn. Connect. Build.

Our standard lean coffee format for this month.

Beer and pizzas provided as usual.

Location: Friday Ad Offices, 80 East St, Brighton and Hove, BN1 1NF

Our friends at Lean Agile Brighton are offering KCE members a 20% discount with the code EXCHANGE20.
https://leanagilebrighton.co.uk/

A single-track programme of hand-selected, industry experts.
Brought to you by the organisers of the Brighton Lean Agile MeetUp Group (BLAG), the Lean Agile Brighton conference aims to bring together agile thought leaders, practitioners and enthusiasts from across the UK and beyond for a top tier, 1st class Agile conference in Brighton.

Situated in the heart of Brighton’s creative quarter in the North Laine area - just 5 minutes stroll from the station, and 10 minutes to the seafront - Ironworks Studios is an inclusive and creative, multipurpose venue.
It's a non-profit, in-person event celebrating the latest in collaboration, delivery, and tech; raising over £50k for charity since starting back in 2018.

We’ve got a fantastic line up this year, featuring:

• Stuart Young on encouraging human skills in an AI world
• Sarah Wells on keeping systems up-to-date in an ever-changing landscape
• Nicola Sedgwick on why humility is at the centre of team confidence
• Thierry de Pauw on what Continuous Delivery is actually about
• Sam Carpenter on using visual thinking to unlock collaboration and leadership
• Nicolas Brown on using AI to scale product and flow expertise
• Masha Gaganova on building a resilient career

UI / UX conference in Brighton, United Kingdom