Tech Events in Leeds

Join us for Code and Coffee on Tuesday mornings at 8am!

Code & Coffee is an informal weekly get-together in Leeds city centre. Come hang out and write some code, talk tech, or just enjoy the coffee! There is no agenda or organised activity; attendees might typically bring a laptop and hack on a hobby project, work through a tutorial, take an interest in what someone else is working on, or just imbibe caffeine to wake up before work. Everyone is welcome, whether learning to code for the first time or doing it for a living.

Burendo will host Yorkshire DevOps for our June 2026 event in the Leeds office.

You can find our code of conduct over at yorkshiredevops.dev

Speakers:

Speaker: Katja Obring - Founder, Kato Coaching
Talk: AI didn’t break testing. It just made bad decisions faster
Description: As AI becomes embedded in software delivery pipelines, testing is often one of the first areas where teams experiment. The results are mixed: impressive demos, fragile outcomes, and growing uncertainty about what can be trusted.This talk reframes AI in testing as a quality and decision problem rather than a tooling problem. It explores what AI is genuinely good at, where it struggles, and how teams can reason about risk before integrating it into their testing workflows. Attendees will be introduced to a practical framework for deciding how and where to use AI as an accelerator, while keeping accountability, intent, and quality firmly in human hands.

Speaker: TBC

Sponsors:
Thank you to Burendo for hosting the meetup and Ada Meher & Digital Endeavours for being our long-term sponsors.

Timings (approx):
17:45 - Arrivals and Networking
18:25 - Welcome and introductions
18:30 -Talk 1
19:00 - Break
19:10 - Talk 2
19:45 - Close

Our own Danny Payne is stepping up to the lectern to talk about a topic that he is very passionate about, at another new venue!

White (& Yellow) Elephants: The colour contrast challenge
Colour contrast is one of the simplest accessibility principles, so why do we keep getting it wrong? This talk looks at why progress has stalled and what we can do to help move the dial.

Agenda:
18:00 - Food and drink reception
18:25 - Welcome
18:30 - White (& Yellow) Elephants: The colour contrast challenge
19:15 - Break
19:25 - Q&A
19:55 - Close and networking

Access needs/Dietary Requirements
If you have any access needs or dietary requirements, please reach out to us.

The venue is in an old building that doesn't have level access, but it does have an alternative entrance.

LeedsSharp are proud to present Poornima Nayar in "Beyond Pub/Sub - Advanced Messaging Patterns"

Access Details Please go to the Enablis offices, they are on the first floor of the building, both front door and office doors should be open. If there is a problem then press the buzzer. We will meet at 6pm for pizza and drinks, the talks will start at 6.45. Some of us go to the either the brewery tap or editors draft pub afterwards at 8pm (vote to be taken).

Abstract:

Publish/subscribe is often the first pattern teams adopt when moving toward asynchronous, message-based architectures. It’s a powerful way to decouple services and enable extensibility—but on its own, pub/sub doesn’t solve many of the problems that show up in real distributed systems, such as data loss, broken workflows, or systems that struggle under load.

In this session, we’ll go beyond basic pub/sub to explore a set of proven messaging patterns used in production. We’ll look at how the Outbox pattern prevents message loss during failures, how sagas coordinate long-running workflows without distributed transactions, how scatter-gather accelerates work through parallelism, and how competing consumers enable elastic throughput when demand spikes. Along the way, we’ll also examine essential operational safeguards such as retries, dead-letter queues, back pressure, and idempotency.

By the end of the talk, you’ll understand when and how to apply these patterns to build systems that are not just decoupled, but resilient, scalable, and designed to handle failure gracefully from day one.

Bio:

Poornima is a .Net developer with over 10 years of experience in .Net. She is passionate about learning new technologies and keeping herself up-to-date with the latest developments in technology. Outside her work, Poornima enjoys music and is undergoing training in Indian Classical music. Based in Langley, UK she mothers a little girl and spends her spare time reading, cooking and watching movies.

Thought-provoking talks, live examples, and down-to-earth discussion focused on how AI is being applied today.

Join us for another Applied AI and explore the real-world impact of AI.

Applied AI is an evening of thought-provoking talks, live examples, and down-to-earth discussion focused on how AI is being applied today; in teams, in products, and in the everyday decisions we make at work.

Applied AI is for anyone who's curious about how AI is changing the way we work, build, and think.

No technical background needed, just bring your curiosity and an open mind. We’re all about keeping things inclusive and welcoming, and we believe the future of AI should be shaped by a diverse mix of voices.

So, whether you’re deep into AI or just starting to explore it, come along to learn something new, meet interesting people, and see what’s possible.

At this Applied AI, you’ll hear from leading thinkers, tinkerers and makers who are applying AI in meaningful, often surprising ways.

We are committed to making this event accessible to all attendees. If you have any specific accessibility needs or require accommodations, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are here to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy the event, and we'll do our best to accommodate your requirements.

We will be providing food and drinks for those in attendance. If you have any dietary requirements or allergies that we should be aware of, please inform us in advance so that we can accommodate your needs.

Please note that this event will be filmed and photographed for promotional and archival purposes. By attending, you consent to the use of your image and voice in event-related media. If you have any concerns or wish to discuss any privacy considerations, please feel free to contact us. Your comfort and satisfaction are important to us, and we're here to address any questions or requests you may have regarding this matter.

Queer in Tech: Empowering Diversity in the Tech Industry 🌈
Join us for an inspiring evening of talks, networking, and community-building at our Queer in Tech meetup! This event is a fantastic opportunity for LGBTQ+ people and allies in the tech industry to come together, share experiences, and foster a supportive network. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a seasoned professional, or someone interested in breaking into the field, you'll find valuable insights and new connections.

Agenda:
5:30pm - 6:00pm: Arrival, Refreshments, Food

6:00pm - 6:15pm: Welcome and Introductions

6:20pm - 6:50pm: Paul Brabban - Ditching the Hype: Ruthless Pragmatism in Startup Engineering

6:50pm - 7:20pm: Rukie Balogun - From Classroom to Code: A Journey from Teaching to Technology

7:20pm - 7:50pm: Quinn Daley - Fun is Mandatory

7:50pm - 8:30pm: Event Close & Networking

8:30pm onwards: Post-Event Social at Location TBC

Location
1st Floor Meeting Room,
Platform,
New Station St
Leeds
LS1 4JB
https://w3w.co/fortunate.brings.lasts

Codurance has expanded to an office in Leeds and we are enjoying getting to know and support the community. Software Crafters Leeds offers a safe, fun space for the Leeds Development community to meet.

What's the format?
We've decided to go for a slightly different format in July, instead of the usual DoJo we're hosting a mini unconference. The idea is to have an open discussion guided by a little structure.

The theme will be (as it probably has to be) AI and its impact on the software industry. We want to explore the challenges and opportunities that AI presents for software developers, and how we can adapt to this rapidly changing landscape (AI finished that sentence).

At the start we'll have a short introduction and then pick some topics for discussion (using post-it notes), then split into groups to discuss those topics.

Some potential topics to get us started (AI wrote that):

• Adapting to AI - or how I learned to stop worrying and love AI
• Zen and the Art of Software Engineering - what happens to quality and job satisfaction when AI is doing the work?
• What has changed in the last 12 months
• Horror stories and how not to make a mess

As always a selection of drinks and pizza (including vegetarian and vegan options) will be provided.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

P.S. If anyone is interested in doing a short 10-15 min talk on a relevant topic at a future meetup, please let us know.

Please note the change of venue!

Welcome to our July 2026 meetup hosted by Enablis. Please see the directions provided on this page.

We are pleased to welcome Shubhangi Goyal with her talk "Context driven AI Agents".

If you would like to volunteer as a speaker for our upcoming meetups, please reach out to us at lds@jumpingrivers.com.

Schedule

18:00--18:45h: Refreshments (Food served on first come first served basis)

18:45--18:50h: Welcome

18:50--20:00h: Shubhangi Goyal, Data & AI Lead
Context driven AI Agents

In this session, I will explore how agents are built and use dynamic context to execute complex tasks and deliver real value. This also
includes using context engineering to move beyond single prompt based
interactions. The key takeaways are:

- Context engineering, manage memory tools, and tasks for adaptive behaviour.
- Agent architecture, LLMs and feedback loops.
- Prompt engineering into the larger system.
- Real world use case and common pitfalls when deploying AI agents.

Bio

Shubhangi is an award winning experienced professional in data and AI who has worked in Fortune 500 companies like Tata Consultancy Services to agile
start-ups. She has a background in computer science engineering with an
MSc in Business Analytics from the University of Bath, UK. She works as
a Senior Analyst at a leading FTSE100 company in financial services and
insurance in the UK. Previously, she led multiple projects at ICS AI
Ltd, a Microsoft UK inner circle partner, focusing on artificial
intelligence and data at the forefront of technology for the public
sector in the UK. She has spent nearly a decade in data analytics, data
science, data strategy, and AI, leveraging algorithms to extract
insights, identify patterns, and understand human language in large
datasets. She leads the London Chapter for Women In Data which is a
platform for tech enthusiasts of all backgrounds to connect, grow and
learn together. She is a verified expert and mentor at TopMate. She has
also been the judge of Datathon 2024 and has delivered sessions in over
10 countries. She has been nominated for several awards including
WomenTechNetwork global awards.

News and Announcements

Have a news item or announcement you'd like to make about upcoming data events or job opportunities in Leeds? Comment below or contact us directly (lds@jumpingrivers.com) and we'll do our best to circulate this information at the end of the session.

Please contact the organisers if you would like to volunteer as a speaker for future events.

LeedsSharp are proud to present Paul Michaels in "Lemmy, Llamas, and Large Language Models Locally"

Access Details Please go to the Enablis offices, they are on the first floor of the building, both front door and office doors should be open. If there is a problem then press the buzzer. We will meet at 6pm for pizza and drinks, the talks will start at 6.45. Some of us go to the either the brewery tap or editors draft pub afterwards at 8pm (vote to be taken).

Abstract:

In this session, we’ll step back from hype and explore what’s really happening when you run a language model, demystify some of the terms, and play fun games. We’ll look at how modern LLM runtimes expose simple HTTP endpoints, and how you can easily programmatically (in C#) interact with a local model (free).

We'll talk about what an MCP is, and create a server. We'll cover why this is useful (especially locally) and how a language model act as a decision engine that selects structured tools while your .NET application remains firmly in control.

Bio:

Paul Michaels is a Microsoft MVP and a Head of Technology, working across Azure and AWS. He's been programming professionally since 1997, and likes finding neat solutions to problems.