Tech Events in Nottingham

What if fly-tipping is a Service Design problem?

In 2024/25, local authorities in England dealt with 1.26 million incidents of fly-tipping, an increase of 9% on the previous year.*

For councils, tackling fly-tipping is a stubborn and complex challenge.
It isn't simply about catching people or persuading them to behave better.

Councils are trying to understand why people dump waste illegally in the first place, while balancing limited resources, increasing waste amounts, changing behaviours and the user needs of an entire city!

The usual responses are familiar: more bins, bigger fines, more signs and cameras.

But what if we looked at the problem differently?

What if, at certain moments, the services around people make doing the right thing confusing, difficult, expensive or inconvenient?

And what if service design could help us re-imagine those moments?

–
We're taking on the challenge!
For this Service Designers Connect meet-up, we're teaming up with James Denham, Jim Lowe and Claire Knight from Nottingham City Council to tackle fly-tipping head-on.

This isn't a hypothetical design challenge.

It's a real problem affecting the city we live in, and we're going to put our service design skills to work on it.

We'll go beyond mapping service touchpoints to understand the people, places, behaviours and circumstances that shape what happens.

We'll ask:

• What happens when someone needs to get rid of something?
• What choices do they have?
• What makes the right thing easy – or difficult?
• Where are the frustrations, barriers and moments of opportunity?
• And what might cause someone to choose illegal dumping instead?

Using personas, place-based experiences, journey mapping and behavioural insight, we'll explore the problem from different perspectives before turning what we discover into practical interventions the council could test and learn from.

–
Why this matters

Service Designers Connect is committed to giving something back to the local community through Service Design.

So rather than simply 'talking' about service design, we're going to 'do' it, to tackle a real challenge facing Nottingham.

The aim isn't to solve fly-tipping in one evening. It's to give Nottingham City Council new perspectives, fresh ideas and practical interventions they can take away, explore and potentially test.

And who knows? Something created in the room might just make a difference on the streets of Nottingham.

–
Who should come along?

You might be a student, academic, designer, researcher, strategist, council employee or simply someone who cares about making the city a better place.

All you need is curiosity, an open mind and a willingness to work with others on a genuinely difficult problem.

–
No Service Design or fly-tipping expertise required!

Just come ready to challenge assumptions, explore a problem from a human perspective and be prepared to get your hands dirty!

As always, there'll be drinks, sandwhiches and plenty of time to connect with other curious and like-minded people.

🎫 Places are free but limited, book yours and help us tackle the challenge of fly-tipping.

* DEFRA Fly-tipping statistics for England, 2024 to 2025

––

Other interesting links!
How do you stop fly-tipping and littering?
The National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group
The Waste Tip (University of Manchester)
Research report examining the root causes of fly tipping, including inequalities, infrastructure, and prevention-focused approaches rather than enforcement alone.

Talk;

It Depends: Becoming an Architect

Many in the dev space look at Architect as the direction they want their career to head in, or at least a significant skillset they want to acquire.

This is an introduction to the various architect roles, what it really means to be an architect, and what steps you can take to get there.

• Agenda;
  18:00; Doors Open
  18:30; Speaker delivers talk
  19:15; Pizza and catch up
  20:00; Doors close

Location; Fothergill House, 16 King St, Nottingham NG1 2AS

Strive welcomes you to 'Tech and Business Networking', an event for tenured and newcomers at Pogo! Event is 18+. Limited Tickets.

Strive welcomes you to 'Tech and Business Networking', Nottingham's hottest networking event! We are set in the perfect central location for all to join.

Are you interested in tech and business? Want to elevate your career? Meet Consultants, Analysts of all types, Bankers, Software Engineers, Entrepreneurs, and more who are active in the space or are eager to get started.

**This will be a multi-vertical event**********

There will be professionals with backgrounds in the arts, finance, tech, real estate, healthcare, and more. Come with an open mind, and leave with connections that wouldn't be possible otherwise!

Pack some business cards and come with an open mind!

Meet your future business partners, employers, coworkers, investors, and friends. You don't want to miss this opportunity to expand your network and create a brighter future.

We will have a space for our event to check-in.

The event will go from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM(feel free to come at any point in this timeframe).

Name tags will be provided.

Business casual dress code. Job fair attire.

Remember - it's not about who you know today, it's who you'll meet tomorrow!

We look forward to meeting you at the event!

Sincerely,

Strive Networking Team

Refund requests are permitted up to 24 hours after purchase, so long as we are not within 48 hours before the event start time. Refunds will be made in full and repaid to your method of payment. Note that we are unable to reimburse for eventbrite fees.

Disclaimer: By attending Strive Networking events you agree to photos/videos taken during the event being used to promote future events.

18:00 - Doors Open
18:15 - Talk starts
20:30 - Closing Time

This month we have two connected talks, exploring AI from two different angles.

Elephant in the Room
By Gary Clucas.
In this presentation, I’ll look at AI from a practical, real-world perspective rather than from hype or fear. I’ll address three key questions: will AI take our jobs, what is AI slop, and will AI take over the world? I’ll then share a real use case from my own trading dashboard stack, showing how AI agents can support data analysis, pattern recognition, journaling, and decision-making. The aim is to make AI feel clearer, more useful, and less intimidating.

I’m Gary Clucas, a writer, financial trader, and AI builder. My trading background has shaped how I use AI: looking for practical systems, clear signals, managed risk, and real-world usefulness rather than hype.

AI & Automation in Everyday Business and Life
By Lea Hart
In this presentation, I’ll show practical examples of how I use AI agents and automations in small business, marketing, content, project management and everyday planning. I’ll share real use cases from my own work and systems, including business workflows, website/product development, Notion project management and everyday automations.

I’m Lea, an AI & Automation consultant with a background in business analysis, project management, digital products and process optimisation. I help small businesses use AI agents and automation to simplify workflows, build systems and reduce repetitive work.

***

Pizza are included! 🍕but you will need to bring your own drink.

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/fhTdHdZju2

Don't forget to listen to Dad the Influencer's podcasts to hear post-talk interviews, (https://dadtheinfluencer.co.uk/)

This is an in-person event with a speaker/workshop followed by socialising/networking opportunity and usually a follow-up at the pub.
Please note: while we should always be in the Newton Building, the specific room might change. Check the location details below for confirmation.

Photos are taken at the event, if you don't want your photo online please let an event organiser know.

Contact ben@dadtheinfluencer.co.uk if you have any questions.

Special thanks to our sponsors:
Pizzas are generously offered by our sponsor Rebel Recruiters – Specialists in Tech Recruitment. The most ethical, honest, and quality-driven bunch of tech recruiters you’re likely to meet. Looking to hire? Looking to be hired? Contact Mica Bell (also one of our co-organisers, she’ll be at the event!) at Rebel for all your recruitment needs.

CBIT is a multidisciplinary centre that bridges education, applied research, and industry to drive practical business and societal transformation. CBIT Venture Builder supports founders and innovation-led SMEs to design, build, and scale investable ventures through hands-on venture building and commercialisation support. We are also the hosts of the UK's first SME focused AI conference "Transforming SMEs with AI" - a practitioner-led conference focused on helping SMEs move from AI curiosity to real-world adoption, impact, and measurable business growth.

Superlawyer - (https://superlawyer.io) - A Nottingham-based legal tech provider offering a practice management, accounting, and drafting solution for modern law firms who want to work smarter. It strips away legacy complexity and replaces it with fast, intuitive tools. From drafting to delivery, Superlawyer helps legal professionals move quicker, think clearer, and focus on the work that truly matters.

Dad the Influencer (https://dadtheinfluencer.co.uk/) — a podcast about travel technology and innovation broad enough to encompass history, art, religion, and politics with interviews, dialogues and monologues, we explore our humanity through travel, the technology that enables it, and ecosystems that encourage elastic thinking and innovation.

Bring us the problems that haunt you....

This Halloween, Agile Nottingham is opening the doors to the Agile Spooktacular — an evening of frightening problems, zombie practices, haunted teams and things that really should have stayed buried.

But don't be scared. This is actually a Scrum Clinic in disguise.
Bring along something from your world of work that is puzzling, frustrating or keeping you awake at night. Perhaps your retrospective has become an undead ritual nobody knows how to kill. Maybe your backlog has developed a life of its own. Perhaps you've got a stakeholder who appears unexpectedly from the shadows, a transformation that refuses to die, or simply a team problem you've run out of ideas for.

There won't be a panel of experts handing down the One True Answer, but we might invite some special guests. Instead, we'll use the experience and curiosity in the room: asking questions, sharing similar experiences, challenging assumptions and suggesting things you might try next.
And although we're calling it a Scrum Clinic, your problem doesn't have to be about Scrum. Agile, delivery, teams, leadership, organisations, product, change — if it's something happening in your working world, bring it along.
You don't need to bring a problem either. You're very welcome to come, listen, join the conversation and help someone else with theirs.
Expect an informal, friendly evening, a few Agile horror stories, plenty of conversation and probably some things we can collectively laugh about.
Costumes entirely optional.

Come and tell us what's haunting you.

Nottingham Programmers will be at the CANALHOUSE, Wednesday, 14th October from 7pm. https://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/pubs/canalhouse/

Notts Progs is a social event, so you don't need a laptop. Absolutely everyone is welcome—yes, you! Whether you're a seasoned developer, a weekend tinkerer, an absolute beginner, or someone who's simply curious, this is your chance to meet people.

No formal structure, no rigid agenda—just a warm, welcoming space for tech enthusiasts from Nottingham and beyond to connect and socialise.

We're a very informal group, so please come and say hello!

Please note - Nottsprogs is normally held on the third Thursday of every month, but will be on Wednesday this month due to half term holidays. Normal service will resume in November.