Tech Events in Southampton

South Coast User Group + Evening BBQ Social – July 7th 2026, Evening Meetup

🗓 Time: 5:00 PM – 8:45 PM
📍 Location: Hilton Hotel, Utilita Bowl (Ageas Bowl), Southampton, In-person
🍕 Food & Drinks: Provided
🎟 Cost: Free

Join us for an evening of learning, sharing, and networking with the South Coast User Group. This is a relaxed, community-led Microsoft event bringing together professionals, enthusiasts, and practitioners from across the region.

Whether you’re deep into Microsoft technologies or just starting your journey, this session offers practical insights, real-world experiences, and the chance to connect with like-minded people.

Agenda
5:00| Arrival & Networking
Grab some food and drinks, meet fellow attendees, and get settled.

6:00| Food - BBQ

7:00– 8:30 | Community Talks & Demos
We’ll hear from several speakers covering a range of Microsoft-related topics, including real-world use cases, lessons learned, and practical tips you can take back to your day job.
Short, focused sessions with time for questions and discussion.

Session 1 - AI pair-programming for SPFx: from prompt to production-ready, Jay Wellings

Prompting patterns that actually work (constraints, acceptance criteria, incremental diffs).
AI-assisted scaffolding (component structure, Fluent UI layout, state management).
AI-assisted debugging (build errors, TS types, Graph permission mistakes).
AI-assisted process (logging, basic tests, README).
Key talking point: SPFx is a toolchain and a deployment model - AI helps with code, not with responsibility.

Session 2 - Preventing Data Leaks to Shadow AI, Nikki Chapple, Microsoft MVP

Shadow AI is already within your organisation. Users are sharing sensitive data with generative AI tools you might not even know about.
In this session, you will learn how to discover unapproved AI usage, identify where sensitive data is being exposed, and take proportionate action to reduce risk. Using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and Microsoft Purview, we will explore how to gain visibility into Shadow AI, pinpoint high‑risk data areas, and prevent sensitive information from being shared with both Microsoft 365 Copilot and third‑party AI tools.
Finally, we will show how Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Intune work together as a joined‑up control plane, including governance of AI access through Microsoft Edge, to reduce data leakage without blocking innovation.
You will leave with a practical blueprint for detecting Shadow AI, preventing data leaks, and confidently governing generative AI across your organisation.

Session 3 - TBC, Laura Graham-Brown, Microsoft MVP

8:30 – 8:45 | Open Networking & Wrap-Up
Final conversations, follow-up questions, and community catch-ups before we close.

Who Should Attend?

• Microsoft professionals & practitioners
• Developers, architects, consultants, and IT leaders
• Anyone interested in Microsoft technologies and the wider community

Why Attend?

• Learn from local community speakers
• Discover practical insights and real-world solutions
• Network in a friendly, informal setting
• Enjoy free food and drinks while you learn

We look forward to seeing you there and continuing to grow the South Coast Microsoft community together.

Researchers, clinicians & engineers under one roof. Explore AI, diagnostics & digital health — then meet the people who'll help you build it

A dynamic interdisciplinary event for networking for innovation, with healthcare professionals and researchers in physical sciences and engineering.

Take part to learn about real-world challenges from clinical domains, technological and scientific advances, and routes to commercialisation of solutions, to spark collaborations.

Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

· Diagnostics, monitoring and treatment delivery innovations

· Machine learning and AI for prediction and classification

· Data visualisation and approaches for decision support

· Specialised devices for health monitoring

· Digital health, telehealth, home and community care.

The event will feature invited talks, flash presentations from a wide range of participants, a panel about the healthtech industry, and the opportunity to interact with a selection of exhibitors in health technologies.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Chairs

Prof Neil White, Professor in Intelligent Sensor Systems, Director of the Centre for Health Technologies (Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, University of Southampton).

Dr Adriana Wilde, Lecturer in Computer Science, Director of the Centre for Health Technologies.

Prof Karl Staples, Professor in Respiratory Immunology and Pharmacology, Associate Dean of Knowledge Exhange and Enterprise (Faculty of Medicine).

Explore how visible female leaders in tech are shaping careers, building confidence and showing there’s a place for everyone in the industry

We’re excited to announce our next Women in Tech Hampshire event: See It, Be It: Female Leaders in Tech

As the tech industry continues to evolve, visibility and representation have never been more important. The people we see in leadership roles shape how we view opportunities, influence confidence, and impact who feels they belong in the industry.

Our expert panel will explore the importance of women in leadership positions across tech, and the role visibility plays in encouraging more people to pursue and progress in tech careers. We’ll discuss how female leaders are not only driving innovation and business success, but also helping to open doors for others by showing what’s possible.

Our Panel

Andrea Marshall Webb is a Managing Director at Credera leading AI-enabled transformation across government and regulated sectors. She works with major government departments and institutions implementing AI at scale, focusing on workforce adoption, organisational readiness, and responsible deployment. Andrea also holds global disability leadership roles within Omnicom and is a recognised contributor to industry conversations on inclusive AI, digital transformation, and the future workforce.

Anita Fernqvist is is Chief Transformation and Technology Officer at LV=, leading the organisation’s technology, data, transformation and operational resilience functions. With over 20 years’ experience across technology, operations and data leadership roles at organisations including Zurich UK, IBM and HP, Anita has a strong track record in delivering large-scale transformation and driving customer-focused innovation.

Tiffany Willcox is co-founder and COO at Attercop, and is a seasoned technology strategist with deep expertise in artificial intelligence, cloud transformation, and enterprise-scale innovation. She brings over two decades of experience supporting large organisations with AI adoption, tooling modernisation, and business transformation in regulated environments. Her background includes senior technology leadership as CTO and CIO, where she oversaw AI-focused initiatives across the entire software lifecycle, including generative AI, innovation management, and digital infrastructure planning.

After such a great response last year, we’re excited to be bringing back our Summer BBQ! ☀️🍔

We’ll be starting earlier and hosting a BBQ, giving everyone more time to connect, catch up and enjoy the evening together. It’s the perfect way to celebrate how much the community has grown in a relaxed, social setting.

Your ticket will include a choice of meat or vegetarian BBQ options, along with salads and accompaniments. We’ll also be providing a selection of Pimms, beers and soft drinks, all included in the ticket price.

Spectrum IT Recruitment has kindly subsidised part of the catering costs for this event.

You are welcome to arrive from 5pm. The food will be served 5.30pm-6.30pm. There will be a longer networking session before the panel discussion, and the usual networking after, with the option to ask questions throughout. If you would like to submit any questions for the panel, please email Lauren or Amy on WiTH@SpectrumIT.co.uk.

Please note the BBQ will be the only food available.

If you have any questions with regards to tickets please email WiTH@SpectrumIT.co.uk

Please join our LinkedIn Group for any event updates and networking opportunities

Women in Tech Hampshire - LinkedIn

Ever since zero became something for nothing, you'd think we'd solved nothing. Whether we're talking NaN, string.Empty, nullables or database nulls, it turns out that nothing is more surprising than nothing. There is a distinction between a number that is zero — and the many ways we have of representing that number — and the absence of a thing, as well as a distinction between absence and emptiness. These distinctions have both practical and conceptual consequences that lead to surprises in code, in UX, in .NET and beyond. There a number of things to learn in this talk about nothing.

Kevlin Henney is a renowned keynote speaker, independent software developer, consultant, trainer, technologist and writer.

Not all paths to tech leadership are conventional. Three leaders share their journeys and how diverse experiences shaped unique perspectives

South Coast Technology Leaders

Please come and join us for a slightly more relaxed event, befitting of the season. You get the usual opportunity to meet with fellow Technology but then sit back and relax to enjoy the stories and lessons from three individuals who have found very different paths to Technology Leadership.

We will then look to bring a bit of festive spirit to the occasion and allow you to embrace the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals