umBristol Talks - July 2026

Hey folks,

We've got another fantastic line-up of talks for you this month, hosted by Rock Solid Knowledge. Refreshments will be provided for the evening.

Talks:

• "Is AI making us bird-brained?" by James Hobbs
  We're firmly in the 'age of AI', with incredibly powerful tools being accessible to everyone with an internet connection. But what impact is this having on our ability to think critically? On our ability to learn? On how readily we trust information that is provided to us by Large Language Models? And the environmental questions still haven't gone away - in the great rush to automate away everything we can, have we forgotten what's important?
  In this talk, James will ask and answer some of these questions.
• "Why most digital platforms struggle to justify their existence" by Becks Willis
  Most digital platforms are built with good intentions: better content, more flexibility, stronger performance, future-proofing. Teams work hard, launches go well, and early results often look positive. And yet, a few months later, many organisations struggle to answer a simple question: was this actually worth it?
  Becky will explore why so many digital platforms become difficult to defend over time and what we can do to build platforms that are easier to defend later down the line.
• "Resurrecting open-source IdentityServer as Open.IdentityServer" by Andy Clymer
  Andy will talk about why Rock Solid Knowledge has brought back IdentityServer as open-source with Open.IdentityServer.

Agenda (subject to change):

• 🍕 18:00 - Doors open, food and drinks
• 🗣️ 18:30 - Talks commence
• 🏠 21:00 - Home-time

Hope to see you there!
The umBristol team