The Future of Work and Insight: Human Ingenuity Meets Technology

So far we’ve hosted events on an IoT-powered escape room and a robotic bartender in a showcase of innovations. As part of the Leeds Digital Festival, we’re hosting fresh demos, and discussions about how AI has evolved over the years and ways in which it is being used in industries today.

Whether you're an AI and Tech enthusiast, a curious creative, or just here for the tech-powered fun, this is your chance to see what's possible when hardware, software, and imagination collide.

Expect:🔌 Live demos🍸 Drinks & snacks🤝 Brilliant minds & conversations

Spaces are limited – but we hope to see you there!Let’s make it a night of smart things, warm vibes, and cool people.

Info: In this thought-provoking session, Bethan Vincent (Managing Partner at Open Velocity) explores the future of marketing insight and audience understanding in the age of AI.


Traditional audience research and insight methods can be slow, expensive, and hard to scale. But what if you could test creative ideas, messaging, and tone with your audience before you hit publish, every time? Thanks to advances in AI and generative agents, that future is closer than ever.


This session introduces the emerging landscape of synthetic audiences, emotionally intelligent, data-grounded simulations of your real customers and unpacks how businesses can use this approach to validate campaigns, refine messaging and bring research into the heart of day-to-day decision-making.


Expect a practical, no-hype look at:


How AI can turn qual and quant insight into scalable audience understanding


What synthetic audiences are (and aren’t)


The rise of generative agents and their potential for simulating customers

Info: A big question lately has been: Is AI coming for your job?

Short answer? No. But not for the reasons you might think.

Rather than fall into the trap of hyperbole, I approached the topic by stepping back and asking a different question: How have the skills and resources around building software changed over time? Because AI is just the latest in a long line of innovations that promised to “replace” developers. And yet none of them have.

Also check out other Festivals in Leeds.