7th Nov | Glasgow Science Centre (+Livestreamed) | Free
800+ Delegates | 40+ Speakers | 20+ Sessions | Support Village

The CAN DO Innovation Summit returns for its fourth year bringing together Scotland’s tech ecosystem to the iconic Glasgow Science Centre, to explore essential tech trends, insights and tools to allow SMEs and Startups across all sectors to keep up and stand out in a tech-driven and virtual future.

From AI and augmented reality to the metaverse and sustainable tech – advances in tech, data and innovation are happening at a rapid pace. Hear how these transformational technologies alongside the right business cultures can help tackle industry and societal challenges. 

Book your free ticket today and be inspired by stories and insights from business leaders at the forefront of Scotland’s thriving innovation sectors, as well as global thought-leaders from Glasgow, London, New York including:

• Elena Cochero Director of Emerging Tech at DowJones Live | Globally Recognised Tech Futurist
• Edafe Onerhime, Data Specialist & Global Financial Services Lead | Top Twenty Most Influential Women in Data 2023
• Opé M, Fashion Creative and Futurist | Top 3 Finalist New York AI Fashion Week 2023
• Nick Rosa, Emerging Technologies Innovation Lead, Accenture
• Richard Lochhead MSP, Scottish Government Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and
• 40+ SME (homegrown and international) business leaders

For more information on speakers and the conference programme visit CAN DO Innovation Summit 2023

Funded by Innovate UK, Scottish Enterprise & Glasgow City Council.

On 31st August at the GRID at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh an event is taking place to signpost some of the support available locally within Edinburgh to help businesses to unlock growth and success. Discover how the National Library of Scotland, Interface, Edinburgh College and Universities (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University and Heriot-Watt University) can help, from upskilling, to collaborative funding.

This event is a one-of-a-kind platform where businesses of all shapes and sizes can come together with representatives from renowned universities and stakeholders within the city. This event aims to showcase the valuable resources and expertise available in Edinburgh to businesses, enabling them to thrive in an ever-evolving market landscape.

During this event attendees will also be able to enjoy refreshments and a light breakfast, with ample time dedicated to networking.

Agenda

9.00 Registration & breakfast (tea, coffee, pastries)

9.30 Welcome (HWU) and (ECC)

9.42 Second presentation (National Library)

9.49 Third presentation (University Representative)

9.56 Fourth presentation (Edinburgh College)

10.03 Fifth presentation (Interface)

10.10 Closing Remarks

10.12 Networking

10.30 Close

Louise Arnold of our Business Engagement Team will be presenting on the day on how Interface can help businesses innovate and collaborate.

The Transform Business Festival returns to Aberdeen on 14th November 2023.

Last year, over 300 attended the event at Aberdeen Science Centre with a host of inspirational speakers, educational workshops and more.

This year organisers Elevator and Business Gateway aim to make the #TransformBizFest even bigger and better and as part of Aberdeen’s thriving ecosystem Interface are exhibiting in the Ecosystem Village.

Festival delegates will be able to meet and engage with potential clients, hear from guest speakers, promote their products and services, and celebrate Aberdeen’s thriving ecosystem over the course of the day.

Come along and chat to our very own Gillian Hambley of Interface in the Ecosystem Village.

Find out more about the Transform Business Festival.

CeeD Trading Zone event is coming to Dundee this November, hosted at the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) on Tuesday 7th November 2023.

“An event to help convert ideas into real, commercially viable products through the power of collaboration.”

This unique one day event is intended to create new business opportunities through partnership working. With each partner able to concentrate on their core competences, we believe that organisations can significantly increase the chance of successfully realising new products, innovations and business ideas.

“No matter what your skill or technology there is sure to be an opportunity that needs it!”

This session will provide a forum for using the power of collaborating to overcome common business challenges such as obtaining funding, design issues, effective supply chain management and market intelligence. Or you may just be looking for new ideas to be a part of.

How will it work on the day?

The format will be professionally facilitated using interactive activities and discussions, designed to bring together small teams of potential collaborators around a business opportunity. The underlying theme is ‘Innovation’ and the day will bring together Start-ups, SMEs, Multinationals, Commercialisation partners, Academia, Funders & Investors.

A select few of the audience will be pitching while others will be supporting and involved in the discussions and break-out sessions afterwards.

How do I join in?

Do you have something to offer or something to ask …

• Do you have a unique or innovative skill, capability or service to offer?
• Are you looking for help, or a partner to get an idea off the ground?
• Do you have a specific challenge you’d like to solve?

Come along with an open mind and a willingness to participate.

Lorna Watson from Interface will be presenting on the day.

Highland Business Week 2023 organised by Inverness Chamber of Commerce will feature an exciting series of events including networking opportunities and seminars along with the well established Highland Spotlight business exhibition and Highland Business Awards lunch.

Highland Business Week will run from Monday 25 September through to Friday 29 September, providing Highland companies with excellent opportunities to make new business connections and celebrate their achievements.

The full programme of events will be published in due course – for further information follow the link below.

The Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition, which is being held at the SEC Glasgow on the 25th October 2023, will serve as a national forum for manufacturers and operators involved throughout the associated supply chains from across Scotland to gather to discuss pressing issues facing the industry. The event is being organised in order to successfully connect key stakeholders across the full manufacturing spectrum in Scotland, including the food and drink, energy, renewables, electronics, aerospace, biopharma, medtech, healthcare, construction, textiles, procurement, and precision engineering sectors.

Once boasting the most sophisticated shipbuilding industry in the world, the manufacturing sector in Scotland has changed rapidly in recent years and, following a period of sharp decline in the 1980s and 1990s, has now been regenerated and successfully diversified. Employing more than 180,000 people across the country, manufacturing plays a vital role in the Scottish economy, accounting for half of all exports and half of the research and development spend. Furthermore, the diversification of the manufacturing industry in Scotland has resulted in the creation of highly skilled jobs with median earnings almost 20% higher than those for the economy as a whole.

Scotland still enjoys global pre-eminence in traditional sectors like whisky, seafood and handmade clothing but also now in newer areas including software development, particularly international gaming. Scotland also enjoys an international reputation for fostering a highly supportive business environment, where companies across all sectors are helped to innovate, scale up and create high-value employment.

An impressive line-up of manufacturing leaders, academics and government agencies who will engage in a stimulating blend of key note addresses and debates is being assembled for the Scottish event. The Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition in Glasgow will also feature an extensive exhibition showcasing the latest technological solutions and business services.

This one-day event will showcase impact success stories, offer you a chance to find a partner from another Scottish university, and give you the opportunity to access funds for impact collaborations. Inspirational sessions include a keynote speech from Mark Miodownik and skills development and networking facilitated by Skillfluence.

The IAA Impact Festival is organised by the five Scottish universities with EPSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs): University of Edinburgh, University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow, Heriot-Watt University and University of St Andrews.

Plenary sessions

Our keynote speaker is Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials and Society at UCL. He champions materials science research that links to the arts and humanities, medicine and society. Mark established the Institute of Making, where he is a director and runs the research programme. He also recently set up the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub to carry out research into solving the environmental catastrophe of plastic waste. Mark is a broadcaster and writer on science and engineering issues, and believes passionately that to engineer is human. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting.

The keynote will be followed by lightning talks from impact leaders from the five leading Scottish universities in science and engineering. The speakers will share their experiences of creating different types of impact from social and policy impact to industry collaboration, commercialisation and company creation. Learn how our speakers have leveraged the support available to them to further their career and translate their research into impact. The speakers are:

• Larissa Naylor, University of Glasgow
• Dan Hodgson, University of Edinburgh, The Physics of Goo: Impact from soft matter and complex fluids
• Laura Wicks, Heriot-Watt University, Lothian Lugs – flipped the model of university engagement
• Charles McLeod, University of Strathclyde, Innovation to impact: Enhancing through-life asset management, from cradle to grave
• Ross Gillanders, University of St Andrews
• Networking sessions
• Skillfluence will facilitate structured networking that will allow you to meet other researchers from across Scotland and creatively explore opportunities to collaborate.

Interface will be exhibiting at this event so come and join us.

Sign up for a day of inspiration, insights, learning and networking. Supply chain resilience, industry 4.0 technologies, leadership & culture, operational excellence and sustainability will all be covered. Find out how the manufacturing sector responded to a global pandemic, how it can recover and how we will reimagine the future.

The conference, previously known as the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) National Manufacturing Conference, will arm manufacturing sector and supply chain businesses with the ambition, vision, knowledge, tools and networks to increase productivity and maintain future competitiveness.

Making Scotland’s Future is a partnership between Scottish Government, public agencies, industry and academia that are collectively taking forward a programme of activity designed to secure a strong, sustainable future for Scotland’s manufacturing sector, aligned to the Scottish Government’s ambitions in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation. The power of Making Scotland’s Future lies in harnessing all of its collective networks, channels and support to help drive productivity, innovation and competitiveness, maintain and create high-quality jobs, and attract and develop talent, while embedding low carbon and sustainable manufacturing as its core. The vision is for Scotland to be a country inventing, designing, developing and manufacturing world-leading products and technologies. Through continuing support and investment, we are making Scotland’s future today.

The Making Scotland’s Future Conference is being led by Scottish Enterprise on behalf of the Making Scotland’s Future partnership.

Interface are exhibiting and we’d love to see you there!

Join Highland and Islands Enterprise for a networking event with guest speakers Paul Easto of Wilderness Scotland and Clare Campbell of Prickly Thistle. They will discuss how they’ve grown their businesses from inception to expansion, along with the highs and lows of getting to where they are.

Experts from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Business Gateway, Inverness Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Business will be on hand to explain the different forms of support they offer.

Come along and explore what the possibilities are for your business.

Refreshments will be served and the event will be live streamed.