Tech Week for the Workers
Ministers put LTW focus on jobs, adoption.
Happy Monday, I'm on the way to Olympia and hope to see some of you also getting lost around its vast exhibition hall.
Happening Today 📆
All eyes on west London: Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall open London Tech Week at Olympia at 9am. They will be talking about AI skills following yesterday's announcement, while Starmer will also talk about the launch of DWP's AI chatbot to help people into work and make an online safety announcement.
That kicks off dozens of panels this morning, the pick of which for a more policy/political audience are Kanishka Narayan, George Osborne, Judith Dada and Matt Harris from HPE speaking to the Guardian's Dan Milmo at 10:45 am, followed by ARIA chair Matt Clifford chatting to ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski at 11:20am.
In the afternoon all six stages of Tech Week open. Some of the listings which caught my eye were chair of the British Business Bank Stephen Welton talking about scaling deep tech companies at 2:10pm, Innovate UK boss Tom Adeyoola presenting at 1:50pm on the Founder's Stage, Brent Hoberman speaking to Peter Kyle at 3:25pm and a panel on AI and energy with Dawn Childs at 2:05pm.
Not just great for school trips: The government's AI Adoption Summit also starts this afternoon in the Science Museum. It's a pretty exclusive event but I've seen a draft agenda (more on that below).
Drinks tonight: London Tech Week hosts a party on the South Bank, while the Startup Coalition also has drinks tonight (invite-only). Even more exclusively, the prime minister is hosting a dinner for a small group of tech leaders.
In today's edition:
💼 NEETs and skills will be the government focus at Tech Week today
📱 Keir Starmer lines up a social media ban
🇬🇧 Tech Nation's annual report sees energy concerns shoot up the agenda
