🩷 Get Ready for Turing Fest

Our picks for talks, fringe events that don't need a TF ticket, plus an exclusive discount.

Turing Fest is getting ready to land next week and we wanted to share a special edition of Campfire to give you the low down of what’s on at this year’s event from talks, fringe events, and more.

**View this issue in a browser and bookmark it. We’ll be updating it as we get more info or learn about more events**

First thing’s first: did I hear I could get £200 off?

Why yes, yes you did. Campfire readers get £200 off a Turing Fest ticket by using the code CAMP200. You can use that code right here.

So, what’s Turing Fest?

Turing Fest is described as a ‘cross-functional tech gathering’. It’s a multi-track, 2-day conference that focuses on the elements of Build (engineering & product), Grow (marketing, sales and revenue), and Lead (people & company building). This year, they also have an Invest track which brings with it some interesting speakers.

It’s an event designed for folks who work in tech at organisations of any size, but many of the talks discussions and events are specifically relevant to startup founders and their teams.

Okay okay, what kinds of talks are you talking about?

Great question. You can see the full list of speakers and talks right here, however here are a few that caught my eye that might be especially relevant for startup founders:

🦄 A Product Playbook to Building a Unicorn with Megan Cooper (stealth): Former chief platform officer at Starling Bank, she’s worked in leadership roles at fintechs for years.

📶 Fireside Chat: Investing in AI; Signal vs Noise with Matt Robinson (Accel) & Ross McNairn (Co-founder Wordsmith): Wordsmith recently closed a chunky first round led by Accel, with participation from folks like General Catalyst.

🍏 From Orange to Apple - Unpacking the Fruits of Four Decades Work in Design and Innovation: Colin Burns is a former senior director at Apple, most recently in a leadership position in the Apple Design Team. He’ll be unpacking patterns he’s observed in organisational structure, innovation methods and colleague behaviours over his 40-year career.

💰 From Scotland to Silicon Valley: Raising $100m, Building a Global SaaS Business, and Learning with Finbarr Taylor (Co-founder and CTO, Shogun): Finbarr has a wealth of experience not only in founding and growing Shogun, but also through his time with YC.

🎯 Positioning Perfection - Avoiding The Big Blunders of Positioning with April Dunford and Matt Lerner: Both are well known gurus in the positioning and sales space, and folks highly rate their sessions in previous years.

😎 The Growth Equation: 7 Essential Steps to Finding Product Market Fit with Andy Budd (Venture Partner, Seedcamp): Going over the common pitfalls that trip founders up on the march towards PMF.

💨 Babe Are You OK? You've Barely Touched The Dashboard You Claimed Was Mission Critical with Andrey Vinitsky (CEO & Co-founder, Graphy): because, the title? Andrey’s been leading Graphy for a few years and takes a deep dive in this talk about trends in the data stack.

🤖 Distilling Small Language Models for Enterprise with Iain Mackie (CEO & Co-founder, Malted.ai): A local AI startup that’s recently raised a chunky first round, Iain will discuss his experience.

There are so many more great talks for you to check out! Head over here to see the play by play on the day by day.

That’s all well and good and good and well, but what about FRINGE EVENTS!

As Turing Fest gets bigger and bigger, so too will additional events and sessions both official and not. Here are a few we’re aware of that you should be aware of, so now you will know and… be aware of.

Monday 8th of July

👯‍♂️ 1900-Midnight: Opening Party at Leith Arches! Free drink with your TF badge, plus live music from Kai Reesu and Megan Black, Requires a TF Ticket.

Tuesday 9th of July

🍹 1730-1900: Investor Founder Mixer (Open to non-TF ticket holders), registration required. 👉 More info here.

🤝 1800-2100: Official Turing Fest Networking Drinks at Shepherd and Weddreburn (Open to non-TF ticket holders, Registration Required) Sponsored & Hosted by Shepherd and Wedderburn, registration required. 👉 More info here.

🗺️ 1830-Late: Turing Fringe Event: International Summer Mixer by Foras, (Open to non-TF ticket holders, Registration Required). 👉More info here.

Wednesday, 10th of July

📢 0800-0915: Pitched your idea (We’re running this! If you’re a super early stage founder you should come!) Sponsored & Hosted by Johnston Carmichael, registration required. 👉 More info here.

🍻 1730-2200: Official Turing Fest Closing Party at Cabaret: Bid farewell to new and old friends in style at our fabulous closing party at Cabaret Voltaire, one of Scotland’s most iconic music venues. We’ll have live music from Thundermoon, and screens so you don't miss the Euros action. (Requires TF ticket).

And that’s it

Hope you have a great Turing Fest, and remember to grab your Campfire Discount with code CAMP200 if you haven’t already done so here.