🩷 Turing Fest is Right Around The Corner

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

Turing Fest is getting ready to land on May 7th (technically the evening of the 6th) and we wanted to share another 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 update with any additional events we learn are happening**

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?

For those who haven’t been, 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 again have an Invest track for early stage VCs across Europe.

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:

🤖 The End of Software as we know it with Paul Adams, Chief Product Officer, Intercom. Paul. With a point of view like “AI isn't 'another new technology'. It's the invention of electricity,” If you’re in the mood for some AI-flavoured hype/inspiration, it should be an interesting talk to see how Intercom is going ‘all in’ on AI and what that means for how they run.

🤝 Get your Product Team Unstuck: How to get Technical and Non-Technical People Making the Right Decisions Together with Ryan Singer, Author of Shape Up. While the talk is geared more to scale-ups, startups at any stage often run into that difficult intersection of move fast and break things vs stable and slow development.

🇨🇳 Inside China’s AI Surge: Lessons from the Rise of Deepseek and the Role of Alibaba Cloud with Yitian Xu, Head of Solutions, Alibaba Cloud. Deepseek made quite the splash a few months ago and seemingly came out of nowhere. This talk plans to “explore the conditions fueling the rise of foundational models like Deepseek, and how China’s tech giants are evolving to support this momentum.”

📯 Getting Attention & Turning It Into Pipeline with Alina Vandenberghe, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Chili Piper. In this talk, Alina will explain “exactly how two marketers—yes, just two—generated 1,400 sales-qualified meetings without burning out or blowing the budget. You’ll learn the strategy behind the scrappy experiments, the systems that scaled, and the content that cut through the noise.”

🧠 From Vice to Valuation: How To Leverage Human Nature To Fuel Growth with Sara Gordon, General Manager, Zoe. Zoe’s rise in the health space has been pretty massive over the past few years, and in this practical talk, Sara “will reveal how market-leading companies use deep psychological insight to differentiate and dominate. She’ll walk you through how to identify your customer’s “why”, craft positioning that sticks, and avoid common pitfalls that hold brands back.”

🔍 Stop Asking AI to Write Your Ads (and Start Using It To Find Your Market) with Hannah Parvaz, Founder, Aperture. “Learn how to turn customer conversations into testable hypotheses and let AI validate what resonates at scale.”

🫅Face Value: How B2B Leaders Build Personal Brand on LinkedIn with Oren Greenberg, Growth marketing Advisor for B2B SaaS. A “data-packed talk that’ll leave you with practical insights” and a practical framework to help you grow your personal brand on LinkedIn.

🤯 Transforming Startup Mayhem Into Scaleup Power; The Messy Transition No-one Tells You About with Rebecca Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Simple Online Healthcare. “Growth creates complexity, and complexity is the silent killer of growth.” Oh I hear ya Rebecca! This talk will explore the common mistakes that derails progress post-growth. “Scaling is harder and messier than anyone expects.”

🚍 Vertical Integration and Why an API for Atoms doesn't mean Drowning in Your Own Moat with Keith Bradbury, Co-founder of Ember. No doubt you’ve seen Ember’s electric buses moving across the country. In this talk, Keith plans to dig into the hypothesis that “vertically integrated companies who embrace the complexity of the physical world are positioned to become tomorrow's giants by bringing software-like standardisation to physical processes and taking on the complexity that others avoid.

Picks from the Invest track (Note, these might not be accessible depending on your ticket type)

💸 The VC - Founder Relationship Sucks - How Do We Fix It? with Fred Destin, founder of Stride.vc

😬 Panel: Avoiding The Coming Bloodbath; Spotting Winners In AI

🤦 Panel: What Businesses Get Wrong After They Take VC

🍹 Invite-only: investor-founder drinks and dinner

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.

Fringe Events!

This list will no doubt grow as we get closer to the date, but here are the fringe events we’re aware of so far.

Tuesday 6th of May

🦸‍♀ 1300-2100: Unlocking Success: Women, Tech & Investment: With interviews, panels, and roundtables, we’ll dive into everything from resilience in entrepreneurship to cracking the investor code, building power networks, and securing funding beyond the usual channels. Available as an add-on to your Turing Fest ticket or as a standalone booking. 👉 More info here

🤝 1730-1930: Secret Sessions: “Get a head start on networking with fellow attendees at these invitation-only secret sessions. This is your chance to connect in an intimate setting before Turing Fest kicks off!” Pre-registration required on the event app – spaces are extremely limited. First round of drinks included. Included in your TF ticket, Turing Fest ticket holders only.

🎨 1730-1930: Design Leaders Pre-Game at More Yum Studio: “Let’s kick off Turing Fest 2025 with good food, great drinks, and even better company. We’re opening the doors to our Leith studio for a relaxed get-together with fellow design leaders. No name tags, no talks—just a proper hangout before the Opening Party.” Free to attend. Turing Fest ticket holders only. Pre-registration required on the event app.

💻 1730-2030: Tech Meetup Edinburgh: “The Tech Meetup is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections.” Free to attend. Pre-registration required here.

👯‍♂️ 1900-Midnight: Opening Party at The Botanist! Free drink with your TF badge, plus live music. Requires a TF or Unlocking Success Ticket. Free to attend.

Wednesday 7th of May

💻 1000-1400: Cowork with Antler—For Founders, Operators, and Investors: ​Join us for a focused day of coworking with early-stage founders, operators, and builders on the fringes of Turing Fest. Whether you’re already building, just getting started, or seriously thinking about taking the leap—this is a space for the serious. Free, but requires approval.

🥂 1630-1730: Happy Hour at Turing Fest: “After a full day of insights and inspiration at Day One of Turing Fest, it’s time to unwind! Grab a drink, connect with fellow attendees, and keep the conversations going in a relaxed, social setting.” Requires a TF or Unlocking Success ticket.

Thursday, 8th of May

👟 0715-0815: Royal Mile Run: “Meet your fellow fleet-footed Turing Festers for an action-packed c. 4.5 mile (7k) run incorporating the city’s most iconic landmarks and views, including Edinburgh Castle, Princes St Gardens, the Scott Monument, Calton Hill, Palace of Holyrood House, and more. Led by StrideOut Running Tours. Space is limited.” Requires a TF ticket.

🧐 0830-0930: Founder Financial Wellbeing: Helping You & Your Business at RBC Brewin Dolphin: “Overview of the financial wellbeing programme that we can offer growing companies to role out to employees, plus review what founders should be thinking about for themselves for now and in the future.” Requires TF ticket.

🤖 0800-1000: Meet the tenants at The National Robotarium: “This is an open event to all attendees at Turing fest, to come to The National Robotarium, meet our tenants, and enjoy breakfast.” TF or Unlocking Success tickets required.

🍹 1930-0030: Global Wrap-Up Mixer - Turing Week 2025 from Foras: “A rare chance to connect with 250+ founders, startups leaders, investors, accelerators, ecosystem builders and support organisations from across the globe.” Free for TF ticket holders, £15 for everyone else. Apply to attend (location revealed upon registration).

Planning a fringe event? Let us know and we’ll add it to the list.

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.