What can the North achieve by working together? Ahead of the Northern Tech Summit, TECH SY’s Tracey Johnson and Matthew Snowden talk collaboration, investment, the region’s growing tech ecosystem and what comes next.
This event has grown out of the South Yorkshire Tech Summit. What prompted you to take a bigger approach?
MS: At the South Yorkshire Tech Summit in Doncaster in 2025, we had Oliver Coppard and David Skaith, the mayors of South Yorkshire and York and North Yorkshire, talking about the need for the North to collaborate to compete. We came off stage and TJ immediately said, ‘We should run this. We could do an event that brings the North together.’
It took a little longer than we perhaps thought to get it over the line, but we were very conscious that we didn’t want this to be something South Yorkshire ‘owned’. It genuinely has to be about bringing the whole of the North together and helping it work better.
A lot of conversations start with: how does South Yorkshire improve? Well, it improves when the North improves as a whole. Different areas have their own strengths, so rather than duplicating things or leaving gaps, how can we understand those strengths and work together for the benefit of founders?
TJ: We’ve done a lot of work at South Yorkshire level, which itself grew out of work we originally did at a very local level in Barnsley. There are levers you can pull locally and regionally, but some things need a bigger lever. Unlocking the true potential and power of the North is one of those.
That needs to happen through policy, through things such as the Great North Partnership, but also at industry level. ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ might be a twee phrase, but it applies here. How do we unlock the potential of the North through all those different channels?
‘Collaborate to compete’ is the theme. What does that collaboration actually look like for a tech business?
TJ: Part of it is about how the region presents itself outside the region. We’re all passionate about the North, and being able to go onto a global stage with a brand and a place behind you that has genuine scale is really powerful.
Tech companies that want to scale have to think globally. If you’re a deep-tech startup trying to grow in the US, for example, there’s a compelling story in being part of a united Northern ecosystem with specialisms in health tech, deep tech and quantum technologies, with research spinning out of our universities.
It also creates strength in numbers. If you wanted to organise a trade mission for quantum startups, you might not have enough businesses in one locality. Across the North, you could potentially have a dozen or so companies at the top of their game.
You can bring founders together, create collaboration and show talent the breadth of opportunities available here.
When putting it together, what did you want the programme itself to achieve?
MS: We wanted different perspectives in the room. We’re opening day one with a discussion around regional ecosystems, bringing together organisations working in places across the North to talk openly about what’s working, what isn’t and where collaboration could improve things.
We’ve also got Northern startups talking about their experiences, and Tom Adeyoola is returning after speaking at our 2025 summit. He’s now chair of Innovate UK, so it will be fascinating to hear what they’re doing nationally and how they’re looking to support businesses.
One of the most successful elements of our previous summits has been the Dealroom Report, which we’ve brought back and scaled up. Having that data allows us to understand what tech in the North actually looks like, position it more effectively and compare ourselves with other ecosystems around the world. Their chief executive is coming over from Amsterdam to present it, and previously that’s been one part everybody comes away quoting.
TJ: The data brings everything to life. Tech can sometimes feel like something that exists in the ether, but when you start putting numbers against how many companies there are and what those companies are worth, it becomes incredibly compelling.
This is a summit rather than a conference about a particular technology. We’re bringing together people who lead on policy, start companies, support companies and invest in them, alongside people who are simply interested in this space. The conversations on stage should hopefully spark many more conversations off it and ultimately create positive change.
This is very deliberately an event for the whole of the North, but why is Sheffield the right place to host it?
MS: Sheffield is a gateway to the North in some respects, and South Yorkshire is an emerging tech ecosystem. Being named the number one Rising Star in the UK for tech ecosystems has helped position both the event and Sheffield as its host.
TECH SY are doing work for the benefit of the whole region, and this summit follows the same principle. Sheffield is a big city, the Crucible is a fantastic venue and we’ve developed a strong formula for bringing these events together.
TJ: The Crucible is iconic for so many reasons. It’s a perfect space in the middle of a brilliant city and Sheffield is accessible from across the North, London and elsewhere in the UK.
We talk a lot about unlocking the North, but part of that is unlocking it for everybody else too. We want people coming from London and overseas to see what we’re doing. Sheffield is a brilliant place to do that because it has personality.
It's a place where you make stuff and where you get stuff done.
I also love that we’re unlocking more than one venue. The fringe activity brings the city into the summit, whether that’s walking through Sheffield to Trafalgar Warehouse or people running around the city. Those spaces are the engine of what we’re trying to achieve because they’re where founders, people with ideas and investors come together.
We also have organisations such as Digital Forge, Yorkshire AI Labs, Venture Community and Sheffield Digital supporting that ecosystem. It makes Sheffield a really exciting place to hold this conversation.
What needs to happen afterwards for you to consider the summit a success? How can it be measured?
TJ: There are two sides to it. One is the underpinning work that nobody necessarily sees. I’d love us to have a conversation about how we do that better at Northern level, particularly around data.
One of the powerful things for TECH SY has been understanding where we started, where we’re progressing to, what money is coming in and who is investing. Imagine having that picture for the whole North. We have pockets of it, but we don’t yet have the complete Northern landscape, and that kind of information is foundational.
For founders, I want people walking out knowing the North is a scaling economy and that there are routes into the right support, investors, programmes and markets. We want those conversations to continue after the summit.
Often you hear about the impact a couple of months later when someone says, ‘I met so-and-so at the Tech Summit and now we’re talking about investment.’ It would only take one startup with a really exciting, scalable business to bump into the right investor, market owner or operator and for that connection to help transform part of the economy.
You’re trying to curate that serendipity. You can’t measure all of it, but if we come out with a group of ambassadors who are passionate about the North and its potential, that’s a brilliant outcome. Ultimately, do people leave feeling like this can work in the North? For me, that will be the game changer.
Finally, which parts of the summit are you personally most looking forward to?
MS: I’m really looking forward to Trafalgar Warehouse at the end of day one. We’re planning for eight businesses to showcase there, with around three live demonstrations. After a full day discussing what the North can do and how we can collaborate better, that’s where we’ll actually get to see what Northern businesses and people are capable of doing.
Hopefully we’ll have plenty of investors in the room too, so we can see some of those conversations starting to happen. I’m hosting it, so that should be a lot of fun!
TJ: For me, the Women in Tech and Investment Breakfast is really important. I’ve been a woman working in tech for three decades or more, so it brings together something I’m incredibly passionate about and something that is important if we’re serious about unlocking the North’s potential.
We’ll also be announcing an exciting opportunity for Sheffield’s creative and tech industries at Trafalgar Warehouse. I can’t say too much about that yet, but it involves Sheffield City Council investing in growing that part of the economy where creative industries and technology meet.
There are a couple of other programmes coming that will benefit founders across the North, including support for women moving into technology roles and scale-up support. Having those announcements happening around the summit should make it a really exciting couple of days.
The full programme is online now at techsy.co.uk/tech-summit.
