Leeds Digital Festival held more tech events than San Francisco as 20,000 people attended

170 events were attended by 20,000 people at the 2018 Leeds Digital Festival.

This milestone means that Leeds has held more tech events than San Francisco.

The Festival took place from 16th to 27th April, across more than 60 venues across the city.

Events included Sky Bet’s full day TechEdge conference, FinTech North, the launch of Bruntwood’s Platform tech hub, and a man in a jetsuit flying around Leeds City College.

University of Leeds, which sponsored the festival, organised 18 events, including one on Immersive Technology.

Stuart Clarke, festival director, said: “The fact that we had more events than San Francisco shows a giant leap in confidence from the city’s digital and tech sector: to put on 170 events, in around 60 venues; to attract over 500 speakers and 20,000 attendees; to involve thousands of firms from the region, plus their colleagues and customers from all over the UK and indeed the world.

“Numbers may have gone up this year, but the quality has also soared. We’ve seen world-class events being staged every day throughout the fortnight, covering every aspect of the sector.”

Tom Forth, associate at ODI Leeds, who compared the number of events in Leeds and its Californian counterpart, also commented: “I don’t think I’ve seen a better collection of smart city, tech, data, digital design events than Leeds Digital Festival anywhere else in the world.”

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