I've been catching up on a bunch of great talks from NIDC this weekend, unfortunately I missed it due to honeymooning in Santorini but enough about my first world problems! Watching NIDC unfold, I couldn't help but be inspired for BelTech 2023, the team did such a great job - marketing was excellent, the program and structure of the event was fresh, and the whole thing felt very community driven (not to mention packed with great talks).

The good news is you won't have to wait a whole year for another N.I. technology conference, as the old saying goes when one conference door closes, another opens. BelTech returns to Titanic Belfast on 9th & 10th March 2023.

Looking Back

They say time flies when you're having fun, it's hard to believe this will be our 10th annual event! When I came on board as Lead Curator back in 2021, I was no stranger to technology events having been to some of the best conferences and hackathons around the world including Barcelona, Denmark, Poland and more. Yet I had a lot to learn about event curation and coordination, and I wanted to bring a new perspective to the BelTech team and help make it more inclusive not just of developers in Northern Ireland but also on a more international scale.

For me the highlight of last year's BelTech was the program - from Carlos Alzate's excellent keynote on AI to fireside chats with Stripe CTO David Singleton and Kainos Digital Services CTO Aislinn McBride, it was a great day filled with great talks. Still, nothing is perfect and I think there are a few things we could have done better in hindsight:

1. More dedicated breaks and networking opportunities for attendees
2. Make sure every presentation has the audience they deserve (e.g. avoid presentations during breaks)
3. More community driven curation and content (less prescriptive topics)

I'm pleased to say we're actioning all of these, but what I really want to talk about is the community driven curation and content.

Going Forward

The theme for BelTech 2023 is all about breaking down barriers and empowering people and organizations to succeed anywhere. To that end, we have identified several tracks based on industry leading trends, including remote/hybrid working, mesh architecture, artificial intelligence and sustainable computing. In the spirit of creating an event for everyone, you will notice that our Call for Speakers now includes an option to suggest your own track! That means if you have another topic in mind that aligns to the core theme then we'd love to hear about it.

And that's not all, I'm very pleased to welcome Chloe McAteer of Hamilton Robson and Graeme Clarke of Expleo to our curation team. Both very talented engineers who need no introduction in the N.I. tech space, Chloe and Graeme will be helping shape and curate BelTech 2023. Oh and did I mention we're teaming up with TechStart Ventures to bring you a Dragon's Den session on the day with a top prize of £10K? More on that later...

What's Next?

At its core BelTech is about supporting the NI software ecosystem and specifically the practitioners, the developers, the people. BelTech is curated by a team representing local technology companies, local talent and unique perspectives, but we want to drive this even further. That's why we're opening up our application process to hear what you want to talk about.

For those of you who are hoping to attend, head on over to the BelTech website to find out more about our 2023 event, you can reach me directly at k.davidson@kainos.com. See you there!