In the lead-up to UK Tech Week 2026, we’re shining a spotlight on the partners helping to shape and champion the UK’s tech ecosystem. Through this series, you’ll hear directly from our partners about who they are, what they’re planning for UK Tech Week, and why collaboration across the nation matters more than ever.
In this feature, we speak to Leeds Digital Festival – the UK’s largest open-platform tech festival – to explore how it has evolved into a cornerstone of the Leeds City Region’s digital landscape, its plans for UK Tech Week 2026, and why regional collaboration sits at the heart of everything it does.
Leeds Digital Festival is an open-platform celebration of all things tech and digital in the Leeds City Region.
As an open platform, anyone can host an event, and it’s free to do so. Whether it’s coding, FinTech, social media, AI, HealthTech, data, start-ups, digital music, cyber security or VR, Leeds Digital Festival is open to all things tech.
Starting off as a few big ideas among local tech leaders in 2016, Leeds Digital Festival has evolved into a grand showcase of the innovation taking place in Leeds on a regional, national and international level.
What began as a series of 56 events has since grown to include over 200 events every year. In fact, Leeds Digital Festival has gained status as the largest open tech event in the UK.
Every spring, the Festival hosts Mini-Fest — a small-but-mighty curated programme of events, featuring contributions from sponsors and friends of the Festival.
In the last two weeks of September, Leeds Digital Festival returns to its open-platform format, celebrating the people and organisations that make Leeds and the North such a vibrant hub for the digital sector.
The Festival is where it all started and, in 2023, the team behind it brought Leeds Digital to life to help showcase the strength of the city’s digital ecosystem year-round.
Building on the success of the 2025 event, Leeds Digital Festival will host the Shaping the Future of Yorkshire’s Digital and Tech Ecosystem Roundtable.
This roundtable will bring together key leaders and organisers from Yorkshire’s most influential digital and technology festivals and hubs to explore opportunities for collaboration, shared learning and sustainable growth across the region.
In line with the open-platform ethos of Leeds Digital Festival, the team also plans to collaborate with one of its sponsors to deliver an additional event as part of the UK Tech Week 2026 programme. Further details will be confirmed in due course.
FinTech North is a standout organisation in the region.
Founded in 2016 as the UK’s first regional FinTech hub, FinTech North began as an event within Leeds Digital Festival and has since grown into a strong, diverse community showcasing the breadth and depth of the FinTech ecosystem across Leeds and the wider North.
Today, FinTech North brings together a vibrant community of more than 8,000 people from across the North of England, connecting professionals working in, or with a strong interest in, FinTech and its adjacent sectors.
Leeds Digital is taking part in UK Tech Week 2026 because of a strong alignment in values, particularly around collaboration, inclusivity and supporting the sustainable growth of the UK tech sector.
Being part of UK Tech Week provides an opportunity to actively contribute to the continued advancement of the digital and technology ecosystem in Leeds, the wider region and nationally.
It also offers a valuable platform to showcase the strengths, diversity and innovation within the Leeds digital community to a broader audience, helping to raise the city’s profile as a leading UK digital hub.
By participating, Leeds Digital Festival can strengthen connections between regional and national organisations, create new opportunities for collaboration and support knowledge-sharing that benefits the ecosystem as a whole.
