Norwich Science Festival is back and is ready to celebrate the region’s best DigiTech innovations

Norwich Science Festival is a celebration of the groundbreaking scientific research and technological innovation associated with the city of Norwich and the wider region, involving many organisations from across the East of England and further afield, coordinated by The Forum.

The event is in its sixth year, but has grown considerably in that time with just over 137,000 visits in 2019. They’ve welcomed some amazing speakers including Helen Sharman, Chris Packham and Dr Jane Goodall and they won Best Family Experience and Best Marketing Campaign in the Norfolk and Suffolk Tourism Awards last year. The Festival works with a whole range of partners to deliver a programme of talks, workshops and exhibition stands for audiences of all ages. The aim is to showcase the incredible science and tech taking place on our doorstep, and to engage the general public in all areas of STEM, as well as to address the skills gap by highlighting careers within these fields.

Each day of the Festival is themed around a different area of science but given the strength and diversity of the tech industry in our region and the need to upskill the workforce, a new day specifically focused on digitech will be introduced this year, on Monday 25 October.

According to the 2021 Tech Nation report, the East of England regions home to 24,528 digital tech businesses who among them employ over 134,890 people and have a turnover of £22bn per year.  Of those employed in core tech roles, only 10.5% are female, and events like the Digitech day will help ensure our best in class firms can appeal to the next generation of female tech talent, whilst they are still at those crucial stages in education.

The new Digitech day creates a fantastic public engagement opportunity for businesses and start-ups working in this field to showcase their work and highlight relevant career opportunities.  The Festival receives in the region of 5000-8000 visits per day, which is a mix of local residents and visitors from further afield.  This is a chance to bring your brand to this celebration of technology and showcase what your business does in a fun, engaging way.

Other daily themes relevant to businesses in the Tech Corridor include Climate Change & Sustainability (Sun 24 Oct), Engineering (Tuesday 26 Oct) and Health/Wellbeing (Sat 30 Oct). Organisations are welcome to have a stand on more than one day of the Festival if their work ties in with the theme.

To find out more and apply for a stand, please see  Stand Information Pack below or contact natalie.bailey@theforumnorwich.co.uk The deadline to apply for a stand for the 2021 Festival is Friday 30 July.