Meet Your Host: Laura Sharpe
Laura, a highly successful Tech Recruitment professional, has embarked on an exciting new chapter in her career with the launch of Connect Events. After 16 years of running Sharpe Recruitment alongside her mother, Julie, Laura has decided to pivot towards event management.
Laura and her mother built a strong reputation in the recruitment industry, affectionately known as the "Sharpe Ladies" by their peers. Their agency specialised in digital and creative recruitment, fostering long-term relationships with clients and candidates alike. However, Laura always had a passion for hosting and attending events, particularly in the tech sector.
Her experience in organising Design It; Build It, a major
tech and creative conference in 2013 and 2014, planted the seed for this new
venture. Now, nearly a decade later, she is excited to return to the world of
conferences with Tech Connect – an event dedicated to the future of AI.
Register For Tech Connect: The Future of AI
Proposed Agenda
09:00 - 10:00 Registration & Networking (Incl quieter spaces with fidget toys)
10:00 - 12:00 3 Speakers
12:00 - 13:00 Networking Lunch (Incl a light lunch, optional Wellbeing Walk and quieter spaces with fidget toys)
13:00 - 14:50 3 Speakers
14:50 - 15:20 Networking Break (Incl quieter spaces with fidget toys)
15:20 - 17:00
Panel & Closing keynote
Click Here for details on the Speakers and their Talks
Meet our Partners
Charity Partner: The Charlie and Carter Foundation
The Charlie & Carter Foundation (CCF) provides financial support to parents of seriously ill children with life limiting conditions that require 24 hour nursing care or specialist nursing facilities.
Bursary & Lanyards Partner: Layers Studio
Strategic delivery from cross disciplined experienced teams, working together from the beginning of your ideation process. Match your industry insight with our creativity and technical knowledge and see what your real potential looks like.
Exhibitor & Lanyards Partner: Apexon
Apexon is a problem-first IT consultancy committed to delivering tangible solutions to complex business challenges. We focus on providing strategic IT guidance and robust technical expertise, specialising in IT Strategy, Data & AI, and Digital Engineering. Our approach prioritises solving real-world problems through the application of advanced technology, partnering with our clients to deliver business objectives and unlock significant value.
Supporting Partner: Literal Labs
Literal Labs builds logic-based AI models that are dramatically faster, more energy-efficient, and easier to explain than neural networks—achieving 54× speed and 52× lower energy usage in the MLPerf anomaly detection benchmark, and up to 250× faster performance than XGBoost. Literal Labs was spun out of Newcastle University by renowned professors Dr. Alex Yakovlev and Dr. Rishad Shafik, and is led by former Arm executive Noel Hurley.
Exhibitor & Lanyards Partner: Seriös Group
Seriös Group are experts in data solutions testing, disrupting the status quo with high-quality, results-driven approaches that help organisations overcome complex data challenges. With consultancy and implementation expertise across data integration, platform development, analytics, data testing, and QA, they deliver scalable solutions that drive performance, efficiency, and measurable business impact.
Supporting Partner: Waterstons
At Waterstons, we’re here to help organisations solve real business problems with smart and transformational technology. From bespoke software and AI solutions to cyber consultancy and managed IT, we build strategic digital partnerships grounded in trust, collaboration, and a people-first approach. Curious about how AI could work for you? Book a free 45-minute session with our experts at ai@waterstons.com
Exhibitor & Lanyards Partner: Business Northumberland
Business Northumberland is Northumberland County Council’s dedicated support service to drive economic growth, attract inward investment and support businesses across the county.
Designed to assist businesses looking to relocate and invest in the County from across the world, Business Northumberland also provides business support with access to a range of tailored services, including expert mentoring, skills development, and networking opportunities.
Supporting Partner: MSP
Have you watched Formula 1 and wondered how they make the cars? Flown abroad and wondered how they make the plane’s wings? Are you fascinated by rockets and spacecraft? At MSP, we work in high-tech industries to help manufacturers make their parts quicker and more accurately. We’re a creative and diverse team, transforming manufacturing every day using metrology, data and now AI.
Supporting Partner: Vertax Accountants
At Vertax Accountants, we’re passionate about helping dynamic and ambitious SMEs in tech and creative industries to ultimately reach the next level. We work as a finance partner in empowering business owners to get the financial clarity needed to make key strategic decisions, using real-time data and financial modelling and AI tools, to focus on achieving key growth objectives and milestone with confidence.
Supporting Partner: CLR Law
CLR Law is a firm of solicitors specialising in employment law, HR, dispute resolution and corporate/commercial law. We are based in Gateshead’s Baltic Business Quarter and deliver services locally and beyond. Originating from a commitment to deliver a better and more flexible service to our clients, our sole dedication lies in enhancing the experience of engaging with a solicitor and attaining their desired outcome.