Cambridge Tech Week brings together speakers from across the world who are shaping the future of Deep Tech. These are not theoretical conversations. The programme is built around people actively building, funding and scaling technology. Founders, researchers, investors, operators and policy leaders with direct experience of turning ideas into impact.

Across the Conference Week, sessions are designed to explore key topics around the central theme:  How Deep Tech Changes the World.   

The Call for Speakers is now closed. All submissions will be reviewed by the editorial team. Successful nominations will be aligned to the most relevant part of the programme and confirmed by Monday 29 June 2026. Content is proposed and there will be opportunity for modification prior to publication.

View the full agenda here to find out more.

 2026 Speaker Themes

Cambridge Tech Ecosystem

This theme set to explore how Cambridge’s deep tech strengths, from research and spinouts to talent and investment, drive value across the Oxford–Cambridge Arc and the Manchester–Cambridge corridor. Leaders shaping cross-city and national innovation strategies, founders and investors operating across multiple ecosystems, and international voices able to compare what works, what doesn’t, and what the UK can learn from global experience.

Visionary Tech Day: Game Changers and World Beaters

Focused on the technologies and ideas redefining industries at a global level, we’re interested in people building, backing or scaling technologies at the frontier of their field. This is not theory. It’s what’s actually changing the world. From frontier AI and advanced engineering to the platforms powering the next decade, this is about ambition, scale and impact.

Startup to Scaleup: Building the Next Generation of Tech Giants

This theme focuses on the journey from early traction to sustained growth. Funding, leadership, talent development and the realities of building in competitive global markets. We’re seeking founders, operators and investors who’ve lived it. Honest conversations about what it really takes to grow, where it goes wrong, and how to build the next generation of Tech Giants.

Med Tech and Health Tech

Healthcare is entering a new era of technological innovation. This theme sets to explore where the next breakthroughs are emerging and how new ideas move from discovery towards clinical reality. We’re looking for speakers across the full pathway. Researchers, clinicians, founders, investors and policy leaders who understand both the opportunity and the barriers.

Quantum and AI

Two of the most powerful and fast-moving fields in Deep Tech. This theme explores how quantum and AI are evolving independently and where they intersect. It looks at capability, infrastructure, ethics and the race to commercialisation. We’re looking for experts shaping these fields. Scientists, founders, investors and technologists who can speak to both the potential and the practical reality.

Climate & Sustainability Impact

Climate is now a business issue. From net zero ambition to the challenges of real-world delivery, we explore how climate and sustainability are reshaping business. The practical, political and commercial realities of delivering change.

Big Tech Debate

The Big Tech Debate brings together contrasting perspectives on the most complex and contested issues shaping deep tech today. These sessions are fast-paced, opinion-led and designed to surface real disagreement. We are looking for speakers who are willing to take a clear position and defend it. This year the Big Tech Debate focuses on:

Dual Use Tech: Redrawing the line between civilian and defence innovation

Advances in AI, drones and quantum are increasingly driven by the private sector, raising questions about whether closer alignment with defence is inevitable. Some argue this strengthens capability and that governance, not technology, determines impact. Others warn of serious risks. Reduced oversight, blurred accountability, and the concentration of power within a small number of technology companies. Open ecosystems may also accelerate unintended proliferation.

This debate asks: Can democracies maintain a meaningful boundary between civilian and defence innovation, or has that line already disappeared?

We are looking for:

  • A clear, defensible point of view
  • Direct experience or informed perspective in this space
  • Willingness to engage in challenge, not just present
  • Ability to articulate both opportunity and risk

This is a debate format. Submissions that do not take a clear position are unlikely to be selected.

  

Deep Tech Perspectives

Some of the most valuable insights sit across sectors. We are looking for perspectives that do not fit neatly into a single category but offer meaningful insight into how deep tech is developed, funded, governed or adopted. This could include leadership, policy, infrastructure, ethics, or the practical realities of building and scaling deep tech organisations. Strong submissions will still be specific, experience-led and clearly relevant to a deep tech audience. Broad or generic overviews are unlikely to be selected.