2024-03-01 Niki Davies replied to me to say: The best way to hear about our upcoming meetups and events is by subscribing to our newsletter if you’re not already: https://share.hsforms.com/1OaUNOGHVRzuUpubCGTwTmg3ddhf?firstname=&lastname=&email=&subscribe=Become+an+In+Touch+Member

Context

UK is in a recession. Cornwall is one of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom. Like many places in the world, tech is seen as a way to grow the local economy. Since I live in Cornwall I am interested to see the tech scene grow, though I want to be pragmatic and document the infrastructure challenges from my perspective.

In the past few months, a major tech employer in Truro (a games company) shutdown. The tech event location Heartlands went into administration. Space port Cornwall had a failed launch and paused operations.

The event

The The BIG Cornish Tech Showcase happened nonetheless, in the empty offices of Space port Cornwall, which I thought was serendipitous.

The event was well organised and well attended considering its remote location, though for me there was a distinct lack of developers. The kick off mentioned there was a lack of talent in the county, which reinforced my impression.

The future

For me we need a place where developers can meet, work, socialise and learn from each other, and since the typical venue “Heartlands” is gone, I really wonder where that will be.

It needs to be close to a University and a train station. Accessible by public transport.

Ideally it’s a destination for remote workers, somewhere they can enjoy seafood, enjoy the natural beauty and perhaps surf. Ideally it has good, cheap local accommodation for people to stay a bit longer.

On a positive note, fibre broadband is pretty pervasive in Cornwall. During the summer people can happily camp in a tent.

The new A30 improvements make it quite easy to drive into Cornwall from Exeter. Trouble is the A30 doesn’t connect anything on the train line going into Cornwall. Neither infrastructure takes you close to nice parts of the coastline.