From navigating business culture in Japan to unpacking the changes AI is bringing to the lab, we’re tackling some big topics at this week’s Thursday Gathering – have a look!

Meaningful ideas and changes are sparked when serendipitous connection collides with intention. The Thursday Gathering is our free, weekly meet-up that connects people from across Edinburgh’s innovation community to make things happen. Every Thursday, we bring together innovators of all backgrounds, from founders and investors to students and researchers, to discuss big ideas and connect human to human.

After two months away, we're thrilled to return to the Edinburgh Futures Institute for a special Thursday Gathering featuring ARIA, The Robotarium, and Venture Café’s founder, Tim Rowe.

The Thursday Gathering is our free, weekly meet-up that connects people from across Edinburgh’s innovation community to make things happen. Every Thursday, we bring together innovators of all backgrounds, from founders and investors to students and researchers, to discuss big ideas and connect human to human.

NOTE: This event will be held in Glasgow and will have limited capacity, pre-registration is encouraged.

Venture Café is on the road and headed to Glasgow to spotlight the city's incredible talent and research in tech, just in time for Glasgow's Tech Week. With support from Barclays Eagle Labs Glasgow, we'll be hosting talks, panels, and showcases alongside our signature networking and activities. Join us for an evening that brings together creators, entrepreneurs, researchers and visionaries from across the ecosystem.

NOTE: Names of attendees will be shared with Barclays Eagle Labs to ensure Health & Safety in case of a building emergency. 

In partnership with:

NOTE: This event will be held in Dundee and will have limited capacity, pre-registration is encouraged.

Venture Café is on the road and headed to Dundee to spotlight the city's incredible talent and research across games, life sciences, and health tech. With support from Techscaler, BioDundee, and the Life Sciences Innovation Hub, we'll be hosting talks, panels, and showcases alongside our signature networking and activities. Join us for an evening that brings together creators, entrepreneurs, researchers and visionaries from across the ecosystem.

In partnership with:

NOTE: This event will be held at The Bayes Centre.

Join us for a special Thursday Gathering with the UK’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) to discuss how they are funding scientific and technological breakthroughs at the edge of what’s possible.

NOTE: This event will be held at The Bayes Centre.

Technology gives us the what, but it’s people that give us the how. Join us for an evening exploring the messy yet essential human work that turns ambitious ideas into reality, and why it matters more than ever in a world of powerful new tools and technologies.

NOTE: This event will be held at The Bayes Centre.

Scotland's charities and social enterprises are doing extraordinary things with too little resource and too little recognition. Meanwhile, billions of pounds in skilled volunteering go untapped, and funding flows through fragmented systems that exhaust the very organisations it's meant to support. 

This evening brings together founders, funders, technologists, and changemakers to ask a simple question: what if we built better systems and used the skills we already have to change that? 

Join us to learn about More Than Profit®, a new organisation launching in August supporting charities and social enterprises. An evening of honest conversations, inspiring spotlights, and connections that go beyond the room.

In partnership with:

AI has crash-landed into every classroom, lecture hall, and workplace, and while some view it as a threat to authentic learning, others see it as the key to finally unlocking education's potential. But amid the noise, panic and hype, one thing is clear: we can't carry on as if nothing has changed.

Join us for an evening of sharp conversation and in-depth exploration about the future of learning, with hard-hitting talks and founder spotlights, along with a tasting session and art installation. Whether you're an educator, founder, policymaker, or simply curious about where the sector is headed, come ready to question and imagine the future of education.

Join us for an evening celebrating the innovation, data, and leadership shaping the future of sport in Scotland. From fan engagement to scaling women's sport, we're bringing together founders, industry leaders, and curious minds for a night of connection and discovery.

Expect insightful sessions, innovator showcases, and a pedal‑powered smoothie bike to give your heart rate (and taste buds) a boost. Whether you're building the next big thing in sport or just a fan, come and be part of the conversation.

We’re teaming up with Founders Meetup Edinburgh for a special event on June 25th at Venture Café Edinburgh!

We’ll bring their signature format, an intimate interview with a successful entrepreneur, and infuse it with Venture Café’s signature magic: real connections, unexpected conversations and a buzzing atmosphere where innovators connect.

During the night, you’ll hear from Poonam Gupta OBE, CEO & Founder of PG Paper Company who will share her journey scaling a global business.

Whether you come for the story or the people, you'll leave with fresh ideas and new contacts.

We're teaming up with Converge to celebrate the next generation of Scottish entrepreneurs! Converge's Kickstart programme helps students, researchers and recent graduates from across Scotland's universities dip their toes into entrepreneurship. It's where people learn the basics, test whether their idea has legs, and decide if this path is for them.

On June 11th, we're bringing this year's cohort together with the wider Venture Café Edinburgh community, because building a good network takes time, and the earlier you start, the better. Whether you're just starting out or have been around the block, this is a chance to make connections that will matter at every stage of the journey. We'll also hear from experienced founders and ecosystem builders on the science behind strong connections and how your networks and relationships are what help open doors, challenge your thinking, and support you when things get hard. Come along, meet the cohort, and help us welcome the next wave of Scottish academic entrepreneurs into the community.

What happens when brilliant research meets the right support?

Modern medicine remains largely reactive, relying on external interventions to address pathological states after they have already manifested. The Intelligent Body explores a paradigm shift: the transition from biology as a fixed, immutable blueprint to biology as a programmable, responsive platform.

The goal of this event is to move the conversation beyond "health" toward resilience by design. We’ll discuss the engineering challenges, ethical considerations of resident genetic circuits, and how Scottish innovation can advance the idea of a body that manages its own defence.

This Earth Day, we’ll move beyond the headlines and focus on what’s actually being done, right here in Scotland.

This special Thursday Gathering is a partnership between Venture Café Edinburgh and People Planet Pint, bringing together the organisations driving change, the people building solutions, and a community ready to take action.

Sample local honey from a a physicist turned bee farmer, learn from organisations and companies who are making a difference, and hear two conversations: one on embedding sustainability into your business, and another on waste, action, and climate innovation. This will be an exciting evening that explores the challenges of the climate emergency, highlights solutions on the horizon, and leaves you with the hope and inspiration you need to make change happen.

While Scotland's entrepreneurial landscape has no shortage of discussions, programmes, and reports exploring how to support startups and scaleups, the question of why we're doing it often gets less attention. Without a clear ‘north star,’ execution can become fragmented, leading to misaligned initiatives and wasted resources. 

​This Thursday Gathering with James Varga, serial entrepreneur, and Laura Bernal Vergara, founder of Axiotic AI, is an opportunity to step back and ask: what is the shared vision for Scotland's tech ecosystem? What do we actually want to build, and for whom?

If you're a founder, ecosystem supporter, or simply curious about where the country goes next, join us for a conversation about the fundamental "why" behind our desire to build a Scotland that encourages, supports, and attracts entrepreneurship.

What does it take to fund science too urgent to ignore? Join ARIA, Convergent Research, and The Scottish National Investment Bank for an evening exploring how we back bold research in an uncertain world, and why new organisational forms are emerging in the UK.

ARIA was built to make big bets on frontier science, backing the kind of moonshot ideas that could fundamentally change how we weather climate uncertainty. We'll hear from ARIA Programme Director Mark Symes on the frontier of climate cooling, Kristin Ellis from Convergent Research on new models like Focused Research Organisations (FROs), and Mike Wedderspoon from The Scottish National Investment Bank on the role of public capital in shaping what's next.

The evening will also include a fireside chat between Tosca Tindall of Echo Labs – an environmental data FRO – in conversation with innovation specialist Joanne Hagerty. Together they'll explore what an FRO actually looks like in practice, and what it means to build capability at an entirely new scale.

Throughout the night, enjoy our signature mix of immersive activities and workshops that will weave together art, science, and dialogue. This is an evening about uncertainty, but also about the people and models daring to weather it.

Scotland is fast becoming a place where space is no longer just a sector, but a driver of the next economy, powering finance, climate, life sciences, security and data infrastructure.

This Venture Café Edinburgh, Alexander Associates, and Burges Salmon event brings together founders, investors, institutions, and ecosystem champions to explore how Scotland’s space-enabled companies are creating real commercial value — and why global capital is increasingly looking to the Scottish ecosystem for its next wave of opportunity.

The event is designed for:

• Founders scaling space-enabled companies
• Investors and HNWIs seeking new, high-growth opportunities
• Institutions shaping Scotland’s future economy
• Leaders from finance, life sciences, climate, data and advanced engineering.

Together, they will explore how Scotland’s next economy is taking shape, in orbit and beyond.