Black Tech Day 2025: A Good Day

One of the most enjoyable things about running your own business? Networking. Meeting new people. Learning stuff.

Yesterday I went to the Black Tech Day event in Birmingham. As a Black software developer—and now Founder of Mercia AI—it was great to meet so many people (and fellow Founders) who shared a passion for learning, curiosity, and upskilling.

In my 30 years as a developer, I can say that the Black community is underrepresented in the tech world. In many of the jobs I’ve had, I’ve been the only Black person on the development team—and in some cases, the only Black person in the company. I want to see more Black people embrace the opportunities that tech, and especially AI, now allows. Black Tech Day are already doing a fantastic job of this, and I’ve been thinking about how Mercia AI can assist.

Yes, Mercia Minds—I’m looking at you. Recent events haven’t had the response I’d hoped for, despite my offer of free and delicious biscuits. But I’ve not given up on my mission to bring AI to the local community. As always, suggestions from the Coventry and Greater Mercia community for future events are welcome.

Alongside the insightful talks about scaling businesses, Web 3.0, and (of course) AI, it was great to network with so many people. My thanks to everyone at Black Tech Day for making this such a welcoming event. I left with knowledge of things I didn’t know before—and questions I hadn’t thought to ask myself. In my book, that means it was a good day.

Also—Birmingham. Jealous of your trams, ok? Hopefully we’ll have our own soon in Coventry.

And finally—if anyone reading this went to Black Tech Day, and saw some odd guy in the conference area doing fistbumps while looking at his phone? Erm, that was me 😆. I’d just seen the mighty Sky Blues come from 3–2 down at Derby to win 5–3.

Like I said: a good day.