TechTides Derry unveils star-studded lineup for second annual summit
Derry native and former Facebook VP Colm Long joins a world-class international speaker lineup for the major North West tech event
Leading tech conference, TechTides, returns next week for its second year at the Millennium Forum on Tuesday, October 27. Following its inaugural Derry event in 2025, the conference returns with an international line-up of speakers, including Derry native Colm Long, alongside panels, presentations and an evening social at Walled City Brewery.
New for this year is a start-up pitch competition featuring 10 early-stage businesses from across the island of Ireland, who will pitch live to a room of investors at the Millennium Forum.
The selected start-ups span sectors including health tech, property, cybersecurity, equestrian sport, motor retail and AI infrastructure, with founders based from Derry and Belfast to Donegal, Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.
The 10 businesses are Arlo, VacTimmune, Signal PropTech, Cavalloré, Portava, HeartPath, Picari, Dealer Control Hub, KarbAI and ClearKey. Each is developing a solution to a specific industry challenge, from AI-powered clinical notes and vaccine research to equine injury prevention and property intelligence.
The start-ups will pitch live at the Millennium Forum to a judging panel featuring Jack Langan, Investment Associate, Clarendon Fund Managers, Maria McMenamin, Advisor, Board Member and Investor, Emily LaRocque, Early-Stage Investor and Katey Dixon, Corporate Partner, Lewis Silkin.
The headline speakers are Colm Long, a Derry native who served as VP of Global Operations at Facebook and VP of Online Sales and Operations at Google; Martin Moran, who founded Salesforce's international business as its first employee in Europe and grew it beyond $250m in annual recurring revenue; Naomi Timperley, innovation and growth specialist and one of Computer Weekly's Most Influential Women in UK Tech 2025; and Ross Sylvester, travelling from San Francisco as co-founder and CEO of AI sales platform Adrata.
They are joined by voices including Maria McMenamin, the first sales hire at Stripe's Dublin operation, and Robert Hill, Director of the Northern Ireland Space Office. Across the programme, six themes will be explored: AI implementation, manufacturing technology, start-ups and entrepreneurship, governance and responsible AI, tech thought leadership, and recruitment, HR and careers.
Speaking ahead of this year’s conference, TechTides Founder Alastair Cameron said: “We built TechTides for the North West, to bring world-class speakers, fresh thinking and honest conversations about technology and business to our doorstep.
“We’re proud to be bringing the conference back to Derry for a second year, and to see it grow from a single-day gathering into a full-scale conference with a genuinely international line-up.
“This year, we’re building on that growth with a new start-up pitch competition and a deeper programme of technical content for developers and engineers. Our ambition is to grow TechTides into a regional conference for the whole island of Ireland, connecting people, businesses and ideas across the border and putting the North West on the map. We look forward to welcoming attendees next week. There are still a few tickets available for the conference and evening social at techtides.co.”
TechTides Derry is proudly supported by Headline sponsors The AMP, Alchemy Technology Services, part of NTT DATA, and Allstate NI with Gold Sponsors including Seagate Technology, AVEVA, and NWRC.
Tickets for TechTides are available online via https://techtides.co/