Top Tech Talks from Turing Fest 2024
As we celebrate another remarkable year of innovation, ideas, and connections, Turing Fest 2024 has once again proven why it's a cornerstone event for tech leaders and professionals alike. With an incredible lineup of speakers spanning topics from AI to storytelling, career growth to data mastery, the diversity of insights was matched only by the enthusiasm of the audience.
Now, as 2024 winds down and we look ahead to the milestone of our 10th anniversary in 2025, we're taking the opportunity to reflect on some of the talks that resonated the most.
In this roundup, we're spotlighting some of the top tech talks of 2024, to help you close out the year stronger than ever. Whether you're a marketer looking to refine your strategy, a leader shaping the future of your team, a growth expert navigating an ever-changing landscape, or a storyteller aiming to inspire action, these talks offer actionable takeaways and fresh perspectives.
Career Vectors: Navigating Modern Careers
Meri Williams, CTO, Pleo is a true fan favourite here at Turing Fest HQ. So we were delighted to get them back to Edinburgh for another insightful talk for our future-motivated audiences.
Meri tackled a hugely important subject at Turing Fest 2024: your career. In this talk, Meri introduces the concept of career vectors, which they have used in coaching hundreds of technical leaders over the years.
Get your notebooks out and jot down the tools for guiding your own career, those of your team, and even for communicating what types of opportunity are available at your organisation.
Beyond Clicks and Keywords: Dispelling Dystopian Futures
Bethan Vincent, Founder & Managing Partner at Open Velocity brought us on a journey this year as she laid out how generative AI, monopolistic platforms, and algorithm changes are reshaping marketing unpredictably. This talk explores why and where marketers need to start rethinking their approach, highlighting new opportunities for those willing to adapt in an environment where audiences are increasingly fragmenting across channels.
A must watch before you dive into 2025.
Distilling Small Language Models for Enterprise
Iain Mackie, CEO & Co-founder at Malted.ai is on a mission: shrink AI models to solve the hardest business problems. Iain took to the Turing Fest stage in 2024 to talk us through the challenges and lessons of building an AI startup in Scotland and raising £7m from Venture Capital, and how he deploys Small Language Models (SLMs) in an enterprise environment to build more focused AI solutions at scale using knowledge distillation.
Branding in the Age of AI
Some marketers left feeling a little scared of the future after this talk by Jason Miller, ex Head of Brand and Content Marketing at Microsoft, LinkedIn, and ActiveCampaign. But what he has to say is a necessary wake up call for the future of marketing, which has already been seriously disrupted by the developments in AI.
The answer? Branding, says Miller. In an AI-obsessed world, brand is the key to building trust and authority. He calls out superficial tactics and empty promises, emphasising the importance of focusing on your brand's core values. Forget fleeting metrics and quick wins; it's about building a solid foundation for sustained demand and real impact.
The Business Is Your Business
Matt LeMay is a tour de force and was a last minute addition to the 2024 lineup this year. But because the guy is such a pro, we knew he would deliver a top class talk no matter what the timeframe.
Matt asserts that building product the "right way" is all well and good, but doesn't matter much if your company goes out of business.
"Whether or not it's fair and just, product teams ultimately bear the consequences of their work's impact – or lack thereof. To deliver high-impact work, the business needs to be everybody's business, including individual engineers, designers, and product managers."
In this talk, product consultant and author of Product Management in Practice Matt LeMay shares his experience helping product teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 Enterprises define success, prioritise what matters, and make themselves indispensable.
Babe Are You OK? You've Barely Touched The Dashboard You Claimed Was Mission Critical
Andrey Vinitsky, CEO & Co-founder at Graphy had one of the most popular titles of Turing Fest 2024. And we love a funny title, especially when the content is SO good.
In his talk, Vinitsky gives companies a wake up call: hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted every year on data stacks. They all collect data, model it, analyse it, and some even visualise it. But most are missing the most important bit — the Last Mile. The Last Mile is what drives change in the organisation and makes people engage with and act on the data, Vinitsky says.
In this talk, he explores the latest trends in the data stack and how you can make data more actionable in your organisation through storytelling.
Zero-Click Marketing
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-founder, SparkToro took Turing Fest by storm again this year, introducing a new concept to Turing Fest audiences: a zero-click world.
Marketers, Fishkin notes, must prioritise earning engagement and growing audiences on the platforms themselves, conforming to new algorithmic rules and new user expectations.
That's Zero-Click Marketing. In this presentation, Rand shows how it works, why it's needed, and how to apply this tactical shift to every channel and campaign.
Why Products Fail: The Unspoken Price of Progress
Randeep Sidhu, AI and Health Tech, NHS came back to Turing Fest after a top-rated talk in 2022 exposing the truth of group dynamics which affect team performance.
In this talk, Randeep explores the causes of friction in product teams, and looks at how to resolve it to move products and people forward, imparting key tactics for avoiding the unspoken cost that can often be paid by the person doing the necessary work of challenging the existing product thinking.
From Orange to Apple: Unpacking the Fruits of Four Decades' Work in Design and Innovation
It comes as no surprise that Colin Burns, ex-Senior Director at Apple is an audience-favourite from Turing Fest 2024. From working in the boom days of UK mobile communication networks in the early nineties to a leadership position with the Apple Design Team in the twenty-twenties, Colin reflects on the fruits of his work in design and innovation — unpacking the patterns he's observed in organisational structure, innovation methods and colleague behaviours over his 40-year career. A must watch.
Unshakable Teams: Creating Confident, Resilient and Adaptable Cultures
If you've ever seen Kirsty on stage, you know to get into the room early to grab your seat. Kirsty Hulse, Founder at Roar Training spoke to a packed room as she effortlessly took to the stage to present the biggest barriers to success (spoiler: she's talking about you).
If you're looking for a dynamic and actionable session to give you practical strategies to foster confidence, boost adaptability, and find sustainable, lasting confidence within yourself and your team, then this talk is for you.
Convey The Awesomeness of Your Tech with Human Messaging
Emma Stratton, Founder at Punchy makes storytelling look so easy. So it's no wonder that this talk was ranked the highest by Turing Fest audiences.
In this session, messaging expert Emma Stratton gives you 3 practical techniques to help you write better messaging about your innovative technology (which, you'll learn, you're overcomplicating, by the way). Whether you're a founder, marketer or product builder, you'll learn how to convey the awesomeness of your technology in a way that clicks with your audience. Invaluable.
Want more? Browse the full Turing Fest talk library