Our Approach
Every sector of Scotland’s economy faces immense challenges in keeping up with the scale and pace of change set by a disruptive mix of rapid technology innovation, heightened customer expectations, additional regulatory obligations and intense global competition. We connect and convene the tech community, nationally and internationally, to advance Scotland’s position as a leading global tech hub, for the common good. With the world’s highest density cluster of top ranked universities and research institutes, Scotland offers exceptional opportunities for business innovation, growth and access established and emerging markets. More overseas businesses chose to locate in Scotland than any other UK region outside London. The country boasts a highly talented and diverse workforce, producing 60% of the UK’s Data Science graduates at Masters level and employing more women in tech roles than any other country in Europe. High growth, sectors of excellence include: Space & Satellite, Quantum, Gaming, Personalised Medicine, eCommerce, Renewable Energy, FinTech and CyberSecurity
Our Story
Tech Scotland Advocates (TSA) is a chapter of the Global Tech Advocate (GTA) community – the world’s largest grassroots network of senior tech leaders and practitioners. The founding Advocate community, which now has 6,000+ members, was established in 2013 to ensure an independent voice for the UK technology ecosystem was heard, with a strong focus on the private sector. The original Advocates championed London as as a global tech hub and continues to campaign to address some of the biggest challenges facing the tech sector – diversity, digital skills, immigration, infrastructure and access to funding.
The wider Advocate community in the UK has successfully campaigned for the introduction of a Chief Digital Officer for London, having digital jobs added to the Shortage Occupation List for the first time and are founding partners of London Tech Week – the largest festival of technology in Europe.
Global Tech Advocates was launched in 2016 to scale and operate the member model to countries around the world, including the Bay Area, Singapore, Spain, Italy and Japan. Today, Global Tech Advocates is a 14,000+ strong a network of tech leaders, entrepreneurs and experts in over 50 countries worldwide.