INVITATION ONLY
This year’s Shott Scale Up Accelerator gathering marks a deliberate departure from traditional Demo Day formats. Rather than showcasing polished pitches or investor panels, the event focuses on the human stories behind scale—the challenges, turning points, and lessons learned from those navigating leadership in high-growth engineering and deep tech ventures.
Bringing together a curated group of alumni, mentors, programme contributors, and ecosystem partners, the afternoon will be an open space for honest dialogue around what it really takes to grow as a founder and leader.
Through a mix of keynote reflection, breakout discussions, and a panel on failure and resilience, the event invites participants to explore topics often left out of the spotlight: leadership vulnerability, knowing when to pivot, the emotional cost of scaling, and the future of accelerator support itself.
The event also serves as a moment of transition: we’ll mark the graduation of our outgoing cohort—celebrating their growth over the past year—while welcoming the newest group of awardees to the community. In doing so, we aim to foster cross-cohort exchange, shared learning, and a sense of belonging within a broader network of peers and supporters.
Held at our Enterprise Hub HQ, Prince Philip House, the event will combine structured sessions with informal networking and reflection. A closing dinner for graduating awardees will offer space for deeper connection and celebration in a more intimate setting.
Please note: This is an invitation-only event.
Programme*
| 2.30pm |
Registration, refreshments & networking Arrive, connect with peers, and settle in before the afternoon begins |
| 2.45pm - 4.00pm | Breakout sessions (Scaling Circles) |
| 4.00pm | Comfort break & networking |
| 4.30pm |
Graduation ceremony Panel discussion: Learning from setbacks and resilience in scaling |
| 5.30pm | Networking reception |
| 7.00pm | Event ends |
*Programme is subject to change
About Shott Scale Up Accelerator
We support exceptional entrepreneurs and decision-makers from fast-growing, IP-rich engineering and technology SMEs across the UK. Through a rigorous selection process, we ensure that only the most driven leaders with the most promising innovations secure a spot on this 12-month programme, designed to supercharge their growth.
Awardees benefit from leadership development, expert mentoring, strategic insights, and powerful networks that enable them to scale confidently into global markets.
Photography notice
Please note that photography will take place during this event. All photographs will be securely stored on the Academy’s servers and used for editorial, marketing and media use by the Academy and selected press or industry media. Please let us know if you do not agree to this processing. Please refer to our General Privacy Policy for more details.
Venue and accessibility
It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact the Events team more than one week in advance of this event so that necessary arrangements can be made. Contact details: [email protected].
Further information about accessibility at Prince Philip House can be found at: https://raeng.org.uk/about-us/accessibility.
Diversity monitoring form
The Academy is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and one of our goals is to develop an engineering community fit for the future. To help us achieve this, we would like to collect some basic anonymous data about the event attendees. If you would like to help, please complete the diversity monitoring form by logging into your user account on our website and completing ‘Update my D&I data’.