📄 What is ClimbUK?

What is ClimbUK?

ClimbUK is the UK’s national business growth festival - created for people who are actively building, scaling, and investing in businesses, rather than simply talking about them. Held annually in Leeds, ClimbUK brings together founders, senior operators, investors, partners, and ecosystem leaders from across sectors to focus on the real work of growth.

ClimbUK was born out of a simple observation: while there are plenty of conferences focused on ideas, inspiration, or fundraising in isolation, there are far fewer spaces that deal honestly with the lived reality of scaling a business - the complexity, trade‑offs, systems, people challenges, and decisions that emerge as organisations grow.

How ClimbUK has evolved

  • Climb23 marked the early foundations of the festival - proving there was strong demand for a growth‑focused event outside London that prioritised substance over spectacle and conversation over performance.

  • Climb24 built on that momentum, expanding the scope of the programme and the diversity of attendees. The focus shifted more deliberately toward operators, systems, leadership, and the mechanics of scaling - not just startup ideation or investment pitches.

  • Climb25 represented a step change. The festival matured into a genuinely national platform, with higher attendance, deeper partner involvement, and more intentional design around networking, matchmaking, and outcomes. By this point, ClimbUK had firmly established itself as a place where meaningful relationships form and real commercial conversations happen - often during the event itself.

Each year, the event has grown not by becoming louder or larger for its own sake, but by becoming more deliberate: better curation, clearer intent, and a stronger emphasis on quality over volume.

Climb26: the next chapter

Climb26 builds directly on that evolution. Taking place on 1–2 July 2026 in Leeds Dock, it is the most ambitious edition of ClimbUK to date - designed around deeper engagement, more structured connection, and clearer outcomes for attendees.

Climb26 continues the festival model rather than a traditional conference format. Across two days, attendees can expect a mix of talks, workshops, roundtables, curated networking, and one‑to‑one meetings - supported by a dedicated event app that allows participants to plan conversations before they arrive and follow up long after the event ends.

The emphasis remains the same:

  • practical insight over theory
  • real conversations over passive listening
  • relationships that continue beyond the event itself

Beyond the festival: ClimbTour

ClimbUK is no longer just a once‑a‑year moment.

ClimbTour extends the Climb experience beyond Leeds, bringing smaller, more focused events to different regions throughout the year. These sessions are designed to carry the same Climb principles — honest discussion, practical learning, and meaningful connection — into more intimate, locally rooted settings.

ClimbTour allows the community to stay connected between festivals, explore specific themes in more depth, and ensure that the Climb ecosystem remains active year‑round rather than concentrated into a single annual event.

What ClimbUK is - and isn’t

ClimbUK isn’t a trade show, a lecture series, or a box‑ticking networking event. It’s a working festival designed for people who are navigating growth in real time.

If you’re building, operating, investing in, or supporting ambitious businesses - and you value clarity, substance, and human conversation over buzzwords - ClimbUK exists for you.