First Light
AI Workshop for Women Founders · Leeds · £29
A quarterly half-day AI workshop for women founders across the North of England
Most founders have tried AI and aren't quite sure what to do with it. First Light fixes that. A small room, a practical theme, and four hours that leave you with one concrete thing to test in your business by Monday. No technical background needed.
Built for founders who want
AI to actually work
First Light is designed for women business owners in the North of England: practical, in-person, and built around your real business, not a case study.
- You run your own business, as a founder, sole trader, or director of a women-led company
- You're based in or near Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, York or elsewhere across the North
- You've heard a lot about AI and tried some of it, but you're not sure what's worth your time
- You don't have a tech background, and you don't need one
- You want to leave with something concrete you can act on, not a notebook full of good intentions
- You're curious about the longer programme, or you want to see how we work first
Half a day. One AI shift you can use by Monday.
First Light is designed so you walk out with something you can use even if you never come back. £29 covers everything on the day. Three things you can count on in every session:
One theme, gone deep on
AI for content. AI for client delivery. AI for ops. We pick one and we take it apart and rebuild it from the ground up, with no hype and no theory.
Real businesses in the room
A room of up to twelve women, you included, all of them running something. Agencies, consultancies, product companies. The conversations happen peer to peer, founder to founder.
One thing you'll test next week
Every session ends the same way: each founder takes away one specific experiment to run in her business before the next one. Action you can take this week.
How every First Light session runs
The shape never changes, so the room settles fast and the work goes deep.
Arrivals & warm drinks
We start at 10, giving you time for the school run first. Tea, coffee and water on arrival. The kind of conversations you only get at the edges of a small group.
Theme of the session
A 25-minute opening on the practical question we're working through today, with real examples rather than slides.
Working block
Everyone applies it to her own business. Tools. Drafts. Decisions. Things that move this week.
Light lunch
A 30-minute break with a light lunch provided. Step away from the screen, eat, talk.
Round-the-table & close
Each woman names the one thing she's going to test. The room helps her sharpen it. We close at 14:00, so you're back in time for school pick-up or the afternoon office.
In the same trenches as you.
I'm Jitka. I run Marketiva, a marketing consultancy for scaling founders, and I'm working out where AI helps and where it's just expensive noise, same as you are.
I host these sessions because the conversations I want to be having don't exist yet in the North. Just twelve women running real businesses, in a room, getting honest about what works.
Find your next First Light near you
First Light runs quarterly, city by city, capped at twelve founders per room. Leeds is first, with more cities confirmed below as venues land.
What you leave with
- A clearer picture of where AI fits in your specific business
- Three or four practical applications you can use straight away
- Honest answers to the questions you've been too embarrassed to ask
- A small group of founders working through the same things
- A clear view of whether the longer Compass programme makes sense for you
Next First Light dates
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Booking openLeedsMon 13 July 2026 · NatWest Accelerator, 2 Whitehall Quay, LS1 4HRTheme: AI for marketing & content, turn your expertise into a month of content
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Dates TBAMore citiesRolling out across the North · 2026
First Light · £29 per seat
Includes venue, warm drinks, a light lunch and materials. No upsell pressure on the day.
First Light is your way in.
First Light is one part of the Northern AI Collective, a community of women founders across the North using AI to grow. The community is free to join on Skool, and everyone who comes to First Light gets their first month of paid membership free.
First Light shows you what's possible.
Compass shows you how to make it permanent.
After First Light, Compass is where you build the rest: the systems, the habits, the tools that quietly run in the background of your business for years.
Four weekly half-days over a single month, with the same twelve women each time: content, customer insight, operations and strategy. Because the group doesn't change, the trust builds and the work sticks. Most Compass members come straight from First Light.
Learn more about Compass →- 01 AI for Content, Visibility and Conversion
- 02 AI for Customer Insight and Research
- 03 AI for Operations and Admin
- 04 AI for Strategy and Decision-Making
Questions you are probably thinking
Why is it only £29? What's the catch?
No catch. £29 covers the venue, warm drinks, a light lunch and materials. That's the whole point of the price. First Light exists so women founders across the North can sample how we work without it being a financial decision. If it lands and you want to go deeper, Compass is there. If it doesn't, you've still had a useful half-day.
How technical do I need to be?
Not at all. If you can use email and a web browser, you have what you need. The session is built for founders, and the whole point is to make AI accessible to people who don't think of themselves as technical.
Do I have to join Compass afterwards?
Absolutely not. First Light stands on its own. There's no pitch on the day. If Compass feels like the right next step for you, you'll know, and we'll talk about it then. If not, no follow-up, no pressure. More on Compass here.
What should I bring?
A laptop and an open mind, plus an AI account you can sign into on the day. A free account with a tool like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini is perfectly fine; you don't need a paid one. Everything else, including lunch and materials, is provided.
What if my city isn't listed yet?
We're rolling First Light out across the North through 2026. If your city isn't on the list yet, drop us a line at hello@marketiva.co.uk and we'll let you know when dates are announced near you.
Can I come if I'm on maternity leave?
Absolutely, and please bring your baby. Maternity leave is one of the best times to step back, think about your business, and upskill. Babies are very welcome in the room.
Reserve a seat at the next Leeds session
Twelve seats per session, kept small by design. Booking takes a minute on Eventbrite, and your seat, venue details and confirmation come straight to your inbox.
- Half-day workshop, 10:00 to 14:00
- Warm drinks, light lunch, materials
- A small peer group of women founders
Booking and payment are handled securely through Eventbrite. Limited to twelve seats.