Forget The IT Crowd stereotypes: they no longer apply to those who work in technology.

The likes of Google and Apple have made the industry cool, and it’s now filled with trendy, innovative companies that dictate how the world interacts.

Tech Entrepreneurs Week (November 26-29) in London offers a chance to learn more about where tech’s headed, make contacts and get advice on how to potentially make millions with a great idea or unique skill.

We get a head start from three entrepreneurs in the field …

Graham Cooke, from the UK, is one of four ex-Google employees behind technology solutions company Qubit.

At 30, Cooke is a CEO and counts the BBC, Staples, Blackberry, John Lewis and Expedia among his clients for website analytics and data collection.

At the age of 10 he designed his first system to cool a hot car from a mobile remote control, so his success is not a huge surprise.

“I’d always been interested in technology and I knew this from a relatively early age,” Cooke says.

“It’s a cliché, but technology is the future. The major developments in the ways in which the world operates, how people interact, how they’re entertained and how they make money is all coming from technology. So, it’s just a really exciting place to be.”

With job satisfaction coming from finding solutions and coming up with great new ideas, technology also offers good money.

Cooke says juniors can make about £20k a year in their first role. Then, he says, the sky is the limit.

And you don’t always need a degree or experience to penetrate your field of interest – technology really is one of those industries which rewards skills, no matter how you acquired them.

“You don’t necessarily need to have years and years of experience to have and execute a great idea,” Cooke says. “Some of the most successful people in technology are ridiculously young!”

Brit Joss Crowcroft, 24, started freelancing straight out of university, where he had studied music, and says he was earning £400-800 per month “off the bat”.