With the dust finally settled from London’s first Technology Week, our editorial team reviewed the highs and lows of 200 packed-out events.
Economic success
It all kicked off with a meeting of minds between Boris Johnson and the former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.
The pair discussed the success and potential growth of the capital’s tech sector – which is estimated at 5.1% every year with a further 46,000 jobs to be created by 2024.
Look out for a full-length video interview with Michael Bloomberg later in the week on staging.uktech.news
World cup meets tech
England’s World Cup campaign failed to dampen anyone’s spirits – it was embraced by Squawka on Monday evening in the match between Germany and Portugal.
At the Soho offices of advertising agency BHH, digital marketers and gaming enthusiasts alike were able to sneak a peek of new visualisation technology which’ll be used to enhance fantasy football.
Internet World
The founding event of London Technology Week, Internet World, began on Tuesday at the ExCeL Centre. For three days cutting-edge technology was on display to thousands of IT, technology and digital marketing professionals.
The good: the #15startups stall showcased exciting talent and innovation coming out of the capital. The bad: creativity often went missing with large amounts of space dedicated to pre-millenium ‘gadgets’ like network cables and routers. The ugly: we heard grumbles from startups who took three days of their time out to exhibit there, only to find the all important electricity connection was an added extra. Of course there’s a cost of living crisis if two days of electricity sets you back £150.
International Hall of Fame
Tuesday evening was a cause for celebration as Tech City News’ International Hall of Fame Awards honoured the foreign talent shaping Britain’s tech sector. Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable MP praised the contribution of foreigners and stressed the importance of immigration for economic growth.
Fashion meets tech
The growing relationship between fashion and technology was demonstrated at FashTech on Wednesday. The presentations by the fifteen startups on show demonstrated the boundaries between these two industries will be taken to the limit in the next few years.
Open House
Tech City News’ Open House on Wednesday evening brought more than a hundred tech entrepreneurs together to exchange ideas. Experts from Reeves, DLA Piper, Clarity.PR, Protean Risk, Optimity, Futureheads, MarketInvoice, Barclays, Rackspace were all on hand to offer advice through our Startup Surgery programme.
Women in tech
The growing campaign to encourage more women to get involved in tech was debated on Thursday evening at the Croydon Conference Centre. Speakers included Alex Depledge, founder of Hassle, Sweta Chattopadhyay of Localfunded; and Ecosystem Development Manager at Level39, Adizah Tejani.
Depledge poignantly summed up the debate with:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, anyone can do what they set their mind to…
Techstars
Techstars London’s Demo Day was the stand-out event on Friday. Techstars is a successful accelerator programme best explained by the inaugural class which has gone on to raise $23m and hire 80 people in just eight months.
Eleven teams travelled from around the world to present their ideas, and from what we saw they’ll be replicating the success of the previous year in no time.
Epic Drinkabout
The week was rounded off perfectly with a bumper-sized Silicon Drinkabout at Bl-nk in the heart of Shoreditch.
Great evening with @silicondrinkabt Thank you to @drosebrugh and the @Grasshopper team @bl_nkhackney pic.twitter.com/kbUTN3JJAj
— I Can Has Teal! (@ICanHasTeal) June 20, 2014
How was your first London Technology Week? Let us know in the comments below.