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London Tech Week 2017

So, here it is… London Tech Week 2017!

‘Where creativity, talent and innovation come together’ – and that is so true. There’s a number of events, activities and (drinking/after parties) taking place all week. People are flying in from around the world to take part by sharing knowledge and learning from others.

There’s some great events… I’m not going to go through them all (you can find them on Google – oh, who are also hosting some events), but at the Excel Centre, you have have the Tech XLR8. It has some brilliant people attending and fantastic talks each day, every day, this week.

You’ll get the usual in various places.. such as Robot’s welcoming you…

to lots of creative people and activities taking place. The Mayor of London opened Tech Week…

One of the things that were mentioned was how, Sadiq Khan wants to transform London to a ‘World’s Leading Smart City’. He announced there would be some investment, for example the £1.6m investment for the clean technology incubator, Better Futures.

There’s also a new Tech Innovation Centre, that’ll home 800 startups in the East End of London.

This is all great. My thoughts for a ‘Smart City’? – there’s a few key ingredients you need… (and looks like, London has many of them).

  1. Smart Leadership – It all starts from the top. With the Mayor opening the week (which is great example of Leadership believing in that technology is key to the City), to the leaders of some major organisations & companies around the World coming to London to talk and learn.
  2. Smart People – There are a lot of smart people around London. Many of them are doing events from Tech XLR8 to Tug Life, to many more. Smart people connecting at these events is only a good thing!
  3. Smart Thinking – It’s when these connections are made, that they can then foster a relationship and blossom the ideas generated. Thinking together and having opportunities (including Space, Offices, etc…) will help ideas move into a ‘pilot’ phase.
  4. Smart Results – The first London Tech Week was in 2014. It’s only become bigger and better over the years – and this shows that there are actions that are taking place and more importantly, delivering results.

I feel, any city, in the UK, can do this. A number of cities (outside of London) are in London, taking advantage of the audience and promoting what they can offer and sharing some of their experiences – most of which are just outside of London.

So, the question is.. Bal, which events are you attending?

I’ll be at the Excel Centre, a few others… but one i’m looking forward to is Tug Life III…

I’ll be there on Thursday morning – which has a great title (each day, there is a different topic) and looking forward to listening to key experts share their knowledge and what they think is going to happen.

Human Vs Machine. Isn’t that so relevant for everything tech related today.