With London Tech Week in full swing, Russ Shaw, founder of Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates, gives us the inside scoop on the industry with his daily diary
The 11th edition of London Tech Week may be drawing to a close, but the buzz of activity that has propelled this week forward has continued right into the final day.
The anticipated Semi Impact Forum opened proceedings this morning, with Professor Konrad Young, a former R&D director at TSMC, leading a packed agenda which included speakers from the UK Semiconductor Advisory Panel, techUK and leading UK and Taiwanese semiconductor companies including NARLabs
With much of the morning’s discussions focused on fostering collaboration opportunities between Taiwan and the UK, the event served as a timely reminder of tech’s truly international character.
Awareness of this is fundamental to London Tech Week’s continued success. At its heart, this week serves as an open forum for the tech world’s leaders to meet, forge new connections and inspire breakthroughs in the sector.
International networks: London’s great strength
At the heart of London’s monumental success as a capital city sits the truly diverse communities that it has always welcomed so openly.
Such diversity serves the capital well, fostering unique opportunities for London-based founders to create new international partnerships, with the ultimate goal of expanding their operations worldwide.
The fringe events over the last week have been testament to this; over just five days, events have encouraged collaboration with countries and regions from every corner of the world; from Hong Kong and Shanghai to Ghana, India to Canada and Australia and from the South East Asian ‘ASEAN’ region to Latin America.
There are few cities in the world that would attract such a diverse litany of delegates – London’s convening power is clearly felt globally.
In advance of the recent London Mayoral Election, Tech London Advocates authored a tech manifesto to guide the eventual winner. At the heart of this manifesto was the request for the incoming Mayor to make London the world’s capital city.
The potential is there, and weeks such as this showcase why.
Tech requires successful collaboration
There are few, if any, industries that rely on international networks quite as much as tech.
No single country with ambitions in this space can purely rely on their own ingenuity. Even tech behemoths such as the US and China, with economies that dwarf the rest of the world’s, remain dependent on others to develop some of the core tech that drives their success.
Take Taiwan’s dominance in Chip manufacturing, Japan’s in Robotics, Sweden’s in CleanTech or the UK’s in FinTech: each country is able to capitalise on unique strengths that are hard, if not impossible to replicate elsewhere.
Equally, tech’s most dangerous extremes can only be addressed and curbed by internationally coordinated responses.
In this respect, AI immediately springs to mind as a clear example of this. Forming universal rules and regulations are critical if the technology is to continue evolving without harming the consumers it is designed to help. The recent launch of the AI Safety Summit last November by the UK Government is a great example of this.
Global Tech Advocates will introduce a new platform next month called ‘Launch Pad’ to help startups and scaleups who want to expand internationally. I hosted a GTA Leaders Breakfast this week, with many GTA Leaders who travelled from near and far to be here and to get their inputs for this new platform.
London Tech Week 2024: An unrivalled success
The capital should look back with pride at what has been another successful London Tech Week.
In total, registrations from 146 countries were recorded, with an estimated 25,000 attendees at Olympia and 45,000 joining all events across the city including the fringe events and The AI Summit.
This is a remarkable feat, and a clear demonstration of the sway that London, and the UK in general, holds in this most dynamic of sectors.
To all those delegates who joined us from every corner of the world: I hope that you go home with a spring in your step and a story or two about the innovation that is happening here.
To all those who worked tirelessly throughout the week to put on many wonderful events: thank you, it is your efforts that make this week so special and, to give it a personal feel, it truly would not be possible without you.
Another London Tech Week may have passed, but everyone knows that tech never stands still.
It will be 2025 before we know it – see you at an even bigger and better London Tech Week 2025!