London is becoming the global testbed for a new kind of tech, and it’s all about the experience economy, writes Paul Armstrong
London is no longer trying to out-hardware the world. It’s testing something else: what happens when you swap products for presence.
From 28 April to 2 May, the first London Experience Week will throw the city wide open. Think “fashion week for experiences”, only with spatial audio, adaptive light, AR, AI-generated environments and haptics. Microsoft, Netflix and Pepsi are on the bill. So are Marshmallow Laser Feast, Punch Drunk, Bompas & Parr and a rotating cast of global provocateurs including designers from Mexico, Chile, Denmark, India, Egypt. It’s not a conference. It’s not a launchpad. It’s a signal.
British institutions are already leaning into this shift. ITV is using immersive formats to evolve stale linear storytelling. Aston Martin is experimenting with (insert finger wiggles here) narrative environments. The Lost Estate has turned a 1950s Havana bar into an interactive theatre-dining hybrid. These aren’t stunts, more early drafts of what it looks like when tech stops shouting and starts staging.
London’s lead on immersive tech
James Wallman, CEO of the World Experience Organisation, is bullish on London’s impact: “London has always led the way, and new emerging technologies are colliding with new opportunities, and realities, in the capital. The medium isn’t the headset anymore. It’s the moment. Experience design is becoming the new UX. No dashboards. No installs. Just architecture, atmosphere and emotional payload..”
Inside the London Growth Plan, approved in February, sits a mandate to support the city’s “experience economy” – a phrase that used to mean street food and installations. Now it includes adaptive computing, body-centric interfaces, memory engineering and emotion-responsive AI. Immersive media isn’t just entertainment anymore – it’s becoming London’s new stack.
Other cities are betting on agents and automation. London is betting on vibes. Not attention economy 2.0, but curated cognitive architecture – the idea that narrative, sound, space and human response can be composited into live technology. Not just tech that works. Tech that lands.
SXSW will launch its first London edition this June. A Hunger Games immersive world opens in Canary Wharf this summer. The city is also set to host the inaugural UN//SCENE Festival, a grassroots, volunteer-led conference, built to platform what’s not yet platformed. Rather than slotting ideas into existing power structures, UN//SCENE is building a stage for new ones. The talks, debates and presentations will be inclusive, accessible and immersive. Co-founder Lucy Barbor explains why: “UN//SCENE will be a show, not a show off. London needs a stage for fresh thinking and unheard voices. Profits are going to charity and egos are being checked at the door. UN//SCENE is a space for idea sharing, not pushing product. We’re focused on solutions to the challenges we are collectively facing to create hope, not harm.”
Tech companies are embracing the shift
In a moment of platform fatigue and digital sameness, London is positioning itself as a counterweight – less about cloud infrastructure, more about cultural infrastructure. The bet is that immersion can be an industry, not just an aesthetic.
Brands aren’t just watching, they’re adapting. Microsoft is demoing cognitive load-aware spatial tools. Netflix is working on participatory narrative structures. These are low-key pilots for a high-stakes shift: from owned content to embodied systems. Nothing you can scroll, but everything you can feel. Experience is hard to screenshot. It resists metrics. That’s the point. In a climate of surveillance saturation and content overflow, the new value proposition isn’t frictionless access, it’s full-spectrum memory. What happens when identity becomes momentary, not mobile? What if the next UX isn’t a tap but a table you sit at, or a room that changes as you move?
London’s edge lies in its messiness. Layers of heritage and history make it a natural playground for remixing narrative, architecture and atmosphere. Experience pioneers aren’t just invited here –they’re born here. That density allows the city to prototype immersion across scale, from commercial spectacle to indie subversion. Award-winning companies like Darkfield, East City Films and co fly the flag for our industry around the world according to industry expert Muki Kulhan: “[The UK] have nailed the art of unforgettable IRL experiences, whether solo or in groups. At the same time, venues of every kind – from museums, like Moco Museum, and cultural hubs to new immersive spaces like The Outernet, these companies are making London a city where boredom simply isn’t an option.”
Experience doesn’t scale like software. Memory can’t be optimised like screen time. Yet the tech industry’s obsession with frictionless efficiency is giving way to something more embodied. If the last decade was about building for eyeballs, the next will be about designing for emotion, and getting things to the right people before they know they want that thing. Attention remains finite while presence is becoming scarce. Meaning, when delivered well, brands create a lot of loyalty that data alone never could. London is building an ecosystem for that. A city not trying to sell you a device – but trying to give you something to feel, and remember. Smart brands should be getting in on the action by co-branding, partnering and enabling long-term plays now.
Paul Armstrong is founder of TBD Group (including TBD+), and author of Disruptive Technologies