Prime Minister Theresa May officially opened London Tech Week at Here East on Monday morning, at the first of more than 250 events across the capital this week.
At the start of her final month in office, the Prime Minister pledged that the Government would put tech at the forefront of its industrial strategy moving forward, announcing an additional£153 million of government funding, 2,500 spaces on AI and data master’s degrees, and financial support for 1,000 scholarships to ensure inclusivity across all backgrounds in the sector.
Focusing on the opportunity for government and the tech sector to collaborate, the Prime Minister drew attention to other emerging tech sectors across the country including Bristol and Manchester, and echoed other speakers in celebrating the huge progress made to date, withBritish tech adding more than £130 billion to our economy every year. “Let’s come together to create a tech nation that truly is worlds apart”, she said.
The Prime Minister’s pledge was the first of a number of panels and speeches that demonstrated that the UK’s tech scene is continuing to gain momentum. The opening ceremony at the Olympic Park-based tech campus celebrated this growth and ambition, with Plexal managing director Andrew Roughan launching proceedings before handing over to Tech London Advocates founder Russ Shaw, who is set to attend more than 30 of the week’s events as one of London Tech Week’s founding partners.
Panels at the event included a discussion around tech innovation outside of London and across the nation, with co-founder and managing partner of GP Bullhound, Manish Madhvani. A later discussion moderated by Russ Shaw around how to create world-leading tech hubs featured Mark Gainey, co-founder and chairman of social network for athletes, Strava.
London Tech Week will see hundreds of events take place across the city including CogX, Europe’s largest festival of AI and emerging technology, which Seven Hills is proud to be supporting.