40,000 attendees. London’s first technology week has been hailed a huge success by leading technology entrepreneurs. Initial estimates from London Technology Week organisers suggest that there were close to 40,000 attendees at events throughout the week, coming from countries around the world including the USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong and South Africa to attend events across the city.
London Technology Week comprised more than 200 independently run events with keynote speakers such as Chairman of Sequoia Capital, Sir Michael Moritz; Michael Birch, co-founder of Bebo; Simon Breakwell, co-founder of Expedia; and Brent Hoberman, co-founder of PRO Founders Capital.
Speaking about the week’s success, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said: “London Technology Week has exceeded all expectations and provided us with the opportunity to fly the flag for a tech sector that is rapidly becoming a world leader and providing billions of pounds of investment and thousands of new jobs in our great city. We want to see the sector continue to thrive and the hundreds of events that took place this week have helped London position itself as a true leader of the global tech scene.”
Simon Breakwell, co-founder of Expedia and partner at the venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures said: “London has developed considerably over the last ten years. It’s now a truly global capital. There’s excellent access to finance, great people with useful skills live and work around London, and there’s a thriving ecosystem of tech companies choosing to base their operations here. London Technology Week is recognition of all these things coming together to make this city a really interesting place for tech companies.”
The success of London’s first Technology Week comes as new data from the world’s largest professional network LinkedIn – released to coincide with the final day of London Technology Week – cites London as the European capital for tech talent, with the highest number of people working in technology jobs across the region. According to LinkedIn, London saw the largest inflow of tech talent with nearly 4,000 skilled technology professionals coming to the city in 2013 – more than 3 times the number of its nearest competitor, Paris which attracted 1,200.
The growth in technology jobs in London is being driven by both large and small companies. LinkedIn data shows that 27 per cent of technology professionals in London are employed by firms with fewer than 200 employees, while 34 per cent of tech jobs are with more than 10,000 employees.
London Technology Week has also been a successful platform for London-based start-ups to network and demonstrate their products. Some of those that have taken part in the week include cross-Atlantic peer to business lender FundingCircle.com, cleaning-on-demand service Hassle.com which recently secured £3.5 million ($6 million) of ‘Series A’ funding, and FashTech business Kovert Designs who create ‘smart’ designer tech jewellery.
London Technology Week has been organised by UBM Live in association with London & Partners – the Mayor’s official promotional organisation for London, ExCeL London and Tech London Advocates.
