Our tips for London Tech Week

London Tech Week is coming to town next week – and given its scale and reach, it’s hard to imagine that it was only set up three years ago.

From June 20 to 26, tech enthusiasts, specialists and trainers will converge on the capital to take part in Europe’s biggest tech event.

There are lots of events we’re looking forward to. The UnGagged SEO and digital marketing conference on the 23rd and 24th promises to be really interesting for any forward-thinking marketer. It sells itself as an event where speakers promise to be ‘utterly uncensored and unrecorded’, and this promise might hold true.

There will be talks from the Head of Global SEO at one of the world’s largest adult webcam sites, the Search Advertising Lead for Microsoft UK, as well as Bas van den Beld who was voted European Search Personality of the Year in 2015 – so a pretty wide scope. Bas will be giving a talk on storytelling, backing it with examples from neuro-marketing, and will also be on a panel called The Rise of Humans and ‘how technology is shaping the future but importantly how as marketers we will have to remember the human side of the equation.’ One for UGC evangelists!

Another one to put in the diary will be the Data Festival from the 24th to the 25th June. Anyone working with reviews and UGC knows that data is one of the key side products – and can be vitally important for marketing, research & development and customer service. The event on the 24th will feature real life stories from businesses who’ve managed to use data to their advantage. It’ll be taking place at Wayra UK, an accelerator which has acted as a petri dish for some flourishing and fertile businesses.

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We’ve spoken about consumer privacy before and if you’re worried about the boundaries between open UGC and privacy, then there will be lots of events that will prove helpful for technology businesses concerned about the recent changes in consumer rights legislation over the last 12 months. The law firm Harbottle & Lewis LLP will be hosting a seminar on data privacy and consumer rights in the tech world.

That’s just a smidgen of events on offer during the week. Have a look at everything that’s going on here.

But what if you can’t get down to London? Which influencers should you be following?

1. Rohan Silva

When it comes to the London tech scene, Rohan Silva is part of the furniture. The former senior policy advisor to David Cameron and special adviser to George Osborne, set up a swish co-working space called Second Home in Spitalfields. According to Startups UK, ‘Some of the most progressive pieces of government policy in recent years including open data, a commitment to aid spending, the Big Society and the national Life Science Strategy bear his imprint.’ He also recently wrote an op-ed for the Evening Standard about the Orlando mass-shooting and the necessity of sharing data to fight terrorism.

Plus, he drinks at The Eagle in Farringdon, eats at Santoré on Exmouth Market and is always on hand for a book recommendation (he’s opening a bookshop).

2. Eileen Burbidge

Burbidge is one of the forces behind one of the companies we featured recently, the soon-to-be-renamed banking mobile app Mondo. She is a partner at Passion Capital, the leading early-stage technology venture capital investment firm in Europe, based in London.

Follow her on Twitter for news on Passion away days (they team-build at the super club Pacha), what tech leaders think about Brexit and just general musings from an American in London.

3. Sarah Wood

We’ve heard on the grapevine (or just everywhere) that video is going to be the next big thing in online marketing. Cool beans. Sarah Wood is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the leading platform for social video advertising Unruly. If you want to know how your business can create, share and promote video content, this is the feed you should be following.

In September, the company was bought by News Corp for up to £114 million. Unruly has recently released a report which is right up our street: ‘What do Millennials love, hate and want from video advertising?’

4. Russ Shaw

Yes, another familiar name from the Reevoo podcast alumni (listen here) but can we help it if we’ve been interviewing the great and the good of the London tech scene? Russ Shaw started Tech London Advocates and is part of the London Tech Week steering group – so he’s sure to be tweeting frantically during the week.

He’s mostly been tweeting about the referendum in recent weeks (who in the London tech scene hasn’t?) but he’s probably the best person to follow if you want to know exactly what’s happening during London Tech Week and what are the unmissable events.

5. Richard Anson

Yes, a shameless plug for the Reevoo founder but an account really worth following if you want to know what he’s been reading, which luminary is next on the podcast, and what the man behind Reevoo is really like.

Have an amazing London Tech Week!

The best ways to enjoy London Tech Week