The Tech Off Lowdown – London technology event review
An industrial-looking warehouse inspired club; unruly enthusiastic crowd; rock music courtesy of resident DJ Beefcake; several crates of ale; rapid-fire TED-style talks and two Mexican wrestlers in luchador masks and capes (The Fabulous Bakewell Boys). That’s right! We attended The Tech Off ‘North Vs. South’ last Wednesday at Cargo in Shoreditch – the heart of the London technology scene.
We’ve been to plenty of events before, but nothing like this. It was an unforgettable night to let your hair down and soak up all the entertaining tech wisdom. Techdept CEO MC Danimal AKA “The Beyonce Of Tech” brought together ten of the brightest tech minds from North and South Britain to battle it out for the coveted ‘Belt of Tech’ and chance to come back and defend their title at the next event. In order to achieve this, speakers would have to give a powerful, five minute talk about their passion in the London technology space with the aim of winning over the baying crowd – who were the ultimate judges – verified by a pretend clapometer to measure the decibel rating. We could immediately see why the event had often been described as “The Lovechild of TED talks and WWE”. Previous battles had taken place at Cannes Lions, Festival of Marketing, London Tech Week and SXSW – ticking off all the uber cool boxes.
We had three favourite talks at The Tech Off. First up was SXSW champion, Nick Bax from Human Studio who tried his utmost to defend his title with his talk on ‘Are you ready for the future?’ which reflected on how the past was continuously inspiring innovations for the future.
Next up, Jessie Driscoll captured our heart as she led the troop of tech ladies on the eve of International Women’s Day. She got in character with her friends to highlight and spread awareness about the forgotten women in tech from the past such as Grace Hopper – a US Navy rear admiral who was at the forefront of computers and programming development from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Last but not least was IBM’s Alison Clark from the North who smashed the ball out of the park with an innuendo-filled, playful talk about how the best things started with the letter C – including chocolate and how coffee was one of the most understated, valuable commodities.
Overall, The Tech Off was definitely a great mid-week refreshing event. If you haven’t been before and are interested in the London technology scene, we would absolutely recommend heading to the next one!
Written by Richa Kundnani, Cherish PR