LeWeb is holding its first ever conference in London. It’s a glamorous shindig being held in the grandiose, unerringly British Central Hall in Westminster, designed to bring together the hottest start-ups and happily profligate investors. Yet for all the British pride at the event, there are barely any Brit start-ups showcasing their wares here.
All but one of the numerous companies we’ve spoken to today were from outside of the UK. The French are here, of course, but it is the Americans who have dominated proceedings. There’s Salesforce.com’s new purchase Buddy Media and highly-valued cloud storage firm Box, both of which have two of the biggest displays at Le Web and have been speaking on the plenary stages. Facebook’s big acquisition Instagram is here too, amongst many more.
The Brits who spoke on the main stage today were either government officials or investor-focused big-wigs. Some of David Cameron’s advisers were here peddling the Coaliton’s “aren’t we doing a great job” lines about their work on technology. Martha Lane Fox was here too, talking about the need to make the UK a great digital force. Oh and there was Jamie Oliver. Which was nice.
One of the founders of a young start-up named EverFeel based in France told TechWeekEurope that there was clearly a scene in the UK and it was likely British start-ups were busy “networking like crazy” on their own. He hit on another a fine point: it doesn’t matter that the Brits aren’t here, it matters that businesses are here regardless of where they are from. That Britain is increasingly being seen as a great place to talk tech and pen major deals is a great thing. It’s hard to disagree with that.
Yet youthful US firms are here. Their home remains the centre of the IT universe, but they still travel afar to spread the good word about their products. And that’s just when they are start-ups – just imagine what they will be doing 10 or 15 years down the line if they survive. Even US firms with less than 10 employees – like Codecademy – are invited to speak at events like LeWeb. UK vendors just don’t get that kind of coverage.
What remains clear from our visit to LeWeb is that the UK is still some way behind the US when it comes to being a tech superpower. It was Jamie Oliver who, disturbingly, made one of the more pertinent comments of the day, saying the UK “was no way near” where it should be.
But transforming the UK into a hive of tech activity will take time. As governments change over the coming years, let’s hope the positive policies of the Coalition are maintained and built upon. The embryonic phase of the Great British tech push is coming to a close. It’ll soon be time to grow up.
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Tom, I think more people would have gone if they new it was actually happening. I didn't find out about this until Saturday.
Hi Teddie,
Hmm, so it seems Le Web wasn't advertised to the UK start-up community. Bizarre that they wouldn't be reaching out to hot UK start-ups.
Thanks,
Tom Brewster
Deputy Editor
London Web Summit felt more UK focused than LeWeb and I think the price of the ticket had something to do with it (LeWeb being so much more expensive). LeWeb seems to attract bigger tech companies where London Web Summit is for the true startup community, more of the Shoreditch, Silicon Roundabout crowd.
The Brits were there!
- Hailo
- Blippar, a UK startup, won the competition
- In the alley : Foodity, Flubit, Udozi, Blueglue etc.
If you look at the list of participants, there ere 500 people from Great Britain attending LeWeb London !
I'm French, but I was happy to be able to meet plenty of UK startupers
Hi Alex,
Seems they weren't being vocal enough then! Also, why were none given the opportunity to speak on the main stage? And where were the big name start-ups that we know? US was still so dominant. Good to see you saw some Brit action though!
Tom Brewster
Deputy Editor
We were there, spoke to TechWeek and I guess we might have been the one you mentioned!
It would have been nice to see some more start-ups there, but not a fair gauge to measure the 'heat' of UK startups based on whether they were at LeWeb or not. Rest assured the UK startup scene is alive and well.