One of the world’s biggest festivals of creativity landed in Shoreditch this June, bringing with it a showcase of ideas and inspiration for the thousands of attendees – including Hotwire.
SXSW London’s inaugural event (2–7 June 2025) transformed East London into a buzzing tech campus across 30+ venues. From the iconic Barbican Centre to the historic Shoreditch Church, global innovators gathered to share insights with the crowds assembled.
Was it perfect? No, of course not. Day one of a huge multi-campus festival was always going to have teething issues. There were timing clashes, oversubscribed sessions – and it took far too long to move between Shoreditch Electric and the Truman Brewery campus – but these were minor challenges in context. There were plenty of fun to be had, while the takeaways from the conference stream were flowing.
The big picture: Why this matters for comms
The event kicked off with different opening remarks depending on the theatre you’d chosen. In ours, we were presented a challenge – the growing gap between technological possibility and regulatory reality, which risks becoming too wide. As William Richmond-Coggan from Freeths put it, we’ve spent centuries crafting privacy laws, yet today’s tech advances are moving at lightning pace. William spoke of the need for “anticipatory regulation” – something comms professionals can support by participating in public discourse around emerging tech and its human impact.
His message was clear: we need to move fast and fix things before they cause issues, not after.
AI: A creative partner, or your replacement?
It didn’t take long for AI to enter the day’s discussion. Vanessa Kingori, Google’s Managing Director of Technology, Media and Telecoms, was the first to lean into it, delivering her message: “The sure-fire way to lose out to AI is not to engage with it.”
The conversations continued throughout the day, with one clear takeaway emerging: AI may not be the job-stealing villain the headlines often portray. It’s a powerful enabler of creativity. And this wasn’t just talk; compelling evidence backed it up. For instance, Shell’s most recent hackathon attracted thousands more participants than usual, a surge likely driven by AI tools that made it easier for individuals to bring their ideas to life and succeed. As trend forecaster Rohit Bhargava, Non Obvious Company put it, “If we expect failure, that’s what we’ll get.” Instead, AI is shifting that mindset, helping ideas materialise faster and enabling people to express and share them more effectively than before.
There was plenty of practical advice too. We wouldn’t have been surprised if Google had a sponsorship deal going on, as we heard Notebook LM, and its ability to transform meeting notes into podcast content, mentioned more than once. We were also encouraged to leverage AI for concept development and ideation.
The content un-revolution: Long-form is back
Moving away from AI, the creator stream (taking place at the Rich Mix site) threw us some clear rules to follow for successful content creation. Apparently, we’re witnessing a seismic shift from short-form back to long-form content. This is being driven by a desire for deeper engagement than the fast-paced, short-form content found on social media.
Tom Sneddon from Supernova spoke to us about the rules of “grown-up social”, and how it should reshape our approach to content strategy. His rules for content success included:
- Measure relentlessly: “What’s measured gets better”
- Move fast: Slow evolution is content death
- Embrace authenticity: Fight against perfectionism and get raw
- Collaborate across formats: One handle, one channel, one medium is over
- Be brave: The creator market value demands boldness
This theory was brought to life when the RedHanded podcast co-hosts took to the stage to discuss how they turned their true crime passion into a multimillion-pound business. Clue: they followed many of Tom’s tips. Key for them was turning listeners into fans – and then fans into friends – through subscription tiering.
Future gazing
Most of the day was spent moving between panels with a firm focus on the future and what’s coming next. The “View from 2050” conversation, held on the cavernous SXSW stage, told us to dial down our fears. The Western world tends to be more afraid of frontier technologies than Asia, for example, where they understand that new technology leads to new revenue streams for the economy.
One panellist’s prediction made everyone smile: “In 2050, it’ll be amusing how scared people in 2025 were of technology. It will be like us being told to use a typist to create our letters or emails.”
Another interesting point was around the robotics and automation economy. Lucy Guo, Founder & CEO of Scale AI, believes people will soon begin to move out of cities as they are redesigned to suit robot culture and autonomous vehicles. It’s quite a vision – but how that will be tackled on the historic streets of London remains to be seen.
The experience of SXSW London
What made SXSW London special wasn’t just the talks, it was the energy and the feeling that this was something a little bit different. The spaces themselves told a story: from intimate “small and cosy” conference rooms to the dramatic scale of the SXSW Stage, each offered a different energy, perfect for the conversations being held. The impact of the opening area at Truman Brewery, with its spongy astroturf and dynamic videos, built excitement from the moment you walked in.
We explored interactive booths showcasing creative partnerships, listened to musicians playing in the sun as people relaxed on beanbags, and even sat and sampled an interactive VR Japanese horror movie as audiences milled around us in an industrial lobby. Altogether, it created an ‘expect the unexpected’ vibe, and it certainly wasn’t what I’d have expected from a traditional exhibition or business event. Plus this was only one day, and one small section of the programme! You’d need a large team to cover everything the schedule had to offer.
The takeaway
Walking away from SXSW London with nearly 20,000 steps on the pedometer and a head full of insights, three things were clear:
- Anticipatory thinking beats reactive planning – whether it’s regulation, content trends, or workplace equity
- AI is a creativity multiplier, not a job threat. It may require some adaptation, yes, but the professionals who engage with it will thrive
- Authenticity and human connection are becoming more valuable as technology advances, not less
For communications professionals, the message is exciting. This is a time of significant change. The future we’ll see in 2050 is being written right now – and we can help author it.