5 years ago

Year in Review 2019

From celebrating 5 years since the launch of Here East at SXSW to welcoming Staffordshire University London's Digital Institute and the UK's first ever Esports degree, we look back on all the exciting things that took place in 2019 at Here East.

It has been another phenomenal year at Here East. We've had many great moments, from speaking on the ContentMakers stage at WebSummit and Lisbon to launching our inaugural East London Innovators campaign celebrating 50 local innovators. Our campus has welcomed more big, small and different businesses, paving the way in industries from esports to mobility and smart cities.

We're proud to have hosted an incredible array of events this year. We hosted the official launch of London Tech Week, as well as Innoskate festival, 50 Years of the Internet event and schools workshop and our Summer Here programme, to name but a few.

Here are a few highlights from 2019:

We welcomed the UK Prime Minister Theresa May to Here East for the official opening ceremony of London Tech Week. The Prime Minister delivered an inspiring talk on the need to continue to strengthen the UK’s tech knowledge to ensure we remain on the front foot.

In March we celebrated 5 years since the Here East brand was launched at SXSW 2014. Born out of our vision to create a major new technology and creative campus in London, which had collaboration and innovation at its heart, we are proud to stand strong as part the technology eco-system in London, the UK and across the globe.

Staffordshire University London's Digital Institute joined Here East as a brand-new institution devoted to training the technoplogical pioneers of the future. The all-new Digital Institute London delivers the UK's first ever esports degree and houses incredible facilities including a designated esports arena.

Our first Here East Insights session was delivered in partnership with Create Jobs and hosted by Sports Interactive. Here East Insights are delivered to show young east Londoners the careers and opportunities available on their doorstep at businesses based at Here East. The vision for Here East Insights is set to grow for 2020, with our Gaming and Creative Content editions being hugely successful.

The Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation is held its seventh Innoskate festival at Here East to complement the Street League Skateboarding (SLS) Olympic Qualifying event at the Copperbox Arena. Innoskate brought together skateboarders and non-skate audiences to appreciate that creativity, invention, and innovation are all around us and found in unexpected places.

We welcomed APL Logistics, the smart global supply chain services provider, to Here East. APL Logistics designs and operates smart globally integrated supply chains, combining origin and destination logistics solutions with transportation services across all modes and regions of the world.

EAST Education Summer School brought local young people aged 13-16 to Here East for week one-off classes and week-long programmes delivered by world-leading organisations such as UCL, UAL’s London College of Fashion, Sadler’s Wells and the V&A in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. Other organisations involved included Here East tenants Studio Wayne McGregor, Badu Sports, Loughborough University London.

We hosted English National Ballet in a temporary home while they rehearsed for their Cinderella in-the-round performance. We were lucky enough to be invited to sneak peaks of their rehearsal performances too.

LMA, co-owned by Robbie Williams, is the latest academic institution to join the thriving tech, creative and education clusters based at Here East. The Liverpool-based media, music and performing arts institution, co-owned by global performer Robbie Williams, will be taking up 30, 220 sq ft at in the Broadcast centre.

We announced a brand-new £1.2m East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone (ELIEZ) featuring an innovation lab at Plexal optimised for accessibility, to create the UK’s most accessible technology hub alongside University College London (UCL), Plexal and Research England.

Here East joined 1,200 speakers and more than 160 countries at Web Summit in Lisbon for the annual summit that will shape tomorrow’s tech industry. We were delighted to be on the ContentMakers stage this year discussing what is required to fuel the growth of the esports industry. The panel featured Gavin Poole, CEO of Here East, Rachel Gowers, Director at Staffordshire University’s Digital Institute London and Bono Huis, esports F1 Driver at McLaren.