Tech City: The Other 'Team GB' to Get Behind This Summer

This summer's unabashed patriotism has not passed me by. But aside from our sportsmen and women, I will also be cheering on a very different 'Team GB'. Based just down the road from the Olympics base, its members have also made the UK a world-class contender in its field.
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This summer's unabashed patriotism has not passed me by - I will be one of many supporting our top athletes from the stands at the Olympic Park.

But aside from our sportsmen and women, I will also be cheering on a very different 'Team GB'. Based just down the road from the Olympics base, its members have also made the UK a world-class contender in its field.

The startups in Tech City that cluster around the Old Street roundabout continue to go from strength to strength in their quest to be amongst the world's finest.

Thousands of talent-rich small companies line the area - like EDITD, a kind of 'Bloomberg for fashion'; taxi booking service HAILO and luxury travel club Secret Escapes. These firms and more mean that London genuinely competes on the world innovation stage.

Moreover, a number of recent announcements have signified a vote of confidence in the area from some of the world's major players.

Amazon is to open a digital innovation hub in the area that will house hundreds of their technical staff.

Emap is also moving into the area, whilst Google is to extend its London Campus, currently based in Tech City, to the rest of the UK through a mentoring service and network programmes. The London Campus is thriving, with around 5,000 members, 100 of which have office space at the flourishing hub.

Fittingly, Tech City is now giving the UK's startups another opportunity to fly the flag for Great Britain. The StartUp Games, a competition delivered by the Tech City Investment Organisation and StartUp Britain will give the world's most talented entrepreneurs the chance to be recognised as an international startup champion.

During three days of intense training and competition, participants will hear from digital leaders such as Dan Crow, CTO of Songkick; Paul Birch, Co-Founder of Bebo; and Debu Purkayastha, Principal, New Business Development at Google.

Initiatives like these give our capital's startups the chance to shine. But to continue to stay ahead of the pack, Tech City must continue to grow, and quickly. It risks being overtaken by burgeoning European tech hubs from Berlin, Paris and Istanbul.

Our growing businesses need space at a good price, and this is something that the government hopes that the post-2012 Olympic Park will provide, by turning East London into a 'tech corridor'.

In a leap forward for the scheme, the Olympics media centre near Stratford is going to be transformed into a technology hub. iCITY, the idea developed by IT firm Infinity, is the sole preferred bidder to become the tenant of the media centre. iCITY's proposal is to develop the space into a hub for creative technology industries - in a move that has been warmly welcomed by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Naysayers have said that it will be difficult to create the same unique mix that has resulted in such a hotbed of talent on the Old Street roundabout. Admittedly, there are several enticements that would be difficult to replicate, such as the unique character of the bars and restaurants of Shoreditch and Hoxton that make Tech City such an appealing place to work...and network.

Time will tell whether the Olympic Park will be a place where startups will thrive, but in my view, any move that looks to expand the tech scene of East London is a good one.

Tech City is doing well, but like any top squad, the leaders in the UK technology field are hungry for more. They will need more space and low rents, more investors and more innovators, better broadband and wifi connectivity, more flotations, and really more business model disruption.

So this focus on boosting London's tech scene should be applauded and continued. We need to keep Tech City ahead of the pack - and in doing so keep it a source of national identity and pride.