UKAEG at UK House in Birmingham

Last week, the UK Advertising Exports Group (UKAEG) headed to Birmingham to join the 271 creatives, technologists, and business experts attending the UK House in Birmingham, at the Commonwealth Games. The full-day programme was an opportunity to present  the business case for CreaTech to international business partners and investors, as well as UK exporters, as part of the creative and digital technologies strand hosted both in Birmingham and online. Featuring in the line-up was UK creative tech production agency  Happy Finish,  one of  CreaTech’s  ‘2019 One To Watch‘ and UKAEG member, who hosted a session in the Creative & Emerging Technologies and Investment event.

Other organisations participating included the Department for International Trade (DIT) – who took over the space during the  Games, to transform it into UK House -, Meraki VR Studio, Magnopus, VCCP, Nihilent and Hypercollective, FX Digital, and other companies listed on CreaTech ‘Ones to Watch’ list of 100 breakthrough businesses.

Createch’s full day programme  comprised more than 50 speakers. Our very own Trade Director, Aisling Conlon, hosted the ‘Geospatial AR, VR Talent and Interactive Sport’ session,  together with  Happy Finish Co-Founder Rainer Usselmann and Head of Immersive Jerome Botbol. This session drove us through the benefits of AR, mainly: it is more accessible than fully immersive metaverse platforms and it allows for persistent digital assets to be anchored to specific locations in the real world with great accuracy. In other words, AR allows for the creation of rich content and experience that are ‘superimposed’ over physical reality. They also highlighted some of the key emerging uses of AR: from art and culture to engineering, retail, sports, entertainment – and even OOH advertising. You can read more about the session here.

The session also included a couple of exciting announcements:

A new analysis revealing that investment in UK CreaTech is on track this year to exceed the 2021 record of $1.2bn. The announcement, made by Tech Nation’s George Windsor, shows that the value of the UK CreaTech ecosystem has increased by 161% since 2017, with UK CreaTech’s employment also rising by nearly 200%.

A new £30m programme supporting the UK’s most innovative creative industries business, announced by Esra Kasapoglu, Innovate UK.

Other sessions explored trading opportunities with India, with a special focus on the vibrant CreaTech scene in the West Midlands – UK’s fastest-growing tech sector.

We want to give a massive thanks to the CreaTech, DIT, UK House in Birmingham and Happy Finish for holding such an inspiring event. We look forward to seeing you again!

Want to learn more about the sessions? You can watch replays from the event here.