Here East’s The Future Is Now event in collaboration with Plexal, Lendlease and London Legacy Development Corporation took place at Plexal Stratford this week. Using East London as a case study, it saw a diverse group of speakers gaze into their crystal balls and explore what’s in store for the local community, the UK and overseas in terms of business growth, technologies such as AI, creativity and beyond.
Gavin Poole, CEO at Here East, began by reflecting on the past before looking ahead, detailing the vision for Here East (or iCity as it was originally proposed) that was laid out by him and Plexal CEO Andrew Roughan, which detailed:
Our vision is to deliver a world-leading technology and digital cluster which will enhance and regenerate the local community, boost London’s flourishing, digital and creative industries, deliver growth and diversity to the UK economy and cement Britain’s global position and reputation.
We will make a significant contribution to the legacy of London 2012 and become an integral and connected part of the existing and new communities. As the country seeks to secure a future as a leader of technology, we will enhance the UK’s global position through the transformation of all the assets on the park into a world-class innovation district.
We will build on the success of East London’s existing and flourishing Tech City to ensure that we play a major part in delivering a media and creative cluster of international significance. The power of clustering in the industry is well understood and the benefits are realised in other areas around the globe.

“I thought it was poignant to go back to look at our vision,” said Gavin. “We’ve delivered it, but there’s still more to come. Technology and innovation evolve and continually change. We’re always looking out, five years or more, to make sure we’re prepared and can provide solutions to those businesses growing our economy.”
With this in mind, Plexal’s CEO Andrew went on to deliver a panel discussion entitled: Fuelling innovation – how does Britain go for growth?
But first, for those unfamiliar with Plexal, Andrew gave a topline overview of who we are, explaining simply: “We’re an innovation company focused on bringing together place and innovation.”
The speakers joining Andrew’s discussion panel included:
- Tom Kneen, CTO Office Lead & Head of Country Digital Acceleration programme, Cisco
- Rodrigo Gonzalez, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Notpla
- Sol Rogers, Global Director of Innovation, Magnopus
- Richard Hyde, British Consul General in Chicago
- Suki Fuller, Intelligence Advisor and fellow
Framing the discussion with his position on the matter at hand, Andrew opined: “Innovation isn’t about startups – although they’re a really important component of innovation ecosystems. Innovation is about collaboration and new ideas coming together with the best of breed, building products that suit customers, drive change in society and cause growth and social prosperity.
“Innovation, in my opinion, happens at the edge. There’s the obvious analogy of us being around the edge of London and we’re in a place now that had to scrap hard, be inventive and create its own pathway to claim the right to be a leading innovator.
“But when I really say the edge, I mean it needs to feel anxious, there needs to adrenaline and energy about change, with passion and commitment. And this needs to be multi-actor: we need government, industry, academia, investors and startups – all with equal passion about how we drive innovation and change. And what this means from a mission perspective is what we can do for society as well as for the benefit of the private or public sector.”
Where have we got to today?
As we’re almost 25 years into the century, Andrew asked the panel to cover which innovation they consider to have been the most interesting and transformative moment that’s laid the platform from which we can achieve growth now.
For Rodrigo, whose company specialises in plastics, he’s seen culture become the change. Noting that plastic was invented across the river in Hackney Wick, he went on to add: “There’s a lot of fostered innovation and talent across the community. We teach on UAL, we run tests in the Olympic swimming pool and in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. So, there’s a culture of always trying to move things forward where sustainability is concerned.
Tom pointed to connectivity from the Cisco perspective. “At the beginning of the century, we were not connected wirelessly so you couldn’t roam around the office or other buildings to work from other places. Thinking back to London 2012, that was the first Olympic Games properly featured on social media and our role was to ensure there was more than enough capacity in all arenas.”
Offering an intelligence perspective, Suki noted that it’s the connectivity of people, the way they consume technology. “It’s the ability [people have] to gain and access information faster and, in this geographic region, it’s Here East / Stratford has really burgeon-changed throughout London and the whole country in something of a spider network.”
In questioning Richard and leaning on his international-facing role, Andrew asked how important the UK and London are on the global stage. “London is perceived by Americans as being one of two iconic cities in world which everyone wants to visit along with New York,” Richard said. “I don’t think they really understand the depth of innovation and creativity in London, which is a financial centre first in most people’s eyes – a place to visit palaces and raise capital. We have a a difficult job to persuade people it’s a place you can innovate as well.”
Over to Sol, he noted that our creative industries are a beacon, from arts and entertainment to buildings and games. “The thing that’s happened in the last 25 years is the internet. We invented the internet and the world took it from us because we made it open. The current technology stack for most of the big tech companies [is focused on] trying to control the next internet, the advanced internet, the quantum-powered internet, the AI-powered internet. And we’ve got to make sure that the UK stays ahead of that curve and creates apps and experiences that can touch anybody in the world.”

Focus on the future
“By 2050, there’s going to be more plastic than fish in the ocean by weight – we keep consuming more plastic per person and sometimes we don’t know about the consequences,” cautioned Rodrigo on his fear. Sharing the opportunity, he added: “We believe plastic is a great material when used properly, if you reuse and recycle it. We’re trying to match shelf life of product with packaging.“
Meanwhile, Sol anecdotally pointed to the new normal – AI. Having been gifted a crayon-based train drawing from his sons, he then walked them through creating an animated version via generative AI complete with snow falling as the train chugged along, to which their response was “Cool” before walking off. The point Sol was making is this: “They’ve never known a reality that didn’t have AI as a tool that they can use the same as a crayon. So, as we struggle with change, we should interact as much as we can with the next generation because it’s their reality we’re moving into, more than it is ours.”
Heading towards the end of the conversation, Andrew next asked Richard if the UK can lead the world in the next 25 years, to which he replied: “I think we are. Across the UK, we’ve realised where our strengths and weaknesses are. We’re not going to outmanufacture China or outspend the US, so we’ve positioned ourselves around our incredible universities, with four of the top ten universities in world.
“In the innovation space, the UK is still punching above its weight. But the challenge we’ve always had is we’re innovators, not marketers. We don’t take our innovations to market, we’re not great at commercialisation of IP. We’re a little too good at being good and need to be more corporate – but we lead the world still.”
Countering Richard’s stance, Suki declared: “In some regards in Great Britain, we think we’re better than we are – we’re good but not as good. We have great universities but look at the population and they’re not always British students. We need to improve the infrastructure of education in this country to make sure those universities are populated with British students, that they stay, innovate and they grow the economy here. [I want to see businesses] being built, manufactured, marketed out to the rest of the world from here and listed on the London Stock Exchange.”
Andrew flagged his belief that where growth is concerned, collaboration is key. Sharing that sentiment, Suki continued: “I really do think that we need a lot more collaboration. We really need to have that conversation. It needs to not just begin globally, it needs to be, in London, in the boroughs, in the cities, in all the United States, and that’s where the biggest change needs to happen. The talent that’s here needs to be nurtured for us to be a stronger country in addition to foreign students.”
Concluding that captivating discussion, Andrew summarised: “We’ve got the platform for growth. We’ve built that over the last 25 years and specifically here in the last 12 years. We need to create systems and structures and pull through, building on all the conditions where London and the UK can lead in this innovative growth economy.”
