Microsoft: The Gallery of the Future

In January 2017 we were thrilled to ratchet Microsoft Accelerator London’s cohort demo day up a notch. The Gallery of the Future was an immersive showcase aimed at London’s tech elite and innovation seekers, designed to provide insights on the technologies shaping our future and the way we do business.

Spanning 22,000 feet in the heart of the West End, Bloomsbury Square’s Victoria House basement was our venue. After eight quick fire pitches from the Accelerator cohort and two lightning TED-style tech talks from a leading academic and senior evangelist from Microsoft’s Lift London, our guests were able to sample the latest in mixed reality technology from HoloLens. The conversation continued in our cohort lounge over food, drinks and music courtesy of DJ Anna. 

Proud moments:

  • With a target of 300 attendees, we were delighted to open our doors to 450 tech influencers, investors, corporates and startups, despite there being a tube strike on that day… 
  • Transforming a cavernous white space into a stylish gallery-style installation, complete with large format graphics, and two custom-built HoloLens experience rooms. The transformation was so seamlessly achieved, some members of the audience thought it a permanent Microsoft home.
  • Helping forge deeper connections between Microsoft Accelerator and Microsoft’s corporate customer base and playing a significant part in shifting perceptions to a new Microsoft as a platform for business innovation.
  • A sample of the brands who enjoyed sharing ideas: Accenture, BBC, Burberry, Capgemini, Centrica, Coop, Coutts, Dentsu Aegis, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jaguar Land Rover, JP Morgan, KPMG, Mediacom, Metro Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ocado, Ogilvy & Mather, Sainsburys, Santander UK plc, Shell, Sky, Tesco Labs, Vodafone, WPP

Praise:

"The Gallery of the Future was born out of a desire to challenge the startup demo day status quo. Forgather came up with the concept and pulled off an ambitious event that got the London Accelerator talked about by the rest of Microsoft and Microsoft’s customer base. 

Once again my faith and trust in Forgather has been exceeded. Once again, no glitches and no screw ups which is why we choose to exclusively work with Forgather for all of our events. I look forward to working together again to raise the bar".

Warwick Hill - CEO-in-Residence & MD, Microsoft Accelerator London