The CogX Festival takes over 200,000 square feet of the King’s Cross neighbourhood and, for the first time, adds support of 2030 Vision and embracing its mission to use technology to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals
CognitionX today announced HSBC, one of the largest banking organisations in the world, as the headline sponsor of CogX 2019, its annual Festival of AI, Blockchain and Emerging Technologies. Taking place during the start of London Tech Week, June 10th to 12th, CogX’s mission is to bring clarity to and help accelerate the adoption of AI and emerging technology, while ensuring safe and responsible deployment.
In 2019, for the first time CogX will also support 2030 Vision, and its goal to unite the world by using technology to address some of the greatest challenges we face on this planet.
For its third year, the CogX Festival will move to King’s Cross, London’s most vibrant district, which generates a footfall of over 10m people a month and is home to the Eurostar high-speed railway link. The area is also known as the Knowledge Quarter, which includes organisations such as The Crick Institute, Alan Turing Institute and The British Library. The festival expects 500 speakers, 300 of the most innovative startups, and over 15,000 participants across industry, government, science and the entrepreneurial ecosystem from all over the world.
Andre Cronje, Global COO at HSBC Global Banking and Markets, said: “HSBC is well-placed to take full advantage of artificial intelligence to further empower our employees and significantly improve the service we can provide to clients. To enable this, we are keen to build relationships with the world’s leading innovators, engage new partners and identify the talent required to help us realise the full potential of this technology.”
Simon Segars, Chief Executive Officer of Arm, said: “Arm’s vision is to enable opportunity for a globally connected population, and the UN Global Goals are a focal point for key sustainability challenges the world needs to address. We co-founded 2030 Vision with the UN system (2030vision.com) to involve many partners to help address these problems. Having the Global Goals as the theme of CogX 2019 will bring new supporters and raise awareness of the potential for technology, including AI, to help build a more sustainable world.”
UK Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said: “London Tech Week is a highlight in the global tech calendar, so it is great to see the CogX Festival expanding and bringing some of the world’s leading voices in AI together with international business partners to tackle the challenges of our time.
“We want to see the power of technology change people’s lives for the better, and through our Digital and Industrial Strategies are establishing a world-first Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to make sure AI and data-driven technology is developed safely, ethically and benefits society.”
Over four main stages and nine industry-specific zones that showcase ground-breaking technology, the festival will bring to life 200,000 square feet of public space and deliver 400 hours of content. Sessions for the public will also be included and highlights will be streamed to millions of viewers globally across YouTube and to 100s of media outlets.
An incredible and ever-expanding speaker line-up already includes:
- Omar Abbosh, Group Chief Executive, Communications, Media, Technology, Accenture
- Antoine Blondeau, Founder Partner of Alpha Intelligence Capital, and Founder Chairman Sentient Technologies
- Azeem Azhar, Exponential View
- Paul Clarke, Chief Technology Officer, Ocado
- Martha Lane Fox, Founder and Chair, doteveryone, co-founder lastminute.com
- Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, Managing Director, University of Southampton, Web Science Trust
- Rt Hon. Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
- Irina Kofman, COO, Google AI
- Rahmyn Kress, Chief Digital Officer at Henkel, and CEO of Henkel X
- Peter ter Kulve, Chief Digital & Growth Officer, President South East Asia, Unilever
- Priya Lakhani Founder CEO Century Tech
- Mike Penrose, Executive Director of Unicef UK
- Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of The Price of Civilization
- Mark Sagar, Co-Founder & CEO at Soul Machines
- June Sarpong MBE, author and campaigner
- William Tunstall-Pedoe, Founder and CEO of Evi (acquired by Amazon, became Alexa), and active Angel Investor
- Manuela Veloso, Head of the Machine Learning Department, Carnegie Mellon University
- Adrian Weller, Programme Director for AI at The Alan Turing Institute
Format
CogX 2019 will explore a huge range of topics from the rise of Digital Beings, affective computing and how other emerging technologies such as DNA gene editing, autonomous transportation, blockchain, IoT, VR and AR are reshaping the way we move, learn and work. The Festival will feature dedicated Science, Ethics, Culture, Government, Economy, Finance and Future of Work Zones, and a Health Zone will also explore the ways in which technology is extending and improving lives.
There will also be a dedicated Research Zone where academics from the Alan Turing Institute and many other universities from across the UK and the globe will present their latest research, which will also be live streamed. Academic passes are available for free for researchers, PhDs and Professors.
The winners of the 3rd CogX 2019 Annual Awards will be revealed on Monday 10 June, recognising the most innovative 50 products and technology across all key industries and technological domains, with special prizes for Impact and delivery of the Global Goals.
Tabitha Goldstaub, Co-Founder of CognitionX, said: “This is a critical moment. Right now, as technologies like AI become more widely adopted, we have a tremendous opportunity to reevaluate what we’ve already created and ensure these tools work for everyone in society.”
“We are thrilled to take our CogX to London’s King’s Cross, to bring people together, stimulate debate – and “move the conversation forward”. With the help of the technology community, along with partners like HSBC and 2030 Vision initiative, I’m confident we can help drive real change and get companies to point their tools, tech and talent at the Global Goals.”
Charlie Muirhead, CEO of CognitionX and CogX said, “In the 80s there was a famous quote from Lew Platt the CEO of HP, he said: “If we only knew what we knew, we could be three times more productive”. The truth is that despite the web and search, many CEOs and executives still say the same thing today.”
That’s why we created the annual CogX Festival, to bring people together from all over the world, and help them find the best expert to answer their questions.”
But what if you want to reach people who aren’t at the event, or at other times of the year? That’s why we have added our online AI Advice Platform. It enables users to post questions they have about the adoption of AI, match you in real time to a list of experts who could help, and answers back for free in private. Experts participate because they want to help each other, get market insight, build their profile and win new business.”
The platform is live today, starting with HR AI related questions, and we’ll be adding many more topics and experts in the run up to CogX in June, where we see it adding huge benefit to all CogX participants.”
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