Judeumeh's Blog

Last month, London reminded me why it’s one of the world’s great creative capitals, not because of any single event, but because of how many extraordinary things happen in the same city, in the same period of days. It was hot, hot, hot – literally!

1 – SXSW London 2026 (June 1-6 in Shoreditch). A worthy successor to last year’s inaugural event, this second edition once again brought together music, film, tech and culture. It is the festival equivalent of what I’m calling human plurality (See two-part post here). For example: 

• I attended a session on the “Future of Ocean Exploration” which covered deep-sea mining, the notion of “dark oxygen” and life at extreme depths. Fascinating. 
• Another session: “AI Is Already Shaping Childhood, Who Is Shaping AI”  (featuring UK AI Czar, Kanishka Narayan and former Australian PM, Julia Gillard) argued that human interaction, such as at SXSW, will always be needed. 
• I also caught a UK film premiere, which I reviewed here, in a separate post.

2 – The Future of AI – I had the privilege of attending the WCIT Annual Lecture at Stationers’ Hall, where Sir Demis Hassabis and Dame Wendy Hall were honoured with the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists’ Livery before sitting down for a fireside chat on the future of AI. Two of Britain’s sharpest minds on the subject, in conversation; it doesn’t get much better than that.

3 – Masterchef 2026 – my former colleague and mentee Jhané Gibson won MasterChef UK 2026, the 22nd series, after a seven-week run and a three-way final. The British-Jamaican chef from North London cooked her way to the title with a menu rooted in her family’s Caribbean food traditions — fried snapper, piri piri poussin, and a Jamaican ginger rum cake. Watching someone you know walk away from a career to chase this, and win, is proof that we are all plural creatures by nature.

4. MOBO Pioneer RIP – The week carried sadness too. Kanya King CBE, founder of the MOBO Awards, passed away on 3 June after a battle with bowel cancer, aged 57. She built MOBO from nothing in 1996, remortgaging her home to champion Black British music when no one else would. Her legacy is permanent. Rest in peace, Kanya.

5 – AI and Personhood – on the policy front: Argentina is moving to grant legal personhood to AI-run corporations under a new “Sociedades de Inteligencia Artificial” framework, replacing 50-year-old company law. This is one to watch folks, if other jurisdictions follow suit,  the implications are enormous.

6 – On the Work front – New Role, New Digs and Tech events all happening at once. I started the month in our new role as AI builders located in Salesforce UK’s brand new AI Centre, an amazing space dedicated to all things AI. The pace of AI related change is relentless, and so it seems are the plethora of events covering every aspect of the topic. I attended a few of these, including Vercel’s ShipLDN, Innodata’s GenAI Summit and, of course, Agentforce World Tour London where again I had the pleasure of presenting a session on 5 ways to build Confidence with AI Agents.

One city, one month, every facet of human (and now possibly non-human) creativity on display. Never mind the heat, I hope your month was just as full and rewarding.

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