The future of UK (R)etail technology

It’s not every day you get to hang out with one of the biggest actresses in the world, but that’s what happened to one of our developers, Jun Seki, last week. Here he is with Annie Yi, the Taiwanese actress and singer with more than 8.4 million followers on Weibo (that’s the Chinese Twitter, in case you didn’t know).

You might be wondering how this happened in the first place. Well, Jun was invited by the Startup Leadership Programme to talk to a group of Chinese investors who were visiting London to check out the startup community, find out the latest in UK retail technology, and meet some entrepeneurs.

As well Annie Yi, the group included leaders of some of the biggest retail and technology businesses in China. They visited Tech City, went to the Level 39 accelerator at Canary Wharf (where they got to see an iPad operated coffee machine – pretty cool, right?), and listened to talks on the latest UK innovations.

Jun gave a presentation on the latest innovations in UK retail, covering mobile commerce, mobile payments, virtual reality enhancements, online fitting, and more. We thought you might like to see it, so we’ve embedded it below.

The Chinese delegates also heard from talks by representatives from Luma, who make technologically advanced visual experiences for retail, and Fabriquate, who can digitally track customers in-store.

Jun spoke to some of the Chinese investors in a Q&A session after his talk. One key point was that China really needs more design and creative talent, rather than technological input, from the UK. Any budding Central Saint Martin’s graduates considering a move to China? You could be on the right track.

Thanks very much to the Startup Leadership Programme for Jun’s invitation to speak!