Disrupt London was the biggest yet: 2,300 people, 3.5M video views, 150 press

There are few reasons why TechCrunch Disrupt (sign up here to get news about the next one) is so effective for startups. The combination of breaking news on stage and brand new companies in the Battlefield competition draws in the media and investors. And investors can easily walk a curated hall of new startups in Startup Alley, knowing that we have worked hard to bring the best and the brightest. And in theory you could get to see everything, because there aren’t thousands upon thousands of people to plough through.

With over 2,300 attendees in-person and more than 3.5M video views online, Disrupt London was our most watched European event ever. And at any one time there were tens of thousands watching live all around the world.

In addition, 150 members of the press attended and to date have published over 200 pieces of coverage online, in print and broadcast so far. Media attendees included BBC News, Sky News, Reuters, The Times, Bloomberg, The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times, Business Insider, City AM, MediaTel and Forbes.

We also issued the “Brexit Resolutions” letter, which saw TechCrunch rallying some of the biggest names in tech to share their key recommendations with the UK Government in advance of the Brexit negotiations.

To further amplify the news, we ran a press conference at Disrupt with myself and two of the signatories – Brent Hoberman CBE and Kathryn Parsons of Decoded. Coverage included a story in Reuters, which resulted in multiple amounts more coverage, as well as in print and online in the Evening Standard (London’s biggest daily commuter free sheet, with +1m copies distributed) – both in their news and editorial comment pages.

The UK’s biggest commercial news channel Sky News also came down to Disrupt to film their entire tech show “Swipe”, where they spoke with model Natalia “Supernova” Vodianova about her startup Elbi right in Startup Alley (this has 41,000 views so far), as well as filming her while she was speaking with young girls from a local school whom we invited through Citizen AOL’s partner charity The Girls Network. Given Diversity was a huge theme on and off stage, we were delighted to showcase this.

Of course the real stars of the show were the Startup Battlefield competitors, who did such a great job on stage. Congrats again to Seenit, who took home the Battlefield’s Disrupt Cup and a £40,000 grand prize.

In case you missed them, here are some of the most popular segments and highlights from the show:

You can also find all of our pictures from the event at the TechCrunch Flickr page.

Whether you attended Disrupt to learn, invest, partner, network or raise money, we hope that Disrupt London lived up to your expectations.

Please join us for Disrupt NY on May 15-17. Applications to apply Disrupt NY’s Startup Battlefield competition will be open early next year.

Here’s a run-down of the coverage from TechCrunch Disrupt London 2016:

Sky News

Clips from Disrupt London were broadcast throughout the day on Saturday during their news bulletins. The entire Swipe show was shown in full yesterday on Sky News.

You can also watch Swipe, filmed at Disrupt, on their YouTube channel here.

BBC World News

BBC World News listed TechCrunch Disrupt London in their bulletins on the programme.

Management Today
Can London remain Europe’s start-up capital post-Brexit?

Irish Independent
UK warned over access to global technical talent due to Brexit

Fintech Finance
TechCrunch Rallies UK Tech Leaders to Call on Government to Ensure Britain’s Post-Brexit Tech Future

The Drum
Lastminute.com founder Tom Teichman slams ‘Brexit’ doomsayers as he reveals positive outlook for UK startup scene

BBC World interviews a Disrupt startup

News – Brexit Tech Recommendations

The Times
Action is needed now to stem the flow of vital technology talent

Evening Standard – print & online
Tech bosses urge May to save Britain’s ‘world-class status’

Reuters
London tech leaders propose post-Brexit plan to British government