SXSW: 'The creative eyes of the world will be on London'
I was lucky to be a part of SXSW in Austin in 2018, and I saw first-hand the electric atmosphere of innovation that the festival creates.
From helping to shape the future of tech and AI, to providing a platform for major new artists, SXSW London is a significant opportunity to generate new ideas, promote our capital and help inspire the next generation.
This week the creative eyes of the world will be on London as our capital becomes the first European city to ever host SXSW.
Leaders from the tech, media, gaming and creative industries are descending on Shoreditch in East London as the world-renowned Texas festival comes to our capital.
Across 34 venues there will be hundreds of talks, live music, and film and TV screenings, as some of the world's most exciting talent come together.
It's a great addition to our cultural calendar and another boost to our creative industries. These vital industries generate more than £63bn for the UK economy, having significantly surpassed pre-pandemic levels. They help define how London is perceived around the world, and provide young people with positive opportunities and access to training and jobs.
SXSW is also the start of the biggest ever month for business and investment in London, with the Concordia Europe Summit, London Tech Week and London Climate Action Week all taking place in June.
This series of major business events will attract thousands of dealmakers, investors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives from all over the world, demonstrating that London is truly the best city for creativity, talent and business in the world.
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Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Sir Alex Ferguson slapped Man Utd wonderkid on the head and walked off after chat about Barcelona's transfer interest
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) FORMER Manchester United wonderkid Febian Brandy turned down the chance to sign for Barcelona after a cheeky slap on the head from Sir Alex Ferguson. Brandy, 36, never broke into the first team at Old Trafford after nearly 15 years on the books - but things could have been very different. 6 Febian Brandy was one of Manchester United's top-rated talents in the 2000s Credit: Getty 6 Brandy (bottom row, second on the left) played alongside big names at United Credit: Getty Images - Getty He was considered one of the best youngsters around when he was coming through the ranks in the mid 2000s. And his reputation spanned across Europe too, as both Real Madrid and Barcelona were keen on trying to snatch him away from the Red Devils as a teenager. Barcelona were so impressed by Brandy's efforts in a youth tournament that they lodged a £1MILLION bid for the youngster. The offer was rejected by United boss Sir Alex Ferguson following a slap on the head and a chat in the hallway about being loyal to his local club. READ MORE ON MAN UTD CAN'T TAKE ANY MOR Amorim vows to QUIT Man Utd if horror woes continue after West Ham loss Manchester-born Brandy told SunSport: "We went to a few tournaments when we were 14 to 16 years old. "One of the tournaments that sticks out was one in Spain. In the tournament there was teams like Real Madrid, PSG, Ajax, Barcelona - all the top European teams. "We didn't qualify out of the group stages, but I must have had a worldie of a tournament because I ended up getting player of the tournament. 'About two weeks after the tournament, some Spanish guy - I don't know how he got the number - rang my mum and dad's house phone. 6 Brandy spent nearly 15 years on the books at Sir Alex Ferguson's Man Utd Credit: Febian Brandy Join SUN CLUB for the Man Utd Files every Thursday plus in-depth coverage and exclusives from Old Trafford "My mum picked up and he said 'we're interested in your son Fabien.' 'About two weeks later I went into training and Sir Alex Ferguson walked past me in the corridor and said 'have you heard?'. "I had a feeling what he was talking about, but you have to be respectful so I played dumb. He said 'Barcelona are interested in you, what are your thoughts?' 'I said, 'Listen, boss. I'm a local lad. I'm from Manchester and I see my career here, this is the place that I want to be'. Then he just slapped me on the head, called me a good lad and walked away. 'Things started to come to fruition in the weeks that followed, and I think they [Barca] made a £1million bid which obviously Sir Alex rejected and I didn't hear anything of it from then.' That decision meant that Brandy stayed put until 2010, leaving as a 22-year-old in search of a new challenge after coming up through the youth ranks alongside the likes of Ravel Morrison, Jonny Evans and Danny Welbeck. Brandy had gone from training with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville - players he recalls being like "big brothers" to him - to trying to find his next club and the next step in his career in the lower leagues. He had lined up a deal with Sheffield United in the Championship, but broke his metatarsal in the last minute of his last game for Man Utd's reserves - scuppering the move. From there injuries meant Brandy was never able to settle at one club, kickstarting a journeyman-like career that saw him play in Greece and Thailand as well as for the likes of Sheffield United, Rotherham and Rochdale. People ask 'should I have signed for Barcelona?' Don't get me wrong, the weather would have been nicer, but I've got no regrets. Febian Brandy That journey - which included 16 different clubs - ended in 2017 with non-league outfit Ebbsfleet, but Brandy has no regrets over turning down Barcelona. He said: "I always saw myself playing for Man Utd, I didn't really know anything else. I only really knew Man Utd and England. So when it did come to an end it was hard, I was upset. 'But I thought to myself, for my career, this has to happen. I didn't want to be one of those players that was 23/24 and signing contracts just to be at a big club. "I wanted to go and make a name for myself elsewhere. I was obviously upset, but it was something that had to be done. 'People ask 'should I have signed for Barcelona?'. Don't get me wrong, the weather would have been nicer, but I've got no regrets. 'There's probably a few things I took for granted. Doing extra in the gym and making myself the best footballer I could have been. "I had a lot of injuries and there's things like that that I could have done better to have a better career. Other than that, I have no regrets.' 6 Brandy moved to Sheffield United later in his career Credit: Blades 6 The forward also represented England at youth level Credit: Getty One of the big reasons for Brandy being left with no regrets is that it was his Man Utd exit that led him to his latest venture - Skouted. Brandy launched Skouted when his career came to an end, an app that helps unattached players find new clubs and clubs find the best new talent. The app, which allows young players to upload clips of themselves playing for top clubs to browse through, has already helped in excess of 300 youngsters earn trials. Had Brandy not embarked on his journey through the leagues, then he may never have started the app. He explained: "When I was in my late 20s I had been battling with so many injuries and I started to think about my future. "I didn't really want to be a coach or a manager. That's when I started to put Skouted in place. 'I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset and I think what really triggered it was that when I was at Man Utd, I was pretty fortunate to be there as long as I was. "I was fortunate to get a contract every year from the age of eight until I was 22. 'I had friends that might not have been good enough to make it at Man Utd, but they might have been able to go and play at a lesser club. "But when they got released their parents or their guardians didn't have the connections to pick up the phone to someone in the Championship or League One and ask for a trial. 'That's when I thought to myself, 'I need to create something that's going to bridge that gap between players and clubs'. "Something where football clubs can find these players and players have got a platform to present themselves in front of these football clubs.'
Metro
an hour ago
- Metro
TwitchCon 2025: European streamers time to shine
As Twitch begins a big push towards mobiles and vertical streaming, the recent TwitchCon event in Rotterdam showcased both the company's talent and its CEOs. Although TwitchCon started a decade ago now, it's evolved from a once modest convention for the streaming community to an unmissable celebration of online culture, live entertainment, and digital influence. This year's European event in Rotterdam stood not only as a testament to Twitch's enduring importance but also to show how European content creators are carving their own niche in the global streaming arena. Convention centre Ahoy Rotterdam welcomed tens of thousands of fans, creators, and industry partners across two days filled with panels, meet-and-greets, drag shows, and… Warhammer mini painting. The emphasis was on community, but there was a palpable sense of change in the air, as Twitch showcased how it's planning changes around the shifting landscape of monetisation, platform trust, and regulation. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy explained to me how important it was, to have a European presence: 'A lot of times when people talk about Twitch, they always think, how is it different to meet the needs of this European country or whatever? I think that Twitch needs are universal needs. Humans are humans, whether they're German or French or Italian or English.' 'Certainly, different cultures have different characteristics. We do a ton to support our streamers in every country, we do a lot of meet-ups, and we localise our platform for the different markets. Obviously, we have to do things like making sure the currencies that are different in different markets work but we very much think of ourselves as a global platform. 'And so everything we do is sort of focused on the global communities that form on Twitch. When we picked TwitchCon, it's mostly trying to balance and find a place so that folks can come, we looked around and everybody, the community, loved Rotterdam. But one of the things that happens in Rotterdam is we have a bigger imprint on the city when we're there. 'That's what we've experienced when we're in San Diego versus, if TwitchCon is in Los Angeles or Vegas. It's not as distinctive, because those towns have so much going on, and so Rotterdam was really welcoming. They were excited to have us. So it's really been great here in Rotterdam as opposed to saying TwitchCon Europe. The big thing we keep trying to think of is Twitch is really a language-based platform, hence, Twitch is kind of borderless.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. It's no coincidence that European creators are front and centre this year. As Twitch faces stiffer competition than previous years, especially in the States from platforms like YouTube Live, and Kick. Its European community has become one of its most stable and vibrant, known for its loyal viewership, cross-border and language collaborations, and charity events like France's ZEvent, which raised over €10 million (£8.4 million). Upcoming legend Aimee 'Aimsey' Davies has carved out a powerful presence on Twitch since launching her career in 2018. The Welsh streamer, known for her hyped Minecraft content and emotional discussions on LGBTQ+ topics, has built a following of over 1 million fans. A proud lesbian and advocate for inclusivity, Aimsey has become a fixture in the Minecraft scene, collaborating with top creators like TommyInnit and Tubbo. Her impact was recognised with the LGBTQ+ Streamer of the Year award at the 2022 Gayming Awards and in 2025 she joined Red Bull as their latest esports ambassador, continuing her mission to champion representation in gaming. With pink hair and a special style in shoes, Saiiren brings a different kind of magic to Twitch. A VTuber (anime avatar), she turned personal health issues – a heart condition and the resulting isolation during the pandemic – into a springboard for creativity and chat. With over 200,000 followers, she blends music, games, and storytelling as a testament to her resilience. Last but not least, with a following of over 5 million, I spoke to Tubbo, a popular UK Minecraft streamer bout tips he had for success in streaming and what he was up to at TwitchCon. 'If you want to succeed in streaming, just have fun with it. I guess because the more time, the more you enjoy it, the more you'll do it, which means the more hours you'll stream, which means the higher chance you'll have of finding lucky success. I recently did a subathon where I streamed for 64 days straight, and I did like 45 events during that, back-to-back, and that was pretty good. 'My community is just so chill. They're just always around to hang out and do something crazy, and they do also make fun of me a lot. I guess that's just kind of our dynamic. I met 200 people from my community yesterday. 'From Dan's announcements, yesterday I was quite excited for being able to rewind VODs back. That's gonna be so useful for producing live events and getting replays, because the biggest pain is you have to wait 10 minutes, but real-time that's gonna be really nice for events. 'If you're doing any sports event and you want instant replays, and you're not recording locally, that's gonna be really useful, because I know that's what a lot of live events do, they stream on YouTube at the same time, just so they can have that wind back for replays. So, it's a game changer. 'In my future. Well, you're only young once. I run a Minecraft hosting company which provides free service to people. I currently have 170,000 Minecraft servers, so probably just keep working on that, because it's quite new. Only been doing it for a few months and that's something you think, once you're a building service, that's my vibe, building services.' TwitchCon 2025 also served as a platform for the company to unveil key features. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy took to the main stage on Saturday morning to outline a raft of new features in his keynote speech, which included vertical streaming aimed at mobile phones. Plus, creators being able to stream in both horizontal and vertical formats simultaneously, as well as in 2K, as the new HEVC codec provides high-quality video at lower bitrates. A new feature called Combos lets viewers react to big moments using Twitch-based digital currency Bits, encouraging hype parties through shared effects. Affiliate requirements are also becoming more accessible and Twitch is making it easier for non-Affiliates to collect earnings before hitting payout thresholds. But the big news of the weekend was the rewind feature, letting viewers catch missed moments and jump back into livestreams. I spoke to Clancy about these intended improvements to the platform and community: 'The reality is, if you're under 25 today, you grew up with a phone in your hand and you have very high expectations about a mobile device. Historically, Twitch's core userbase have been PC gamers. PC gamers all have a big monitor somewhere in their house, usually with a gaming device right there and that's why a lot of our watch time comes on the desktop. 'But that's because people put it on while they're doing other things. But we need to really be thinking in the future. More and more people may not have a big desk, a big screen somewhere in their house. More Trending 'Mobile is central to how people maintain their community and maintain that engagement. So we've been, in the last year, spending a lot of time getting the app more in line with most mobile devices. I think having vertical viewing is sort of obvious. People like holding their phone like that, and that's just really thinking much more about mobile as a primary platform of engaging and maintaining your community. 'We talked about clips, and we need to make clips on the platform easier to get to. We have the Stories feature. One of the things I often talk about is I love making it so that streamers will find three to five moments after every stream and publish it to Stories, so that way their community can catch up if they missed that stream.' A red flag that wasn't addressed was Twitch's recent decision to limit stored highlights and video uploads to 100 hours per user. The change, which quietly took effect earlier this year, has disproportionately impacted speedrunners and esports archivists who rely on long term storage for competitive documentation. Twitch has defended the move as necessary for server cost efficiency, but the blowback has been severe, with some creators moving their archives to YouTube or independent hosting platforms. As the event came to a close on Sunday afternoon, attendees streams over the weekend displayed a dynamic mishmash of cosplay, dance challenges, charity speedruns, and heartfelt shoutouts to the closest of communities. It was evidence that Twitch has become not just a streaming service but a living, breathing organism built by its users, a pulsing mess of the best and worst of gameplay, personality, and technology. Whether Twitch can continue to navigate the maze of innovation, controversy, and competition remains to be seen, but it is trying to keep moving with the times. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Mario Kart World doesn't have 200cc but it is easier to dodge blue shells now MORE: New God Of War game is 'smaller scale' 2D Metroidvania claim insiders MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 updates for over 12 Switch games live now including Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Time Out Dubai
2 hours ago
- Time Out Dubai
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal gives its Sunday roast an upgrade
The elegant Sunday roast at the city's best European restaurant, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai, has been revamped. It was elevated under the leadership of the new chef de cuisine, Chris Malone. So, what's new? For starters, the menu. The roast now comes in a two-course format as well. You can choose between a starter and main, or a main and dessert (perfect if you've been eyeing that Bakewell tart). Thoroughly famished? The three-course option is very much on the table. Running from noon to 3pm, every Sunday, you can tuck into the two-course roast for Dhs345 or the three-course roast for Dhs395. Little ones, too, get their own menu. It's Dhs195 for children. What's on the plate? A quintessentially British roast, just with a bit of Heston magic. There's Black Angus sirloin, slow-cooked until it falls apart on the slightest touch, served with horseradish cream, rich beef gravy and a Yorkshire pud stuffed with braised ox cheek. If you want to keep things light, you can opt for the roast chicken, which comes with morel mushrooms, brioche and the sort of bread sauce that might make you rethink your loyalties. But what's a Sunday roast without potatoes? Don't miss out on savouring 'The Roastie', a Heston's signature. It's golden crisp on the outside, light and fluffy inside. The sort of spuds you'll talk about how to recreate for your next dinner at home. If you have room for dessert (we're impressed), you'll be choosing from the raspberry trifle, a Bakewell tart, or a reimagined chocolate bar. The familiar favourites still come with the usual Heston spin that you won't be able to stop Instagramming about. The iconic Nitrogen Ice Cream trolley is still there for that added drama. Drinks-wise, you're in excellent hands. The globally sourced grape list is one of the most extensive in the city, curated by Gault&Millau's 'Best Sommelier of the Year', Arturo Scamardella. If that doesn't float your boat, then the lively mixed drinks bar is more than ready to mix up something special with its playful range of infusions. Inspired by 15th-century British cuisine, this is a classic roast reimagined for the modern day. And it is one you need to try, whether you're looking for a spot to spend meaningful time with the family or trying to impress your date with your superior foodie skills. Time to get booking:
