SXSW London Announces First Speakers for 2026, Including British Reality Star Jamie Laing

SXSW London has confirmed its first wave of speakers for its 2026 conference, featuring figures from the worlds of business, technology and culture. 

The festival will be returning to the capital from June 1 to 6, following the debut of its U.K. iteration in 2025. Among the first names announced include entrepreneur Jamie Laing, who has pivoted from a successful reality television career (Made In Chelsea) to spearheading confectionary business Candy Kittens and podcast studio Jampot Productions in recent years.

There will also be talks from Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, as well as Thomas Cwik of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Footballer Lotte Wubben-Moy – who plays for Arsenal in the Women’s Super League and the English national team – will be discussing the intersection of sports and culture, while Hovhannes Avoyan, founder and CEO of photo-editing app Picsart, has been enlisted to chat about the development of his globally successful platform.

Other additions to the conference line-up include names from different corners of the evolving AI landscape, such as Ioannis Antonoglou (co-founder and CTO, Reflection AI), Joleen Liang, (CEO, Squirrel AI North America), and Josh Payne (CEO, Nscale), among others. Further details can be found at the official SXSW London website.

The list of speakers has been partly derived from an online submissions process, which allows potential candidates to directly pitch discussion proposals. From there, a community voting system, known as PanelPicker, opened up to the public, so that fans could help select a portion of SXSW’s conference programming. 

According to the SXSW London website, public votes account for 30% of the decision-making process. The remaining percentage is determined by SXSW London staff (30%) and a board of industry experts (40%), to ensure a balanced programme. Further conference line-up announcements are expected to arrive in the coming months.

SXSW arrived in London for the first time this summer, following the continued success of its Austin and Sydney counterparts. The inaugural edition took place in Shoreditch, saw appearances from King Charles and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and welcomed over 20,500 international delegates.

The event also played host to Billboard presents THE STAGE at SXSW London, which featured a performance by global superstar Tems at east London’s iconic Troxy venue. It followed the publication of Billboard’s annual Global Power Players list and its first U.K. Power Players list, whose honorees were recognized at an exclusive gathering.