Big Data LDN, the UK’s leading data, analytics and AI exhibition, returned for its tenth year at Olympia London from September 24-25th, marking a decade of data debate and discussions from global corporations and emerging startups. Attended by over 16,000 people, this year’s event was held across 17 theatres with almost 300 seminars, panels and keynotes - including notable thought leaders from brands such as John Lewis, Spotify, Morrisons, Microsoft, Google Cloud & more.  

This year saw the opening of new theatres, including The Data For Good Theatre focused on the positive impact data is making in the world, as well as a VIP Theatre with an exclusive content track for data leaders. 

One of the busiest sessions on the Y-Axis Theatre on day one was ‘Seasonal, Seamless and Stocked: How Morrisons uses real-time data to bring the best to customers’. Peter Laflin, Chief Data Officer at Morrisons, joined Jake Bengtson, VP of AI Solutions at Striim to share how real-time data streaming into Google Cloud has been enabling smarter, faster, and more autonomous retail operations. He unpacked how Morrisons has moved beyond predictive models to build AI-native, agentic systems that can sense, decide, and act at scale. 

Also on the Y-Axis Keynote Theatre, Dr. Robert Esnouf of the University of Oxford and Tariq Hussain at Dell Technologies UK delved into the ways they are using computing to accelerate biomedical research. Together, they have created truly valuable datasets used by institutions like the British Biobank to support the identification of disease causes, improve diagnosis and prevention, and develop effective treatments and cures.  

Closing the first day, the Big Data Debate saw Mike Ferguson, Conference Chair, also take to the Y-Axis stage alongside Vivienne Wei from Salesforce, Jeremiah Stone from Snaplogic, Chris Aberger from Alation, Dr Mary Osbourne from SAS, and David Kalmuk from IBM Core Software, discussing how agentic AI is part of the future, but not the only thing propelling our industry forward, and how dashboards will remain a constant while humans continue to grapple with efficient AI prompt writing.  

On Thursday in the Data & AI Governance Theatre, we heard from Sebastian Weir at IBM Consulting on how to govern AI in an agentic world. He began with the sobering statistic that 95% of AI projects fail and revealed how to be part of the coveted 5%. Everyone talks about the ROI of AI, but the ROI will be different for every company. Do you need to focus on building AI literacy? Or perhaps it's about cost saving and efficiency. The key is understanding how to use your data to be deliberate about transforming processes across the business.  

Tim Ketton-Locke from DOS, Ministry of Defence, spoke about accelerating technology delivery in defence, providing three key lessons: “Deliver something early that can be changed rather than perfection that can’t”; bringing people together early – “if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”; and “move funding and resources towards the most promising priorities.”  

The event culminated with a captivating keynote from Professor Brian Cox, who explored how quantum mechanics, information theory, and the structure of reality converge, challenging how we think about data, computation, and intelligence itself. From entanglement to AI, Cox invited the audience to reimagine the future of technology through the lens of physics, drawing on his unique ability to make complex ideas accessible and inspiring. It was a fitting finale to Big Data LDN’s tenth year: a reminder that while data is the critical backbone of innovation today, its true potential lies in how it can help us push the boundaries of knowledge, discovery, and human progress. 

Andy Steed, Event Director, Big Data LDN, commented: “Celebrating a decade of Big Data LDN, I am reminded of why we started: to connect people, spark change and push the industry forward. Over the last two days it has been a privilege to host the data community. I am deeply grateful to our incredible sponsors and exhibitors, as well as all the speakers who've devoted so much time and effort to preparing excellent presentations. I'd also like to thank all our staff and suppliers who've worked so hard for months to make everything a success. I’m looking forward to next year already!”