Creative Tech London 2026
Stop Buying Shiny Toys: Practical Steps for Making Creative Tech Actually Pay Off
Creative tech budgets have exploded.
Results have not.
In a market where creative excellence and operational efficiency are table stakes, many organisations are drowning in tools, platforms, dashboards, and “AI-powered” promises. Yet creative teams are still stuck with email approvals, manual workarounds, and version 37 of the same asset.
This session is for leaders who’ve stopped chasing shiny objects and started asking a harder question: How do we make the technology we already have actually work?
Unpacking what to keep, what to kill, and how to unlock real business value from your creative tech stack, without adding yet another tool.
Expect honest stories (the wins and the expensive mistakes), plus practical approaches to simplifying operations, speeding up production, and proving to the CFO that creativity and efficiency can, in fact, coexist.
Covering:
- How to spot “expensive theatre” in your stack - what to retire, consolidate, or double down on
- A practical checklist for buying or saying no to creative tech, anchored to clear creative and commercial outcomes
- How to get IT, marketing, and creative working together, including how to distinguish between upstream and downstream tech decisions
- How leading teams are measuring productivity, speed, and ROI using real numbers (and what they’ve stopped tracking)
- What’s genuinely next versus pure hype, where automation, DAMs, and generative AI are already delivering value, and where they’re still more promise than reality
What others say
The HS Creative Tech event made me realise how much AI can empower me as a Creative Technologist.
HS Creative Tech events are a way to connect with people who are passionate about creative technology and eager to learn from one another.
HS Creative Tech is a place for me to hear from those who are blazing the trail within Creative teams. It helps me stay informed about technology and use cases, helping me assess my own business and giving me much food for thought as our teams constantly evolve.
HS Creative Tech events are essential because they feature subject-matter experts who present actual workflows and final outcomes—not just high-level conversation. This focus on practice and measurable solutions is invaluable for any design or technology leader.