01732 759725 magazine an additional 100 pods across major UK transport hubs and conference centres over the next 12 months. www.swurf.co … Rio Ferdinand to judge CoCreate pitches Rio Ferdinand OBE and entrepreneur Sara Davies MBE have been announced as judges of Alibaba.com’s CoCreate Pitch competition, taking place during the B2B e-commerce giant’s inaugural sourcing and e-commerce event CoCreate Europe in London on November 14. The competition will see 30 finalists pitch their product ideas live, with $400,000 worth of prizes up for grabs. This includes $200,000 for the winner and up to $20,000 worth of prizes for each of the 10 runners-up. The judging panel will consist of representatives from the UK, Germany, France and the US, including Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter, the official Crowdfunding Partner of CoCreate Pitch 2025. CoCreate 2025 is an opportunity for entrepreneurs, manufacturers and investors to come together to network and learn about Alibaba.com’s b2b e-commerce platform featuring 200 million product listings, 200,000+ verified suppliers, Trade Assurance options and AI-powered tools for automating the whole sourcing process. https://www.alibabacocreate.com/ of on-demand private meeting pods bookable in 30-minute slots. The one-metre-square soundproofed pods operated by SWURF feature private Wifi networks with security-grade encryption, smart LED lighting, air filtration and ergonomic seating. SWURF, founded in 2020 by Nikki Gibson, has pods in over 450 cafés, hotels and coworking hubs and a user-base of 12,000 SWURFERS contributing £1.85 million in revenue to hospitality partners, including Hilton, IHG, Kew Green Hotels and now Edinburgh Airport and Yotel. Following a six-figure investment from private investors (including long-term investor Gareth Williams, co‑founder of Skyscanner), the Scottish Government Techscaler programme and Scottish Enterprise, SWURF plans to deploy realities, with half of industry professionals expecting to be connected to the power grid within one or two years despite the more usual time of three to eight years. This optimism is all the more striking because many of the 50 data centre developers, investors and operators surveyed for the report already have first-hand experience of the difficulties involved in getting connected. These include energy cost and pricing uncertainty (cited by 36%), technical issues during the connection process (32%) and the need for infrastructure upgrades (26%). Roadnight Taylor CEO Hugh Taylor said: “Data centre developers are facing mounting grid connection challenges that can derail even the most promising projects. Those navigating their first large-scale developments often discover too late that grid capacity takes far longer than anticipated, and sometimes years longer than planned.” He added: “The interplay between technical, regulatory and commercial complexities in grid connections creates challenges that most developers underestimate until they’re deep into the process. We’ve seen significant growth in enquiries from clients grappling with these realities, with investors managing stranded capital and development teams wrestling with misaligned timelines and fragmented permitting processes.” Roadknight Taylor claims that half of all projects change location due to cost and connectivity restrictions (with 76% of survey respondents exploring more economically favourable regions, such as Africa and Asia). Even so, 64% of those surveyed believe Britain is on track to become a data centre powerhouse. https://roadknighttaylor.co.uk … At your bleisure Edinburgh Airport and Yotel Edinburgh are addressing the rise of travelling for ‘bleisure’ – where business trips are extended for leisure – and the ‘meetings in motion’ trend with the installation BULLETIN 05 Deepfakes are number one cyber risk Almost three quarters (71%) of UK organisations have experienced a cyberattack in the last twelve months, according to Databarracks’ 2025 Data Health Check – the highest figure recorded since the survey began 18 years ago. One in eight UK businesses (12%) and one in five large organisations (18%) have experienced AI-driven attacks, including deepfakes – synthetic AIgenerated audio, video or imagery powering a new wave of impersonation attacks. Chris Butler, Resilience Director at Databarracks, said: “When we’re working with organisations to run cyber exercises, deepfakes are now front of mind. They’re an emerging threat that most organisations still don’t feel equipped to handle. Exercises are often the first time teams seriously consider how they’d respond – and that’s where the gaps start to show.” The 500 UK decisionmakers surveyed for the report ranked AI-driven attacks, including deepfakes, as the #1 cyber risk and the #1 resilience challenge for the next five years. https://datahealthcheck.databarracks.com/2025 continued...
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