Frontiers Day 2026Fast Forward
Through a series of provocations, critical discussions and demos, Frontiers Day takes place on Wednesday 21st October at The ICC, and responds to the Birmingham Tech Week ‘Fast Forward’ theme, convening creators, researchers, gamers and entrepreneurs shaping the way we will live, learn and play.
Exploring the future
Key questions:
- What does the future of learning look like in an AI-powered world?
- How do we engage audiences in the attention economy?
- As gaming reshapes modern conflict, what role can creativity play?
Highlights include:
- Keynote by Young Researcher Lara Jeetley (Alan Turing Institute)
- Future Panels spanning EdTech, Games, Defence, the Attention Economy
- Interactive Expo – Live demos from the first funded projects from CreaTech Frontiers.
- World premiere of Faster Horse sculpture commission by artist Bruce Asbestos
- Networking and drinks
Faster Horseby Bruce Asbestos
Faster Horse is a project commissioned by BOM with Midlands-based artist Bruce Asbestos.
Taking its name from the famous quote attributed to car designer Henry Ford, ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses’. The phrase has become shorthand for the idea that genuinely transformative technologies are difficult to imagine before they exist.
Created by Bruce Asbestos, Faster Horse is a giant inflatable sculture which will launch on Frontiers Day on Wednesday 21st October during Birmingham Tech Week. Faster Horse invites audiences to consider how societies adapt to new technologies and who gets to shape their future. The oversized horse is both a spectacle and provocation, drawing people together and opening up conversations about much bigger ideas.
Faster Horse will be on display outside Birmingham Rep in Centenary Square on Wednesday 21st October.
Launching at Frontiers Day
Presented during Birmingham Tech Week, the sculpture uses humour rather than fear or technical jargon to invite the public to reflect on the relationship between people and technology. Ultimately, Faster Horse celebrates bold, unconventional thinking and reminds us that technological progress should always put people at its centre.
To coincide with the commission, BOM has created a Faster Horse game, co-designed with school children. Attendees of Birmingham Tech Week will be invited to play and compete across the week, with a live leaderboard.
Inspired by Faster Horse, West Midlands Growth Company launches its latest It Starts Here campaign, spotlighting creative disruptors from across the region.
CreaTech Expo
Curated by CreaTech Frontiers, the CreaTech Expo takes place during Frontiers Day at Birmingham Tech Week. Explore demonstrations of some of the region’s most exciting new work commissioned through the first year of the CreaTech Frontiers programme. With the chance to meet funders and industry partners and hear about upcoming opportunities and events across the region.
Frontiers Day Conference Schedule
Wednesday 21st October, The ICC
09:45 – 10:00
Welcome to Frontiers Day
Karen Newman, Frontiers Day Creative Director and Hayley Pepler, Frontiers Executive Director welcome you to Frontiers Day. Attendees are invited to participate in the Faster Horse game to compete for a special prize, to be announced at the end of the day.
10:00 – 10:30
Keynote: Lara Jeetley
As AI transforms education and careers, Lara Jeetley (Young Researcher, Alan Turing Institute) makes the case that the future belongs to the generalist. Lara was a speaker at the world’s first Children’s AI Summit and is part of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum, where she runs an e-commerce business.
10:40 – 11:10
Panel 1: Faster Brains – EdTech’s Impact
Panel: Dr Mhairi Aitken (Alan Turing Institute Children & AI); Csaba Berenyi (Sponge Hammer Games); Alan Brosnan (MTMN); (Virtual Decisions)
How are young minds changing with the rollout of EdTech and AI-driven learning across schools? What’s working, who is benefitting, and where does EdTech have most value? This session brings together perspectives across children and AI, games and lived experience to ask critical questions of the first AI native generation.
11.15 – 11.45
Live Demo: Virtual Decisions
In this interactive demo, Virtual Decisions will showcase their latest VR title on stage: VAWG (Violence Against Women & Girls). Virtual Decisions create immersive experiences that allow people to control real-life scenarios and navigate consequences through safe simulations. Seeing the consequences of difficult decisions play out in a virtual environment empowers people to make the right choices when it counts in the real world, saving lives, reducing risk and improving outcomes for everyone involved.
11:45 – 12:15
Coffee break
12:15 – 12:45
PANEL 2: Faster Defence – Serious Games
Panel: Alice Whorley (British Esports); Brigadier AD Griffiths (British Army)
The British Army and British Esports are working on initiatives to recruit gamers into the military, filling critical roles in drone operation and cyber defense and tapping into skills such as rapid decision-making, situational awareness and desensitisation to conflict learned through gaming. Join Alice Whorley and Brigadier AD Griffiths to hear about how young gamers are taking up a central role in defence, as war becomes more increasingly remote.
12:45 – 13:45
Lunch
13:45 – 14:15
Panel 3: Faster Horse – Rogue Innovation
Panel: Bruce Asbestos (artist), ARUP, Charlotte Ridley (West Midlands Growth Company)
Faster Horse artist Bruce Asbestos joins West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) and ARUP to discuss the power of public art as a powerful tool for placemaking and bringing people together. ARUP are currently designing the new JFK terminal building, where artistic commissions are a central theme to engage audiences whilst in transit. WMGC develops high impact creative campaigns that shift global perceptions, repositioning Birmingham & the West Midlands as a modern, confident hub for innovation, creativity, culture and technology. Bruce Asbestos is a leading contemporary artist, renowned for creating bold, vibrant characters and inflatable sculptures in public places that blur the boundary between art and popular culture.
14:15 – 15:00
PANEL 4: Faster Focus – Designing for the Attention Economy
Eloise Singer (Singer Studios), Keerthi Suresh (Outernet), Jordan Prince (Netflix), Mikayla Sinead (Create Central)
Every swipe, click and notification is competing for the same finite resource: our attention. As technology accelerates and content becomes more personalised, audiences demand greater immersion and control. So how do we create stand-out experiences that place audiences at the centre of the story, without compromising on privacy? This panel of experts from the world of interactive entertainment explore new approaches to content creation in the age of the attention economy.
15:00 – 15:15
Closing Remarks
Round up of the day’s discussions, and announcement of the Faster Horse game prize winner! Signposting to networking drinks with Birmingham Tech Week attendees.
Register for Frontiers Day at Birmingham Tech Week
Frontiers Day is supported by CreaTech Frontiers, Birmingham Tech Week, It Starts Here, Arup, Create Central, Arts Council England and powered by BOM.
