Dutch SXSW London 2026 Proposals

What if the most intimate voice in your life isn't human?

As AI audio companions promise emotional connection without the complexities of human relationships, we're entering uncharted territory of digital intimacy. This session explores the psychological, social, and ethical implications of forming bonds with AI voices designed to fulfill our deepest emotional needs.

Drawing from research in parasocial relationships, addiction psychology, and human-computer interaction, we'll examine how these technologies exploit our fundamental need for connection. What happens when artificial empathy feels more reliable than human compassion? How do we maintain authentic relationships in a world where perfect digital companions are always available?

Through case studies and emerging research, we'll uncover the hidden architecture of emotional manipulation in AI companion design and discuss frameworks for ethical development of intimate AI technologies. This isn't just about chatbots—it's about the future of human connection itself.

Join us for a critical examination of love, loneliness, and the algorithms that increasingly mediate our most personal experiences.

As neurotechnology moves from the lab to the consumer market, it unlocks groundbreaking possibilities for immersive experiences: virtual environments can be altered based on individual interactions derived from brain signals alone. This also raises urgent ethical concerns. What happens when our thoughts, emotions, and other mental states become accessible for analysis, influence, or even control? Neurotechnology is the latest advancement in the ongoing development of technologies that are increasingly close to, and even underneath the skin of consumers, collecting intimate data about them. How do we navigate the intersection of immersive technology, creative innovation, and the right to privacy?

Like a whispered secret, immersive experiences transport us beyond the ordinary, awakening awe, curiosity, and deep connection. From mesmerising virtual realms to spellbinding sensory illusions, these creations challenge perception and redefine how we engage with the world, and with each other. For artists, technologists, and dreamers alike, this session is an invitation to step inside, listen closely, and explore the next frontier of imagination and innovation.

Workshop hosted by CIIIC - Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition and the International Public Values & Immersive Futures Network, launched by CLICKNL during SXSW in 2024/ As the new driving force accelerating the international IX Network, CIIIC expands its reach, bringing together creators, researchers, and policymakers to shape international collaboration and regulation in the immersive field.

Learn to design strong hybrid live experiences! Whether you are working on an event, a media format, an app, an exhibition or another type of live experience, this workshop will help you to carefully design a perfect mix of media and physical environments. The future of "live" is hybrid.

Immersive audio is reshaping how music is made, performed and experienced. Spatial-sound pioneer Richard Burki (Future Phonic Studios) and artist/label manager Anthony Faulkner (The Wild Seeds) explore the technologies, creative workflows and industry shifts driving this transformation, including their acclaimed collaborations with Max Cooper. Together, they map the opportunities—and responsibilities—of building a fair, sustainable ecosystem for artists and audiences as music enters its fully immersive era.

This interactive talk will explore how artist-led, science-backed immersive experiences can foster emotional expression and wellbeing. Award-winning artists behind Explore Deep and Soul Paint, Sarah Ticho (Hatsumi, XR Health Alliance) and Niki Smit (Monobanda) share tools for co-creating rituals of care through creative health design. Participants will explore emotional mapping, embodiment, and cross-sector collaboration to imagine new pathways for impact across health, art, and education.

Many of us have found their way to AI for all sorts of demands. But gradually, AI will more often pro-actively reach out to us too, not just for organisational tasks. The rise of a genre of infotainment and entertainment with AI as medium, is what fascinates us as public broadcaster. Sending agents as a 'broacast' to our audience and having AI in the studio to deal with the input of a mass audience, AI is a huge enabler in our field. In this session we'll reflect on a year of hands-on experiences with innovative AI media formats.

What does it take to design immersive experiences that engage millions? As Creative Director for both the Netherlands and Philippines Pavilions at World Expo 2025, I led visitor experiences that transformed abstract sustainability concepts into emotional memories through interactive orbs, AI-powered installations, and handcrafted textiles. This session reveals the behind-the-scenes challenges of designing at governmental scale—from prototyping in Amsterdam studios to installation in Osaka, navigating cultural nuances to measuring real impact. Learn practical frameworks that apply whether you're designing for 100 or 10 million visitors.

The Dutch Creative Design Schools — specialising in media, design, and the creative industries — are frontrunners who anticipate to the rapidly evolving creative sector, with a focus on integrating AI & emerging technologies into education. We will showcase how we prepare students for the future by innovating our programmes, including the development of a new curriculum for Immersive Design that explores XR, spatial computing, and interactive storytelling. We highlights current initiatives, future plans, and our ambition to expand our network. We share our drive to lead, experiment, and collaborate in shaping the next generation of creative professionals.

What happens when we use technology to make life more livable, rather than just more efficient? By weaving nature and technology together, art duo DRIFT creates physical experiences that recalibrate how we sense, feel, and connect - not only with each other, but with the planet itself. This session explores how architecture and multisensory design can engage the nervous system, inspire belonging and connection. Discover what natural processes can teach us about resilience, and how technology can partner with nature - transforming our environments from fast and functional to grounding, meaningful, and alive.

Brands don’t need another AI pitch. They need a vision and a playbook. In this talk I’ll show how the brand mascot is being reborn as a Virtual Brand Ambassador and why every self-respecting organisation will soon include one in its brand portal, like logos, colours, fonts and tone of voice today. I’ll define what a virtual ambassador is (not a gimmicky avatar), when it works, and how it builds trust at scale: consistent, safe and measurable. You’ll get teardowns of weak and strong use cases, a governance checklist, and three tips to humanise technology. Thought leadership, no vendor demo.

Ever since the rise of virtual influencers a small decade ago, digital humans have been taking the stage in marketing & communication. And thanks to GenAI, it has become easier and more affordable to create them. Today, they look AND sound more realistic than ever!In this talk, industry pioneer John Meulemans will show you how digital humans are the Swiss army knife for brands and organisations.  And how psychology dictates that we'll trust them, buy from them and get support from them. He will share the latest insights, compelling cases and even co-present his keynote with a digital human.

What happens when “move fast and break things” meets “build slow and get it right”?In this fireside chat, Ali Niknam, Founder of bunq, and Joe Wilson, Chief Evangelist and longtime startup builder, explore how to balance innovation with long-term thinking in an industry where both speed and trust matter.Ali built bunq as a borderless bank for global citizens; profitable, independent, and powered by AI that helps users, not processes. Joe brings a distinctly American perspective: after years at Microsoft and in startups, he knows what it takes to scale a mission, not just a product.

Prosus is building the world’s largest agentic workforce, with 20,000 agents already in use and a target to reach 30,000 agents by March 2026. In this fireside chat, CNBC's Arjun Kharpal speaks to Euro Beinat, Global Head of AI at Prosus and the man behind Prosus’ army of agents.Featuring visual demos of our agents in the wild, we explore how AI agents are reshaping the global workforce, empowering employees to design their own digital co-workers, how to measure success in the agentic era, and the post-agent future of work.

It’s hard to ignore growing concerns about excessive regulation which can stifle innovation, scalability, competitiveness, and success. Europe has world-class talent, but we lack the same outcomes, resulting in fewer breakthroughs, fewer global-scale companies. This session will gather one of Europe’s leading investors and two storied founders to discuss our chance to convert scientific strengths into deep-tech leadership.  But this isn't just about a couple of companies. It's about unlocking the full potential of European tech. The panel will end with a discussion on what needs to happen to put and keep Europe on top as a global tech powerhouse.

Healthcare is shifting from pills and protocols to collaboration around real lives. AI empowered visual storytelling lets clinicians and patients share their perspectives, removing jargon and misunderstanding. In this session, clinicians who use this technology show how visual storyboards enable shared decision making and co-creative recovery.

Urban and rural development has a long history of traditions, paperwork, effortless patience and conflicting needs and political agendas. What if immersive tech will step into this arena? We have experienced the gains while creating a "new immersive state of mind" and think it will be a promising NEW NORMAL to evolve cities with a maximum of involvement of the multiple helix

As hybrid realities merge physical and digital spaces, we face a critical question: who controls these new environments? Current AI development prioritizes individual convenience and corporate profit over collective well-being. This workshop explores how communities can reclaim agency in designing human-AI collaborations that serve the common good.Building on our Civic Protocol Economies research, we've developed a model featuring three value flows—currencies, tokens, and "current-sees"—that enable place-based communities like neighborhoods to create alternative economic systems. This workshop will share research findings, engage participants in hands-on design exercises, and create provocative prototypes for how communities can reclaim control over AI systems.