Bringing the World of Tomorrow to Edinburgh Castle: Dinner, Tradition and Scotland’s Pitch

The Summit’s opening night set the tone for the whole event

In June, Launchpad Build AI hosted an exclusive summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, to discuss the future of AI and robotics. We were privileged to have the event covered in a series of articles by leading publication, Newsweek. In this post, the second of four, we look back at the event and showcase some of the insights it revealed.

Launchpad Build AI’s World of Tomorrow Summit began the way few tech gatherings do: atop an extinct volcano, inside one of Europe’s oldest fortifications. Guests were piped in from Crown Square for dinner in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, and as Newsweek’s Megan Carnegie observed in the second of her four articles, “instead of kings, clans and statecraft, the discussion centered on AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing.”

The evening was built to make a point. Newsweek described it as “a reminder that Scotland wants to shape the next industrial era, not watch it unfold.” The country’s pitch rests on more than just scenery: it offers “a smaller, well-coordinated ecosystem where AI and robotics companies can work closely with government, universities, investors and industry.”

Dinner, however, was a chance to lean fully into Scotland’s impressive heritage. Newsweek reported a feast “prepared by acclaimed Scottish chef and restaurateur Tom Kitchin, a haggis ceremony (complete with a reading of Robbie Burns’ Address to a Haggis,) and a harp performance.” This was Scottish tradition front and center for an audience focusing on the technology of the future.

As the Tartan Army was charming World Cup audiences around the world, the message inside the castle was clear: Scotland wants the same kind of global attention for its role in the next wave of industrial technology.

Guests included figures such as Mike Splinter of TSMC’s board, Alistair McFarland of Leonardo, Chorus.ai founder Roy Raanani and Scottish Enterprise chief executive Adrian Gillespie.

For Launchpad Build AI, hosting the dinner in Edinburgh was a natural choice. Our CEO Jon Quick told Newsweek it’s a lot to do with the similarity between North American and Scottish cultures: “I’ve found the Scots to be such earnest, high-quality people. They’re the kind of people you want to do business with, and we’ve got big plans for the relationship here.”

The evening also carried real substance behind the ceremony. Scotland’s innovation minister, Ben Macpherson, pointed to the country’s research pedigree, noting that Europe’s first AI research group was set up at the University of Edinburgh in 1963.

As he told the assembled guests, “That makes Edinburgh the second university in the world after Stanford to offer AI as a research subject, and we’re looking to build on that history.”