Community and authenticity are two of adland’s current favourite buzzwords, but as any marketer will tell you, creating them can be incredibly hard to achieve in reality. This is especially the case in the midst of one of London’s busiest and most diverse neighbourhoods, Shoreditch, which last week was flooded with people from across the creative and marketing industries as the first SXSW London rolled into town.

With an incredibly crowded line up of talks and events – the official programme took place across multiple venues and that’s before you take into account all the fringe activities – Sparks brand experience agency was looking for a way to do something different. It hit upon the idea of teaming up with a genuine community fixture, a local corner shop.

The agency joined forces with streaming platform GenBTV, dedicated to amplifying Black British culture and the global Black experience, and persuaded Halim, the owner of Retail 2 Smartfix newsagents on Brick Lane (conveniently positioned just down the road from the Truman Brewery, a core SXSW venue), to let them host events in his store across three days last week.

The project, named Setting up Shop, featured three days of talks and events, with a focus on sports, fashion and music. An eclectic mix of local and international stars made their way into the small store for the event, including leaders from grassroots football clubs Brentford FC Women and Hackney Wick FC; Grime MC Wiley; Actor Amrit Kau; the Jamaican High Commissioner; and many more. In addition there were workshops, merch drops and live music, all taking place among the narrow aisles of the store.

It can be ambitious to create an events space that feels rooted in a real community during a festival such as SXSW, but Sparks and GenBTV pulled it off, in part because the corner shop was up and running throughout, meaning the demographic within stretched beyond just industry types and SXSW attendees.

“Setting up Shop is one of the most grounded expressions of cultural creativity that we’ve done,” reflects Vikesh Bhatt, creative partner at Sparks EMEA. “Rooted and raw, it saw us transform a Brick Lane corner shop into a living hub for stories, talent and community energy. It became a space where local culture could meet global conversations.

“As a British Asian, corner shops are close to my heart and I’ve grown up seeing how they are more than businesses,” continues Bhatt. “They were places where people who do not always have the opportunity, or the limelight, can gather, graft and grow. That’s why this shop, on this street, as part of this project, matters – it’s about building connections and conversations [and] shining a light on new voices, street-level creativity and the everyday genius within our communities.

“It’s been part celebration, part experiment – and we hope it leaves a legacy far beyond the week. East London has always been a creative, cultural canvas. We’ve not been here to speak for it; we’ve been here to build with it.”

settingupshop.com; wearesparks.com; @generationblack_tv