Kindly Supported by the IET
Date: Tuesday 16th September 18:30 - 19:30
Location: Marriott Highcliff Purbeck Suite
Speakers: Stephen Williams David Kester, Chief Exec, Design Council Ian Mulheirn, SMF Robin McGill, IET
Chair: tbc
"The global economy is becoming ever more competitive. Innovation is vital to increasing our competitiveness, improving our economy and our quality of life. It's the way that Britain will stay in front as a leading nation in the 21st century. It can also help us to meet some of the most challenging issues we face such as climate change and pollution." (DIUS website, May 2008)
Innovation is a magic solution to all the world’s problems – climate change? Innovation will develop technology to reverse the damage. Slowing economy? Innovation will give us that most valuable of commodities – knowledge – that will make the UK a world leader. And yet, innovation is a shadowy spectre that is impossible to pin down; the magic formula continues to be elusive. What worked in one country, or for one technology, will not necessarily work for another. This is both a blessing and a curse, promoting innovation in itself, but making it difficult to define a ‘product’ to mass market.
Both developed and developing countries see new technologies as vital to their economic success. Every country wants to be a world leader, turning itself into a knowledge economy with expertise to sell. Because innovation is different in every country, and there are multiple technologies and areas of science, the ‘innovation race’ is really a series of races