Last evening, I went along to the
Big Innovtaion Centre scale
up party. BIC launched in September
2011, exists to make the UK a global open innovation hub, to build a
world-class innovation ecosystem, and re-balance and grow the UK economy. Not small challenge by anyone’s marker.
It’s gathered together some of
our great companies added in key institutions from across the policy landscape
to carry out business-oriented research, taking emerging ideas and backing it up with evidence.
Support across the board
The party was to celebrate and
call out the work they’ve been up too across thought leadership, innovation
promotion and their co-creation platforms.
It was also an opportunity to remind all the political parties the importance
of its mission. With speeches from Vince
Cable, Chuka Umunna, and David Willets the support was flowing. Understandable
really as it has the sense of kissing babies for any politician.
We also heard from Ashok Vaswani at
Barclays as he compared the industrial revolution to the digital revolution, as
well as Pradeep Sindhu, founder of Juniper Networks on the opportunity and
challenges of the new age innovation. He
had offered a useful slant on the implications and ethics of artificial intelligence.
My challenge is that I would love
to greater diversity and representation from across the commercial sectors.
Where are the awesome SME’s that are disrupting these major players and leading
the charge for the UK? I’ll be looking to champion them as it’ll be these
companies that showcase the UK as a global innovation hub.
