On 20th May I went to NESTA’s Innovation Edge, a free one day conference at London’s South Bank Centre where the good and the great of innovation-led entrepreneurs, technologists, policy hucksters and futorologists (many sporting wide-heavy rimmed glasses, like myself) gathered en masse (3,000, exactly) to conflab on the broad subject of ideas in the UK – a temporary ideopolis, if you will. This was the largest ever event held by NESTA, the state-funded endowment for science, technology and the arts (three-quarters funding quango, quarter fresh thinking).

Here’s a few highlights alone because I only caught half the event and it’s been covered in detail elsewhere and aggregated by NESTA. Indeed, this was an event with social media at the heart where Twittering was actively encouraged by participants and fed into the discussion. See the Innovation Edge stream of tweets.

A few thoughts on what I saw:

Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof (describing himself as ‘not small and fat like Bono’. Good to see the Oirish rock dinosaurs are as bitchy as members of Girls Aloud) tells us, paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw’s description of ‘unreasonable men’, that an innovator “persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the innovator.”

Other cutting-edge revelations from the man who saved the world:

• “Ideas are like a-holes. Everyone’s got one”.
• Consumerism is not king: world resources are limited, so innovation entrepreneurs are needed more than ever, in particular social entrepreneurs (like Muhammad Yunus and micro-finance for better ploughs in Bangladesh) Yet we are losing the ability to celebrate social entrepreneurs – it’s all about he who makes the most money, not the most radical change. Examples include e-credits by mobile phone to buy meat from a far away village, to guarantee food will be there instead of wasting a day’s travel.
• The English are proud of their eccentricity – but also proud that they don’t make any money from their inventions (like Tim Berners-Lee)? Yet there is an underlining fear of failure whish is destroying innovation.
• The future is about co-operation not competition – it’s Facebook, Open Source and the NHS. Knowledge and connectivity will liberate the world from politics and poverty – Harvard geeks and ubiquitous computing spread the knowledge which ended the Cold War.

Interesting ideas and inspired delivery – and of course Sir Bob can get away with saying (and expleting) what the rest of us in need of a pay cheque cannot. But not really sure if he had anything new to say about innovation, and I glazed when he starts banging on about famine, politics and the like (knowing full well he’d be taking tea backstage with PM Brown).

From the keynote panel:

• Not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur – we need managers and follower to.
• Children learn in different ways now -a 6-year-old published a white paper on Barbie using Google.
• Throw out the ancient conflict between East (China, India) and West – come together to tackle the big global issues of health and climate change. Power blocks can become trading blocks.
• Developing world citizens are honest in managing investment, not handouts – Kiva, lending to entrepreneurs in the developing world, has a 98% payout rate.
• What can the Prime Minister do? Not let the rules of the past, the 19th century way we still do business, rule business today. Leading nicely to…

Gordon Brown

As expected, a lot of rhetoric and hot air a la Creative Economy. ‘We want to be the innovation nation, not just now but in the future’. ‘UK will shine because of our creative ideas’. etc. BUT…

A much underestimated man, Brown’s speach, un-scripted and seemingly off the cuff, was filled with humour, anecdotes and a genuine enthusiasm for the work of UK’s innovators. He recalled his pre-parliament career as a university lecturer – and certainly exhibited qualities of enthusiasm, dedication and learning – ‘which you have to leave at the door for a career in politics.’ I couldn’t help wondering if he’d be secretly happier in the hallowed corridors of Higher Education than ruling the country. Inspired but without substence.

Seminar: Are Online Social Networks the New Cities?

Delving further into the realm of a digital ideopolis with Michael Birch (CEO of Bebo, just to put you in the picture, and because these kind of events do kinda drag after lunch, he looks lots like Chemical Tom of Chemical Brothers), Richard Leese (Chief Exec of Manchester City Council, looks like Nick Hewer from The Apprentice), John Gisby (Channel 4 New Media, looks like Dom Jolly of Trigger Happy TV) and curator by acclaimed author of ‘the New Entrepreneurs’ Charles Leadbetter (looks like just about every other male at the conference).

Birch: Bebo is modelled on what makes a city great – but diverse like London, not modelled like Milton Keynes. Social Networks are like a bar, they can be brilliantly designed, but if they’re not populated they won’t do business. ‘Early dopters’ are like the alcoholics waiting at the door for the bar to open.
Leese: Manchester has to drive itself forward – it could easily become the first post-industrial city of decline as in times before.

Panel and audience discussion:

• Sue Thomas (De Montfort University) describes social media as ‘the dissolution of the monasteries’. Interuption is a part of digital, modern life. Yet it’s not always atruistic, it can be used for negative political or social gain e.g. cyber bullying.
• We wouldn’t put so much public money into TV if we were starting from a clean slate; Channel 4 Innovation4Public starts to re-dress the digital balance.
• Social networks are like online version of coffee shops – nodes of social interaction points. Digital oils the wheels of social interaction. Can we establish a digital bothy - a Scottish moutain refuge where serendipity, not shared niche interests or offline connections, can connect people together in new, unexpected ways?
• Schools need to be more web-based, but a straw poll showed a small majority of attendees think the teacher/pupil relationship for learning will still be the core of future education, not replaced by an online model.
• Is digital media fragmenting the family? Strangely, in days gone by we gathered together in the living room in front of the TV – but today everyone is on their computers in their own room online.

Best from the rest:

The ever eloquent James Heartfield pours cold water on the Davos-like event atmosphere cast by Gordon Brown c/o Spiked Online.

Nick Booth @ Podnosh captures some of the Twittering.

And a proper-proper review c/o Claudine Beaumont @ The Telegraph on Tim Berners-Lee who describes the internet and its users as like a teenager with growing pains.

In summary:

A good day full of somewhat lively discussion and networking. Innovation Edge #2 would be a ‘must be there’ event. However, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and it did feel like the lack of any commercial or other sponsors made the event very much about selling NESTA’s new agenda and self-promoting its own greatness with the best known speakers money can buy. Does it skew the balance for commercial events? Probably not, but next time some commercial input – or even opportunities for open space or small user-generated discussions, would be welcome. The IQ of the room must equal a billion – enough brainwaves to raise the roof and do some serious positive damage if harnessed in the right way.