On Tuesday 6th May I was fortunate enough to attend the Microsoft Innovation Day. It was, of course, exceptionally well organised and attended by policymakers (politicians from all parties), researchers and public servants, business- from media to trade to manufacturing- and Microsoft's partners which of course included Films for Learning!
The aim of UK Innovation Day was to bring all these people together to showcase innovation and identify future action for the UK to remain a world wide innovation leader. It is Microsoft's belief that technology is the key enabler of innovation. This was the strong consensus of those who attended.
John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, was not able to attend: Baroness Morgan took his place as the keynote speaker.
I attended an excellent round table discussion chaired by Rob Wilson MP asking whether a lack of freedom and innovation is driving the creativity out of young people in education. Clearly FFL proves that this is not the case; however there was a widely held belief that young people in schools are over examined which is leading to teachers and schools under pressure to err on the side of caution in order to achieve success. This may well decrease the opportunities for risk taking in school and in turn innovation.
Dr Andrew Herbert gave an insightful presentation on where future technology is taking us and the constraints imposed by current technology. This focused particularly on the ‘need for speed' in processing power which fights against the comparatively slow speed of memory.
An interesting panel discussion on ‘Creating the 2020 wave of UK Innovation' was held with the panel comprising James Crabtree, Prof Stephen Heppell, Alex MacGillivray and Mark Taylor from Microsoft. I was left feeling that the wave might well be ‘swelling' but my personal concern is that the market's insatiable appetite for more technology will leave a mountain of technological junk in it's wake. This is probably going to be left to the likes of Alex's organisation Accountability which advises on sustainability. The progress being made in China and India was never far from our minds, this was thrown into stark reality with Stephen talking about his pilot project in China with over 30 million participants!
The penultimate speaker, Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families gave a impressive speech which outlined a ‘free market' approach to education and the importance of an economy based on growth for innovative technological success.
Finally the day was closed by Jean-Philippe Coutois President of Microsoft International. He had just come from a meeting with GB in No10 and was introduced as one of the most powerful men in the world (and he sat next to me!). Jean-Philippe demonstrated Microsoft's commitment to innovation in all parts of the world with the news that Microsoft is investing in Africa's innovation infrastructure to help advance the Millennium Development Goals.
Following the meeting I then left to catch that technological feat of engineering, the overcrowded South West Trains 18.20 from Waterloo to which ran 45 minutes late. Lets hope the UK ‘Wave of Innovation' is running on time !