A one day conference held at City University London, organised by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice.

Keynotes:

Geoff Mulgan – Chief Executive of Nesta

Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of Nesta (the UK’s National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts).  Nesta combines investment in early stage companies, grant programmes in fields ranging from health and education to the arts and giving, and research.   From 2004-2011 Geoff was the first Chief Executive of the Young Foundation, which became a leading centre for social innovation, combining research, creation of new ventures and practical projects.

Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos. He has also been Chief Adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a lecturer in telecommunications; an investment executive; and a reporter on BBC TV and radio. He is a visiting professor at LSE, UCL, Melbourne University and a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy. He is an adviser to many governments around the world, and has been a board member of the Work Foundation, the Health Innovation Council, Political Quarterly and the Design Council, and chair of Involve.   He is currently Chair of the Studio Schools Trust and the Social Innovation Exchange.

His recent books include The Art of Public Strategy – Mobilising Power and Knowledge for the Public Good (OUP, 2008) , Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006)  and Connexity (Harvard Business Press and Jonathon Cape, 1998). His next books, published by Princeton University Press in early 2013, include The Locust and the Bee and a study on the future of economic growth.

Matt Kingdon – Co-founder of ?What If! Innovation Partners 

Matt Kingdon co-founded ?What If! Innovation Partners in 1992 with Dave Allan and led the business to not only grow rapidly but come first in the Financial Times ‘Best Company to Work For’ in Europe awards an unprecedented two times. For nearly 20 years now, ?What If! has partnered with global organisations including Google, Pfizer, AbbVie, Pepisco and Barclays to invent new products, brands, services, and business models, and build their in-house innovation capabilities. Before starting ?What If! Matt worked at Unilever marketing their broad brand portfolio, first in the UK then SE Asia and the Middle East.

He has always been an enthusiast and realises how useful it is to make goals tangible and how important it is to relentlessly engage everyone with the excitement and stretch of the journey. Matt’s core belief is that the key challenges facing organisations as they transform from sleepy giants to nimble innovators are more human than strategic. Listening, experimenting and packaging new ideas to survive the inevitable corporate beating – these skills, more so than ‘clever’ thinking and heavyweight documentation, are what separate innovation winners from innovation also-rans.

When he’s not out in the field working with partners he’s banging the drum for innovation. Matt is a popular public speaker, 2012 highlights including keynotes at Harvard Business School, The Economist Future of Banking Summit and Barclays Insight Summit. He is also co-author of the best-selling innovation text Sticky Wisdom (Wiley, 2005) and author of recently published The Science of Serendipity: How to Unlock the Promise of Innovation in Large Organisations (Wiley, 2012).

Programme

We have also invited practitioners and researchers from a wide range of backgrounds to present their research or practice on the themes of innovation, creativity and leadership to a multi-disciplinary audience. This year also we are giving particular focus on areas of interest to London’s Tech City community, the growing cluster of creative and digital companies, large and small, in east London, in order to mark the launch of Unrulyversity, a new initiative by City University London and Unruly Media aimed at bridging the gap between business and academia. The event will serve as a forum for exchanging ideas in these areas and the cross-cutting themes of:

• Organizational creativity and leadership for creative communities
• Emerging technologies that support creativity and innovation
• Creative and innovative uses of new media and technologies
• Empirical studies of innovation, creativity or leadership by quantitative and qualitative methods
• Reflective accounts of individual and collaborative creative practice
• Education and training in innovation, creativity and leadership
• Creativity in arts, music, story telling, poetry, design, science, etc.
• Legal aspects of innovation
• Transdisciplinary metaphors, methods and models of innovation, creativity or leadership
• Case studies describing innovations in business, education or service sectors

Full programme will be available in April.

Fees

The event is free to attend, but participants must register to attend in advance. Details for how to register will be made available in April. For further details, please visit City University London website or contact creativity@city.ac.uk.