News story

G8 Innovation Conference

The conference on 14 June focused on how innovation can be encouraged and where the next big opportunities are for business innovation

• From: UK Trade & Investment, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Cabinet Office and Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street
• Published: 14 June 2013
• Last updated: 16 June 2013 — See all updates

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The Innovation Conference brought together today’s leading innovators and thought leaders across disciplines, from the G8 and beyond. From public policy to science and technology, this conference facilitated conversations that influence the dialogue throughout the UK G8 Presidency.

High profile speakers included:

• David Willetts, BIS Minister for Science and Innovation
• Sir Richard Branson, who discussed entrepreneurship and innovation
• Ron Dennis of McLaren who talked about innovation in F1 and how technologies spin out into other sectors
• Daphne Koller, founder of Coursera, who discussed online education
• Zaha Hadid, architect
• Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of the new London bus, discussing innovation and creativity

Delegates included around 250 leading international entrepreneurs, researchers, scientists, creatives and policy makers from more than 22 different countries.

You can review events from the G8 Innovation Conference here

In the afternoon, G8 Innovation Conference delegates split into small groups and visited innovation centres of excellence. They heard from world leading innovation practitioners and reflected and discussed on how new approaches can address current challenges.

These included:

• Tech City in East London
• The Big Innovation Centre
• Open Data Institute
• Royal Academy of Engineering

Overall, the event set out areas where the UK is a global innovation leader in entrepreneurship, creativity, science and technology and demonstrated the UK’s ability to provide the conditions for the cross fertilisation of ideas and inter-disciplinary collaboration. As a result, the event inspired international innovators, and enabled UK businesses and innovators to find international partners to enable them to collaborate and develop new ideas in response to global challenges.

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Partners

The Conference is organised by UKTI in partnership with BT and Cisco. Contact UKTI for advice and support investing in the UK.

Published 14 June 2013
Last updated 16 June 2013 + show all updates

1. 16 June 2013

   Amended after the event

2. 14 June 2013

   First published.