Filmed at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on 8th July 2013. The steam engine. The internet. Britain has a long history of inventing brilliant new technologies, processes and designs, but how do we make sure they become successful, money-and-job-creating products, companies and industries? The innovation happens in London, Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford, Edinburgh and Liverpool, but all too often the jobs and profits arise in Frankfurt, Santa Clara, Shanghai and Bangalore.
What is to be done? How can innovation be married to entrepreneurship? What kind of networks, institutions and financial arrangements should be in place to support British companies on their journey to becoming innovative world-beaters, and what obstacles -- political, economic, financial -- need to be overcome to get there?
In this Switched On Intelligence Squared event, held in partnership with Shell, we got to the heart of the matter by bringing together a diverse group of British innovators from the fields of business, engineering and politics, to share their personal insights into the successes and pitfalls they have encountered. Where lie Britain's strengths and weaknesses? In our schools and colleges of higher education? In the research departments of our universities? In our boardrooms? In our funding mechanisms? In the reluctance of our politicians to share in the risk taking? How can British innovations conquer the world?