Geoff Mulgan - 17.01.2013
Many thanks to everyone who took part in our roadshow in Cardiff, which had a full house.
For the first time in a few years we now have some staff based in Wales, and it was good to discover an ancient link through the story of Princess Nesta who was abducted at an 11th century Eisteddfod and fell in love with her kidnapper.
As at the other roadshows the highlights for me were the presentations of individual projects, that included Timto (the new way to give to charity linked to birthdays - and a way of reducing the mountains of wasted presents that kids receive), MyWelshpool (a new hyperlocal news service), Monmouthshire County Council's great range of creative projects that started with the world's first local Wikipedia variant, Spice the parallel currency, and Welsh Crucible. The Big Green Challenge winner Green Valleys also did a great presentation.
Wales has many traditions of innovation - from Fox Talbot and fuel cells to the precursor of the NHS, and Cardiff comes out well from our analyses of high growth business. It's also made the most of big public investments associated with BBC and S4C. But Wales could be doing more - and risks being overtaken by hungrier, faster moving countries.
Here's a piece from the Western Mail written by one of our Cardiff speakers, Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, Director of Enterprise and Innovation, University of Wales.
T +44 (0)20 7438 2500
F +44 (0)20 7438 2501
Nesta Operating Company, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.
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