Future Shock

In 2015, Britain will vote on how it will be governed for the next five years. We can expect a hard-fought, gritty, often negative campaign from all the main parties.

But a lot will change over the next five years. At this event, we’ll look at important trends and technologies that will shape the UK and its economy in the not-so-distant future, and what policy-makers should be doing about them.

This event prompted lively discussion from across the political spectrum, controversial economic views, and demonstrations of future technologies and the effect they will have on us.

Speakers included Diane Coyle, Izzy Kaminska, Michael Osborne, Tyler Cowen, Paul Mason, Kathryn Perera and a host of experts and practitioners from the UK and around the world. 

The six interactive workshops covered the following subjects:

Creativity vs Robots - a look at the future of the UK’s creative economy in the coming decade, and what sort of policy is needed to help it thrive.

Sharing economy or Uber for everything? - new possible futures for the collaborative economy in the UK – both good and bad – and how the next government should respond to them.

The big shift for health: how technology can empower patients and stop the NHS going bust - new technologies offer the potential to solve big public service challenges, as well as big business opportunities, but implementing them will not be easy. We looked at new health technologies as an example.

A new movement in education - a new movement is afoot in the world of education. It combines academic education with practical learning, and traditional teaching with new technologies. We looked at the new movement, and discussed the policies the next government should put in place to promote it.

Industrial policy for 21st Century - it’s increasingly accepted that governments have an important role to play in promoting innovation. What policies should a future government put in place to make innovation flourish?

The coming fight over data - data will be an increasingly valuable resource in the future, but it will also be something more and more people want to protect. Governments will have to make tough choices – what should they do?