A new push for innovation
Adam Nichols
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Yesterday I attended the Innovation Exchange Festival of Ideas. The Innovation Exchange was set up by the Office of the Third Sector to stimulate new ideas and approaches. It has identified two areas to focus on initially: independent living and disadvantaged young people, the second of which has an obvious interest for Changemakers. The event was unusual in that it brought together funders from the private and trust sectors, public sector commissioners and third sector innovators. There was an open exchange of views and, whilst it was good to see organisations putting aside their normal sectoral barriers, it was also interesting to note that at coffee breaks and over lunch people tended to congregate to their colleagues from similar backgrounds! There is clearly still some way to go if our ambitions of truly integrated working are to be realised. Nonetheless the event threw up some very interesting ideas, from an organisation hiring scooters for young people from rural areas of Norfolk to enable them to better access services and facilities, to the efforts of the David Beckham Academy to use his obvious appeal and role model status to raise young people’s aspirations in east London. In John Craig the Innovation Exchange has an excellent leader and we are looking forward to working with him over the months to come to stimulate some exciting new ideas.
