As London confronts a post-Brexit future in an age of changing work patterns and shifting global alliances, the connections between government support, entrepreneurism and technological capacity are at the heart of the debate of how cities will compete for jobs, talent and investment. Is the government doing enough to attract, stimulate and retain the next generation of individuals and companies that will keep the capital growing? Is Lisbon overtaking London as Europe tech-capital, and what are the lessons, if any, from Silicon Valley to the unrealised Silicon Roundabout? The founder of London’s most forward-looking accelerators, Second Home, and architect of the city’s innovation policy addresses these and other questions.
Rohan Silva (@Silva) is the co-founder of Second Home, a social enterprise that uses radical architecture to support innovation and entrepreneurship in cities around the world. He was previously Senior Policy Adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, where he worked across all areas of policy, but was particularly passionate about enterprise, innovation and technology. He was responsible for developing key policies to improve the environment for enterprise in the UK, such as the Entrepreneur Visa, Entrepreneur Relief, angel investment tax breaks, and the Government’s Open Data agenda. In addition, he created the British Government’s Tech City initiative, which supports the growth of the technology cluster in East London, and also instigated the Government’s Life Science Strategy in 2011, as well as the follow-up strategy in 2012 focused on genomics and bioinformatics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art and a World Economic Forum ‘Young Global Leader’. Rohan is an alumnus of LSE, having graduated with a MSc in Government.
Ricky Burdett (@BURDETTR) is Professor of Urban Studies at the LSE and Director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme. He was curator of the Conflicts of an Urban Age exhibition at the 2016 International Architecture Biennale in Venice and contributed to the United Nations Habitat III conference on sustainable urbanisation in Quito. He was a member of the UK Government’s Independent Airports Commission from 2012 to 2015 and is involved in regeneration projects across Europe and the USA.
LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science that carries out research, education and outreach activities in London and abroad. Its mission is to study how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focussing on how the design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment.
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