Monthly Archives: October 2010

innovation, The Digital Age, The future of Universities

Should the University Survive in its current form?

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What does the future hold for universities? What could the role of the university be in the Big Society? As part of the Inside/Out Festival the University of London hosts a debate on the issue.

Speakers:
May Chien Busch, MCB Enterprises, ex Chief Operating Officer Morgan Stanley Europe
Professor Geoffrey Crossick, Vice-Chancellor, University of London
Professor AC Grayling, Birkbeck, University of London
Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive, Arts and Humanities Research Council
Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister of State for the Universities and Science

Chair:
Anne McElvoy, New Statesman Columnist and Executive Editor of the London Evening Standard.

I’m liveblogging the event using a web-based service called CoveritLive

[Please note that the liveblog is my notes taken in realtime at the event and not a transcript – happy to take any comments or corrections].

Digital Britain, innovation, The Digital Age

Designing the city: What role for design in London’s future

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In this STIR Lecture (Simulator Teaching Innovation Research) at Imperial College, the role of design in London’s future was to be ‘debated’; except there was no debate. Mighty good stuff though.

Sir George Cox plugging away; telling anecdotes (mostly about the previous administration) and giving really good examples of how design skills and process can contribute value to product and service design.

Matt Hunter, head of the Design Council – using the ‘hokey cokey’ approach to rhetoric (you put London in, you take London out . . . .) and speaking passionately about the need to ’embed design in policy-making’ (bless)

Dan Phillips Group Director of Sustainability of Buro Happold got off to a bit of a slow start but got into his stride, talking about the need for a big change in attitude from both the designers and providers of goods and services; “There’s a sense that the utilities want to sell us power and gas – but they ought to be selling ‘warmth’ and ‘light’.”

More about the speakers here:
http://www.designlondon.net/stir-lectures/past-stir-lectures/#20-speakers

And why was there no debate?  Because all the speakers agreed with each other (and themselves) that Design was central to the changes we need to make in our economy and society – but is anyone listening?