LSE Festival 2019 | Innovation: a disruptive force for good? [Audio]

Speaker(s): Dr Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe, Geoff Mulgan, Emma Smith, Kartik Varma | You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw Join a panel of entrepreneurs and innovation experts to discuss how we can tackle the world's biggest problems in innovative ways to benefit society. We will consider questions including: What does innovation mean for social science? How we can innovate in socially responsible ways? Is innovation always to do with technology? How can we foster creativity and innovation? What does an innovative world look like? Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe is an Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, private equity and innovation. Her work has won several prizes including the Kauffman Dissertation Award (2012), the Coller Prize Award London (2013) and the Jaime Fernandez de Araoz Award (JFA, 2017). Emma Smith (@emmyagsmith) is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Eversend, a blockchain-based e-wallet for Africa and its diaspora that can facilitate money transfers both on and offline. To date, Eversend has facilitated over 5.5 million dollars worth of transactions. Before Eversend, Emma has worked on enterprising and innovative solutions to complex development problems. She's been on the founding team of five startups. Working with the public and private sector, she has led and participated in projects on diverse topics such as refugees and forced migration, global health, and financial inclusion. Geoff Mulgan (@geoffmulgan) has been Chief Executive of Nesta since 2011. Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation and runs a wide range of activities in investment, practical innovation and research. Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government's Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister's office. From 2004 to 2011 Geoff was the first Chief Executive of The Young Foundation. He was the first director of the think-tank Demos; Chief Adviser to Gordon Brown MP and reporter on BBC TV and radio. Kartik Varma (@CorpusKV) is an entrepreneur and an investor. He is the co-founder of PropTiger.com, India's largest digital real estate services firm, and iTrust Financial Advisors, a web-based open architecture platform providing financial products and advice to the mass affluent market in India. Previously, Kartik worked at The Childrens Investment Fund (London), Ziff Brothers Investments (New York and London) and James D Wolfensohn, Inc. (New York). Julia Black is Professor of Law in the Department of Law at LSE. She joined the Law Department in 1994. She completed her first degree in Jurisprudence and her DPhil at Oxford University. Her primary research interest is regulation. She has had a British Academy - Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship, and been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney and at All Souls College, Oxford, and in 2014 was the Sir Frank Holmes Visiting Professor in Public Policy at the University of Victoria, Wellington. Due to unforeseen circumstances Hannah Leach is unfortunately no longer able to speak at this event. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.