The UK Government's Business Secretary, Vince Cable will today open Design Summit 2012 at London's City Hall to consider how Britain can capitalise on its distinctive qualities to secure economic growth and rebalance the economy.
The UK's foremost industry leaders and thinkers will discuss what Britain can learn from British identity to increase inward investment and export growth at Design Summit 2012, convened by the Design Council. Design Council will be live reporting the event, blogging throughout the sessions, and tweeting with the hash tag #designsummit12.
New research prepared by Ipsos MORI specifically for Design Summit 2012 shows that Britain is a proud nation, but lacks confidence in the businesses and the products and services they produce. They are slow to celebrate their success and recognition of British innovation and cutting edge design is low. Unprompted, only 13 per cent of those surveyed identified the World Wide Web (www) as a British invention, and later when asked about relative pride in British innovation only 34 per cent rated the web.
download: Design Council Britishness Survey.pdf (55k)
Design Summit 2012 will show how Britain can innovate and tap into its creativity, drawing on its unique, British strengths. Design is one such natural strength. It unlocks potential and gives business the confidence and optimism to grow.
We know that investment in design delivers, and we can do more to turn this into growth. Design Summit 2012's ambition is to capitalise on the range of design-led initiatives across the public and private sector and to encourage the Government to give them more support. Britain is jubilant and there is real scope to harness this pride and turn it into tangible growth through a coherent Government-wide programme for design.
"British designers from Brunel and Burners-Lee to James Dyson and Vivienne Westwood have been admired around the world for generations," commented Vince Cable. "They have all contributed substantially not only to Britain's reputation as an innovative, inventive nation but also to our economic growth.
We should be proud of our creative industries and how they have meshed with technology and engineering to produce products that Britain and the rest of the world wants to buy. By bringing cutting edge new products to market and nurturing the next generation of designers and inventors, we are actively managing to rebalance the economy to create the strong, sustainable economic growth we need."
"A recent report for the World Economic Forum shows that the UK comes 10th in global competitiveness," said David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council. "Germany is 6th. Every point means jobs. Our survey with Ipsos MORI shows that we could learn from the Germans and be prouder about our talents and success. To edge ahead at the top of the pack means competing on added value and innovation. That's where design comes in, turning our ideas into brands, products and services that people need and want."