Challenge Summits Event Report

In the second week of March, we brought together a programme of expert speakers for our Challenge Summits to discuss some of the greatest challenges we face today. How do we: Create Prosperity, Build Community, Improve Health, and Tackle Climate Change in the UK? We had 800 participants sign up to the programme this year to look at how business can be used to tackle these issues facing our society today.

The Ingenuity Programme provides participants with the opportunity to create innovative solutions to the biggest issues facing the UK, and the Summits are designed to highlight some of these issues and inspire some brilliant new ideas.

An entire day was dedicated to each Challenge, exploring the issue from both a national and regional perspective. The events included keynotes from speakers across the East Midlands, the West Midlands, the West of England, and the South Coast focusing on the specific challenges their regions face.

Our Create Prosperity Challenge Summit saw innovators hear keynotes from organisations such as Bearded Bros, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Credit Union and the Countryside and Community Research Institute.

"If we're serious about sharing prosperity, we need to create real social value and have enterprises with a sense of mission and responsibility."

Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, Countryside and Community Research Institute

Our Build Community Summit welcomed keynotes from organisations such as Bristol Housing Festival and the Prince’s Trust, whilst hearing about the great work football foundations like the Albion Foundation and Nottingham Forest Community Trust do in the community.

At our Improve Health Summit we heard from the likes of Golden Key Bristol and Dementia Action, as well as a particularly moving keynote from Age UK’s Di Trinder. Di spoke about the ways in which the pandemic had negatively affected elderly people, painting a stark picture of the physical and mental health of our ageing population.

Finally, our Tackle Climate Change Summit saw innovators hear keynotes from organisations such as Nottingham City Council, Youth4Nature and Ecotricity. Tony Whitbread from Sussex Wildlife Trust left us with a call to action: “The pandemic enables us to challenge the way we think. Change is most powerful when it comes from the inside out. Change the human story.”

Each session was packed with interesting insights and useful information that will help our participants create the innovative solutions that our country desperately needs. We are grateful for all the brilliant keynote speakers that took part in these sessions, and also for our University Partner hosts for helping the week become a success!

We asked some of our keynote speakers for one final piece of advice as our participants begin to develop their ideas:

“Think creatively” – Andy Nolan
“Think small, and plan big” – Stephen Roper
“It’s a good time to challenge” – Aneysha Minocha
“Change the human story” – Dr. Tony Whitbread
“We desperately need innovative solutions” – Eoin McQuone

Thanks again to everyone that took part in this week’s events, your participation will help fuel progress. We can’t wait to see what happens when our innovators start developing their ideas!

Each Summit has now been uploaded to the Develop Platform, so if you want to revisit any of the talks for further inspiration, visit the Develop Platform now.