Conference
IGL2017 Global Conference
IGL2017 brought together 250 senior policymakers, practitioners and researchers from over 30 countries to explore future innovation and entrepreneurship policies.
13 June 2017 – 14 June 2017
IGL, in collaboration with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the World Bank Group, the Cotec Foundation, the “La Caixa” Banking Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank, held its annual conference in Barcelona, Spain on June 13-14.
Building on the success of last year’s IGL2016, IGL2017 brought together 250 senior policymakers, practitioners and researchers from over 30 countries to:
- Learn about the next generation of innovation and entrepreneurship policies.
- Engage in wide-ranging discussions on crucial policy challenges including automation, inclusive economic growth, directing public innovation funding, and smart regulation to support innovation.
- Improve their organisation’s capability to design policies that deliver measurable impact, using different tools such as randomised controlled trials and big data.
- Meet a global community of peers to learn from and share experiences with.
The two day event had over 50 speakers, including:
- José Miguel Benavente, Competitiveness and Innovation Division Chief, Inter-American Development Bank
- Francesca Bria, Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer, Barcelona City Council
- Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor, City of West Sacramento
- Clara Eugenia Garcia, Director General for Research, Development & Innovation, Spanish Government
- Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics, Yale University
- Taina Kulmala, Head of Policy Analysis Unit, Prime Minister’s Office, Finland
- Luiz Martins, Head of Special Projects Area, FINEP (Brazil)
- Andrew Palmer, Business Affairs Editor, The Economist
- Raj Thampuram, Managing Director, Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
The first day, Tuesday 13 June, brought together all participants in a series of plenary and interactive parallel sessions, while the second day, Wednesday 14 June, gave participants the choice to attend one of the following:
- IGL Policy & Practice Learning Lab – a practical day of workshops tailored specifically to policy-makers and practitioners working in this space; or
- IGL Research Meeting – an academic meeting with presentations of design-stage, ongoing and completed randomised controlled trials.
