At the beginning of the month (5th July), Lord St John of Bletso, FPC Advisory Board Member, Lord Wei, FPC Executive Chairman, Douglas Hansen-Luke, FPC IGB Member Jerry Engel, and a room full of those from the worlds of insurance, pension funds, family offices and university innovation – to name a few – joined forces to launch research programme for the second instalment of the Wei Forward Report.
The breakfast event at the House of Lords was a great success and Douglas was able to use the meeting to update the attendees on the vision behind Future Planet Capital. Jerry, a world leader in entrepreneurship education, venture capital, corporate innovation and regional economic development visiting from San Francisco, also spoke eloquently about the importance of innovation clusters and praised FPC for helping connect such clusters around the world. Jerry also touched on how impact will be a key measurement for investors in the future, particularly as risk increases and investors work towards investments that help reduce systemic risk.
Lord Wei spoke about the success of the initial Wei Forward report, and the lessons learned from the first instalment. This included investigating the mainstreaming of impact and how to tackle the challenges of green-washing. Lord Wei also launched the research programme for the second instalment of the report and called on those in the room to get involved.
The Wei Forward II will conduct more in-depth research into the role of clusters within the innovation ecosystem globally (insurance, sovereigns, pension funds, and others), and will share greater learnings about clusters in geographies including Asia. The second report will also consider how a greater focus on the cost of living will affect key decision makers, as well as highlight impactful solutions that help the planet in ways that are sustainable for all of us.
The breakfast speakers were very well received by those in attendance and much interest was shown in collaborating on the report. Wide ranging questions and discussion took place, including on whether investment was encouraging greater blue sky thinking by affecting the willingness for shared ideas and collaboration; the relative role of measurement and metrics versus a more hands off approach; and inclusion and how the current system does or does not reach all possible entrepreneurs and investors (with Skydeck and MIT Solve getting a special mention for bringing founders into their platforms from around the world).
Lord Wei concluded the meeting by thanking all those in attendance, particularly the panellists and Lord St John of Bletso who kindly hosted the morning.
Now is your chance to get involved - The second instalment of the Wei Forward Report will be drafted over the next 6 months, following a number of roundtables around the world. We very much welcome input and you can learn more or contribute by getting in touch with Jess – j.hill@futureplanetcapital.com.
