How can we create a new industrial revolution?

Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas festival 2019.

Recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 3 November 2019, in partnership with City of London Corporation.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, is one of the thinkers associated with the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, ‘blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres’. Do we need a new industrial revolution – and what are the barriers to creating one? Many commentators have noted a longstanding lack of investment and sluggish growth in productivity. Will new technologies really transform our society or is the hype around them a distraction from more fundamental issues? Given the moribund state of developed economies in recent decades, are we still capable of becoming a risk-taking, innovative society? Is talk of a new industrial revolution an unnecessary throwback to an older age of manufacturing?

LORD ANDREW ADONIS
Labour peer; founding chairman, National Infrastructure Commission;
author, Saving Britain: how we must change to prosper in Europe

GERARD GRECH
chief executive, Tech Nation; board member, Barbican

KEVIN MCCULLAGH
founder, Plan; innovation strategist and writer

HILARY SALT
actuary; founder, First Actuarial

CHAIR: ROB KILLICK
CEO, Clerkswell; author, The UK After The Recession