The Great Disruption: Unleashing the Power to Create

We are living in creative times. New technologies combined with an unstoppable desire for self-determination has unleashed a wave of new ideas and practices in a huge diversity of areas. This is being driven not by a handful of specialists and entrepreneurs as in the past but by millions of ‘ordinary’ citizens and consumers.

The creative industries have already been turned upside down by this trend and areas such as manufacturing, public services and education are already beginning to experience a similar whirlwind of change.

The RSA is now placing this unleashing of the Power to Create at the heart of its mission. A panel of senior staff from the RSA’s Action and Research Centre (ARC) will explore how we can harness the Power to Create for public good and economic growth and what we can do to respond positively to the great disruption it is already generating for jobs, businesses, the public sector and wider society.

Adam Lent, director, ARC will explore the Power to Create explaining where it has come from, why it is proving so powerful and what the future is likely to hold. Rowan Conway, director, RSA Connected Communities, Sophie Thomas, co-director of design at the RSA and Anthony Painter director of institutional reform will explore what the Power to Create means for public services, communities and businesses.

Speakers: Adam Lent, director of ARC, RSA; Anthony Painter, director of institutional reform, ARC, RSA; Rowan Conway, director of Connected Communities, RSA; and Sophie Thomas, co-director of design at the RSA.