London is the great urban chameleon – always changing, but always the same – sustainable, resilient, and inclusive. Our capital city has remained recognisable for generations through its landmarks, street patterns, architecture, and area names. Despite its long-established recognisable features, it has not maintained the status quo. London has always looked for ways to reinvent itself, setting trends, and showing off the latest fashions and technology. Our world-famous theatres, some of which have entertained Londoners and visitors for generations, play cutting-edge shows by the best new writers and directors. Once derelict buildings, such as Battersea Power Station, have opened the doors to their iconic structures once more, but for a very different purpose to their original function. And very soon, Smithfield Meat Market will become the home of the new London Museum. London at its heart is a true innovator. 

 

Whilst I describe London as if it were a living, breathing entity, (and in many ways it is), it is of course shaped by all of us – residents, workers, and visitors. Innovative Londoners, who are long gone, have left an indelible mark on our city’s fabric for generations to come.  

 

London’s innovative, disruptive, and creative credentials can be seen in every part of the city. The Great Exhibition of 1851, a platform to showcase British innovation, enabled the creation of some of our beloved cultural crown jewels (the V&A, Science, and Natural History Museums) but also excited people about the potential for new technologies and industry to improve lives. We have some of the greatest innovative infrastructure in the world. The construction of the London Underground system is one of our most famous innovations and replicated across the globe. Today we are innovating by expanding our transport system – most recently with the Elizabeth Line.    

 

Big innovative infrastructure projects are some of the obvious things we think about, but there are so many more ways to do innovation in London. Innovation is more than just what we can build, it’s also about the connections we can make, the conversations we can have, and creating the right conditions that can then lead to innovation in all kinds of areas. This is where London & Partners (L&P) step in.

 

At L&P – the capital’s business, growth and destination agency – we are at the forefront of driving London’s reputation as 'THE’ place to do innovation in the 2020s and beyond.

 

Since we were founded in 2011, we have created significant growth and jobs in London by promoting the city as a place to invest, grow, study, and visit, and added £3.1bn to London’s economy. Innovation is at the heart of this, and we do this in four key ways.

 

Firstly, we bring the world's most innovative companies to set up in London through our ‘Grow London’ programme. We support these businesses to set up as a UK entity and help them navigate the regulatory environment, ensuring they have all the information they need to operate within UK law. We also help them find the information they need to open a business bank account, help them find office space, and also where to hire the talent they need locally in London.

 

Secondly, we’re helping exciting London based innovators from the worlds of Fintech and cyber, the creative industries, and life sciences to expand internationally through our free 12-month ‘Grow London Global’ programme. We do this by providing expert advice tailored to the individual growth objectives of each business; we run workshops to help businesses gain valuable connections and learn from industry experts on a range of subjects such as fundraising, strategy, brand and more; and we also help businesses to make valuable contacts and provide insights into their target markets on international trade missions across the world.

 

Thirdly, we’re connecting innovators with corporates through our Innovation Fellowship. We launched the Fellowship in 2020 as an executive education programme, sharing best practice in open innovation, and it has now grown into a cross-sector network of innovation leaders from more than 100 global corporations.  Through the programme we help Fellows to overcome the barriers to successful open innovation by establishing models and frameworks, combining lectures on culture and ecosystem engagement, enabling peer-to-peer learning and showcasing real-world case studies from industry leaders. 

 

Following the programme, Fellows join our wider network and benefit from support in delivering their innovation activities through ongoing fellowship meetings, access to startup connections and opportunities to raise the profile of their innovation activity.

 

Finally, I mentioned the Great Exhibition at the beginning of this piece, and I would argue that our own London Tech Week is a modern-day equivalent. An annual event that showcases tech innovation and success in Europe’s leading technology hub, with global leaders sharing expertise and knowledge in hundreds of venues across London. London is Europe’s undisputed technology capital, with its tech sector contributing 589,000 jobs across the city. London & Partners co-founded London Tech Week in 2014 to promote and build on the extraordinary success of this sector. 

 

All of this is about putting the time, money and resources into programmes that can make a tangible difference. We must ensure that London is the best city in the world to be an innovator, and we need to provide the right level of support and create the conditions to help scale up our home-grown innovators to succeed around the world.  This is what drives us every day at London & Partners.