NESTA’s flagship conference, The Innovation Edge ( http://www.innovationedge08.co.uk ), was held at the Royal Festival Hall this week. Along with stands displaying the latest NESTA backed ideas and technologies, there were talks from a range of important figures in the world of UK and global innovation and creativity, including Tim Berners-Lee (typically incisive, yet unassuming) and Bob Geldof. I have never been a huge fan of Bob, but he changed my mind with a incredibly lucid and intelligent (bordering on brilliant) 45 minute talk about Africa, globalisation, technology and why we need things to change, now – all without notes, and despite the serious topic, also hugely entertaining.

Gordon Brown turned up after lunch to deliver a short speech. I’ll admit that I was also pleasantly surprised by the PM in person – his TV image certainly doesn’t do him any favours. So here’s his speech. Part of my reason for posting this here (NESTA has posted much better quality event videos here) is to test out a new (to me) free data storage site, humyo.com, which so far seems the most user-friendly and generally well thought-out storage site I’ve come across.