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Last week I attended the BSI Innovation Management Summit at London’s Science Museum. Over the weekend, I found myself still thinking about it.
The summit brought together representatives from Innovate UK, the Ministry of Defence, and Digital Catapult to explore how systems and standards can shape the UK’s innovation ecosystem. Across conversations on the ISO 56001 framework, leadership, and collaboration, one message stood out:
Innovation is no longer just about invention it’s about integration.
The idea is simple but profound. Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the result of aligning strategy, data, and people of building an ecosystem that connects creativity, technology, and policy. The ambition is real, and so is the challenge.
But what struck me most during the summit wasn’t the language of frameworks or metrics. It was how often innovation whether in science, art, or public life depends on something smaller and older: trust.
Innovation rarely begins in a boardroom. It begins in a conversation a gesture of belief between people who see possibility before the system does.
Years ago, when Litro was still a growing magazine, Tony Elliott, the late founder of Time Out, invited me for coffee. On the back of a torn receipt, he scribbled a note offering to run a Litro insert that would take our circulation into tens of thousands. That small, spontaneous act of trust changed everything.
It reminded me that true innovation doesn’t rely on policy or funding rounds. It begins with faith – faith that new ideas, however unproven, deserve space to grow.
True innovation begins with trust — not frameworks, but faith in new ideas.
nearly two decades on, that same principle underpins The Sphere Initiative, where we’re building digital infrastructure that helps creators and innovators secure their ideas ethically and transparently.
Using AI and blockchain, we’re developing tools that allow intellectual property to be protected in real time making the process of innovation more accessible, especially for those outside traditional power structures. It’s the same idea of trust, but applied at scale: a framework for creativity that’s shared rather than siloed.
This week’s summit reinforced a conviction I’ve carried for years: the next frontier of innovation isn’t purely technological- it’s cultural.
We talk often about systems, leadership, and data, but rarely about imagination.
And yet imagination is the only renewable resource we all share.
If innovation is to matter in art, in science, in society we must create spaces where creativity, engineering, and policy meet; where government, academia, and founders collaborate as equals.
Standards matter. Systems matter.
But so does imagination.
Because innovation only matters if it’s shared.
Eric Akoto founded Litro Magazine (est. 2005) and The Sphere Initiative. Litro has published writers from 80+ countries. He is a writer and editor focused on new writing, experimental forms, and global voices. Alongside publishing, he builds cultural projects and practical tools that help creators protect and control their work.
