Over 150 attendees joined us from across the globe for two days of engaging keynotes, presentations, interactive workshops, networking and an exciting exhibition. Conference themes allowed us to take a deep dive into some key areas: Methodologies for futures scanning, Future trends and challenges for horizon scanning in Health and Social Care and The role of futures, foresight and horizon scanning in the adoption and implementation for novel health and care technologies.
Day one saw the fantastic Jane Ollis, woman of many hats including Founder of MindSpire, and Chairwoman of Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, giving an upbeat, interactive talk on ‘How foresight tools can drive real-world impact.’ Her talk was thought provoking, ending with Peter Drucker’s well known quote ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it.’
Jane joined our fireside chat along with our Industry Partnership Lead, Dawn Musgrave and CSO of LightOx Ltd, Carrie Ambler. Together they discussed the importance of horizon scanning for industry, giving our audience the chance to understand how businesses in the sector can use our resources to inform various industry functions.
We were also joined, via video, by Chi Onwurah, Head of Science, Innovation & Technology Committee and self-proclaimed ‘tech-evangelist.’ Chi explained her passion for ‘making the world work better’ and how technology can use data to do this.
Day two saw Laurie Smith, Head of Foresight Research, Discovery Hub at Nesta open with a high energy and fascinating talk on ‘Interesting methodological directions for horizon scanning and what that might mean for health.’ His AI generated titles were amusing and paved the way for his more serious predictions of AI in the future.
Dr Bertalan Meskó, aka ‘The Medical Futurist’ concluded our conference with an optimistic video where he posed the idea of alternate futures and how we have the power to determine those futures leaving us with plenty to think about!
The main body of content for each day was taken from an abstract competition, open to fellow researchers and academics in the field as well as members of our team. Applicants were asked to submit presentations, workshops, lightning talks and poster ideas for the conference and a rigorous judging process was undertaken during the summer to determine who would form the line-up for our inaugural conference.
There were many highlights from our 19 presentations across the two days including Heather Eames’s ‘Horizon Scanning for Pharmaceutical Disease: Modifying Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease across High-Income Countries’ and Usha Boolaky & Ilaria Mirabile’s ‘Demand Signalling: A UK Policy Perspective.’ We applaud them all and thank them for their contributions. A full list of all presentations and authors can be found here.
Running parallel to the presentations was the opportunity for attendees to take part in workshops and a series of small group focus sessions dubbed as ‘brain dates’ exploring demand signalling, horizon scanning and future trends. These featured key personnel from our team including Prof Dawn Craig, Gill Norman, Dr Teresa Fortune and Nick Meader.
With a vibrant exhibition area packed with stalls and posters we recognised the importance of providing ample time for networking, allowing people to mingle and peruse at their leisure. We featured seven academic posters, selected by our judging panel and eight national health care organisations took stands.
Armed with a delicious buffet and plenty of tea and coffee, our attendees enjoyed using our conference selfie frame and were spotted posing with our branded bags! We were thrilled to see new connections being made and a real buzz and excitement amongst the audience during these breaks.
Our first horizon scanning conference saw the entire NIHR Innovation Observatory team come together. An organising committee made up of researchers and analysts was formed to ensure everything ran smoothly and key decisions were made together. Adding a valuable narrative which ran throughout the two days were comperes, Claire Eastaugh, Pauline Addis, Emily Hunter, Patience Kunonga and Ryan Kenny. We also had our budding photographers Lucy Imber and Jabez Paul Barnadas capturing the day perfectly on camera.
The beautiful logo was designed by Dr Sarah Khan, Research Associate at the Innovation Observatory. This design was featured on all promotional materials for the conference and took pride of place on the large screens in The Catalyst (read the story behind the design here.) Talking about her inspiration for the logo design, Sarah said
“Horizon scanning is a systematic process of identifying signals and a radar is used to do the same. The radar is the image in the logo with the three concentric circles which also demonstrate the three horizons we use to describe health technologies in the pipeline in the imminent, transitional, and emergent horizon. The small shapes drawn on or around the concentric circles represent health technologies in development that are being identified by the radar.”
Reflecting on the conference, Prof Dawn Craig, Director of NIHR Innovation Observatory said
“We wanted to host a conference that explored and challenged current methodologies but also focussed on the future and the implications for the Health and Social Care Sector. I am delighted with the breadth of presentations and content we have covered. We’ve had a range of external contributions as well as our own team showcase their research and findings. The atmosphere and energy from our attendees was electric. We’ll look forward to hosting again next year!”
Organising committee members – Claire Eastaugh, Ross Fairbairn, Cyril Utah, Negar Yousefzadeh, Olushola Ewedairo, Shona Haston, Stephanie Thomas, Jen Taylor, (Sherilyn Oliphant and Fiona Beyer not present for photo)
