I generally find the cheapest conferences are the best, so a free one is not to be sniffed at. NESTA are hosting a one-dayer 20 May called The Innovation Edge and I plan to be there.

Here's their blurb for it:

NESTA’s Innovation Edge conference is an unrivalled opportunity to get under the skin of innovation in the UK – and consider the impact it will have on our future.

The conference brings together a powerful mix of experts from industry, culture, politics and academia. Bob Geldof, Lord Puttnam, Helen Alexander, Michael Birch and urban artist ‘Inkie’ are just a few of those who’ll be fuelling the discussion.

The format does not fill me with excitement, consisting mostly of important-sounding presenters and panels, but I won't prejudge especially (disclosure) as I'm doing some work for NESTA at the moment. Also, since the advent of twitter, it's usually easy to have my own back-channel during any bouts of death-by-powerpoint or the even grimmer death-by-audience-member-pretending-to-ask-a-question-but-really-just-pimping-himself.