 We're here at ITU Telecom World 2015 in Budapest, Hungary, and I'm very pleased to be joined by Stian Westlake, who is from Nesta in the UK. Stian, thank you very much for being with us today. Thank you. Now, you're here at ITU Telecom World. I believe it's your first time here. Perhaps you can tell us a little bit about what you've been talking about here. Sure. Well, we're thrilled to be at ITU this year. And what I'm mostly here to talk about is what governments around the world can do to encourage innovation and especially to encourage digital entrepreneurs. And that's very much the theme here at Telecom World. What are you specifically promoting then? Well, we're trying to talk about some of the things that we've learnt from our work at Nesta on promoting digital entrepreneurship. And there's been a few things that we've found that have been really helpful. We've spent a lot of time backing and helping set up accelerator programs. So these are short-term, intense boot camps to get people with an idea up to the stage where their business is up and running. So we set up and co-invested in an incubator called Bethnal Green Ventures in London. We were one of the cornerstone founders of Seed Camp, which is one of the really successful European accelerators. And we've been working both in the UK and in other countries like India on seeing how those opportunities can be taken forward. And why is it important to encourage SMEs and entrepreneurs at quite a grassroots level? I think there's a few reasons. I think getting entrepreneurs involved in the market and giving them a leg up and an encouragement is a really helpful way of making sure that we get better services, products delivered to customers. That really matters. I think the other thing is there's always lots of people outrouting for the big guys. So if you're an incumbent, whether in telecoms or in any other sector, you've often got strong connections, you're a known name, and it's often easier to get your way. Things work more smoothly for you. If you're starting something new, it's often a lot harder. And we can look at examples like Airbnb around the world, which every time it sets up in a new city, you have a struggle. How do we deal with this kind of new way of providing accommodation? That kind of difficulty is emblematic of why it's harder for startups to get ahead and why governments around the world and civil society generally need to encourage them. How does one know that it's not somebody that's just enthusiastic but doesn't have the energy or the know-how to follow through? I guess that in some ways is the definition of innovation. It's not just about having an idea, it's about making it happen. In some ways ideas are tenor penny, there's lots of ideas around the world, but execution, taking the idea and having the determination to make it happen is what's often in short supply. And that's why acceleration, giving people these encouragements, the availability of finance and setting up a culture where people are willing not just to have an idea, but to take a risk and back that idea is so important. Is the British government very much supporting this? The British government has been on an entrepreneurship kick for some time now and you see that in the huge lengths the government has been going to for the last ten years to promote the tech cluster in London but increasingly now looking outside of London and trying to develop all the interesting aspects of tech going on elsewhere. I think it's something we're seeing a lot of governments around the world taking more and more seriously. And in particular I think some of the most exciting examples of startups are going on in developing countries rather than the developed world. We were recently hearing in our session about some of the amazing steps taken forward on digital technology in Rwanda for example. So I think we certainly shouldn't assume that this is a game just for rich countries. Rwanda has definitely been making substantial inroads with regards to broadband and connectivity, but you also mentioned India. I wanted to find out a little bit more about the conversations you've been having there. Well I guess it's no secret that India is a big IT success story and we've seen global names like Infosys and Tata Consulting Services coming out of India. But the grassroots tech movement there is really interesting as well. We've been working with the UK's Department for International Development to look at ways of backing social innovators. So people taking digital technologies and using them for good whether that's to improve public services, to provide healthcare in areas where it isn't, where it hasn't been made available before, or even to report news to provide people voiceless with a voice. Those kind of things, we've been helping accelerate those ventures and understand how acceleration is done. I think there's a huge amount of opportunities and I think India is doing incredibly well at that stuff. Something that ITU has been encouraging very much, been putting a lot of energy into is encouraging women and girls into ICTs. Have you had many startups from women or girls approaching you? It's a hugely important field certainly in the UK and we think that the more we can make sure that coding and starting tech companies is not some preserve of men or indeed of any other group, the better the country will do and equality is kind of in everyone's self-interest from that point of view. And what about say in terms of the age spread that you've been talking to people of, is it all the younger generation or are there also perhaps people coming back to the workplace with ideas and that kind of thing, who are getting more tech savvy? I think it's a real myth to think that innovation is just a young person's game. A lot of the research that Nestor has done, looking at entrepreneurs had showed that maybe more mature people are often the source of some of the most successful entrepreneurial businesses. Partly because they have experience because they kind of know what's wrong with the world and have ideas about how to put it right but also because they often have the grit and the determination necessary to take the idea and actually turn it into reality. Finally, we've got quite a large forum here of people but we also have a large viewership as well. I just wanted to find out if there was a specific message that you wanted to put across to the viewers of this interview. I think my big message would be innovation can help the world. I'd almost go so far as to say, save the world. I don't want to over promise but it helps to realise that innovation is not just about ideas. It's about taking the idea and making it real and if we can do that, society and humanity will really progress. Steve Westlake, thank you very much indeed. Thank you.