The eco-bandwagon and Dragons' Den

Hello again,

Yesterday I went along to the Ecobuild show at Earls Court. I have been to this show several times over the last few years.

When I first went to the Ecobuild show, it was a relatively small effort, full of enthusiastic Eco-adventurers happy to share their thinking with anyone prepared to listen. It had some of the charm of an undiscovered glade. It was interesting, it had unusual people who were finding their way and were happy to take a different approach to things, not necessarily to make money but because that's what they believed. It was refreshing to be amongst them and it felt good.

Now though, the Ecobuild show is immense. A gargantuan exhibition filling both halls of Earls Court. Every inch of this vast space, stuffed to the gunnels with the big players of industry, so big in fact that I had to photograph the exhibitors list and plan so that you would believe it. The big boys have clearly moved in and plan to clean up. It is hard not to be cynical.

I am not being overly sentimental and I am not a muesli and sandals hippy. It is not the fact that the show is now so big that bothers me, it is the fact that the stage is not longer available for innovators to show their wares, for the little entrepreneur to make his or her way, for the eccentric inventor to have their moment in the spotlight.

Take Dragons' Den for example. The concept is good; innovator pitches to venture capitalists and if they like the product then they agree to buy in and work together. The problem with it is that the whole show is now about the Dragons and not about the quality of the ideas. The ideas should be the stars of the show. It has become a testosterone led, willy waving contest at the expense of the innovators. A big part of the problem is that the Dragons have been on for too long and are not hungry enough to do a deal again at the expense of the innovators.

The answer, give the Dragons only one series each: they won't then think that they are TV "stars", they won't be competing to demonstrate who is toughest and they will be keen to do the deal. The end result would be that the innovators would be appreciated and not be belittled and abused, more deals would be done and the economy might improve.

We have to remember that Britain is famous for creating innovators, inventors and eccentric entrepreneurs and we must find somewhere for them to be free to demonstrate their thinking without derision - they are the future.

Until next time...