THE annual Malvern Festival of Innovation returns next month for its 10th successive year.
The annual event will once again highlight science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) along with entrepreneurship and creativity. 
To launch the Festival week, which runs from October 4 to October 9, its founder Dr Adrian Burden will be joined on stage by Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s principal technology correspondent and author of the book Always On, Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era. 
Dr Burden will chat with Mr Cellan-Jones about his life travelling around the globe to report on emerging technology and meeting with some of the world's most influential tech entrepreneurs. 
The event will be held at the Coach House Theatre in Great Malvern before moving next door to BloomSpace for a chance to buy signed copies of Rory’s book. 
The event is free for all to attend, but places are limited so people are encouraged to book tickets ahead of time on line. 
Dr Burden said: “While we have been encouraging our local entrepreneurs and students to innovate over the last decade through the festival, Rory has been meeting influential, innovative household names like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Lastminute.com’s Martha Lane Fox, and Tesla’s Elon Musk. 
"This will be a fascinating opportunity to hear what Rory thinks makes them tick and to understand his take on the impact of the mobile phone and associated rise of social media.” 
The rest of the week includes the Next Generation Innovators schools outreach day, an afternoon live with local Thriving Three Counties business podcaster Dan Barker, a showcase featuring numerous innovative local ventures many of whom have benefited from Worcestershire’s BetaDen accelerator programme, the back-by-popular-demand Science and Technology Comedy Night, and finally the Family Day with its associated science show at the Malvern Theatres on the Saturday. 
For more details about the week’s programme, and to book tickets, visit: https://www.festival-innovation.com/