John Whatmore's quest is to unearth the alchemy of creativity and to see it used to make innovation the UK's golden future.He has worked in industry all of his life, most recently as chairman of a group of venture capital companies; with a parallel career in local politics and local institutions, especially housing associations - in London. Belbin labels him as a co-ordinator and a creater.While the internet and social media are where the excitement is, he is interested in the powerful undertow of invention and cross-fertilisation among products, services, processes, IT and business models.The innovation eco-system has opened up: once confined to research institutions, university research and corporate R&D, it now includes customers and suppliers, science parks and venture capital, incubators and accelerators, and inter-mediaries galore; and it extends to public services, social enterprise and local innovations - a much wider world in which finding and developing collaborations and partnerships is itself a big opportunity for creativity.