The Lord Mayor’s Prize – connecting London and the World

Earlier this month, Michael Mainelli became the 695th Lord Mayor of London.

Professor Mainelli is a distinguished economist, computer scientist, linguist, bagpiper and author. His motto is “Ordo ex Χάος” (“Order from Chaos”). He has chosen to make connection the theme of his mayoralty.

You can watch his lecture entitled “Connect to Prosper – The Power of Networks” at Gresham College (of which he is President) here.

Professor Mainelli wants the whole world to consider London its coffee house.

He proposes “one fundamental strategy for success”:

Treat all comers fairly

Dr Mainelli is an expert in networks and graph theory, so it should be no surprise that he has chosen connection as his theme.

But what will he measure to tell if he has succeeded? Newly brokered connections, increased connection density, global centrality, inclusion, resilience? There are many desirable features of networks. Which should he/we seek to maximise?

Perhaps the Lord Mayor should create a prize to highlight the value of connection, and to encourage the behaviours that will ensure London improves during his tenure as Lord Mayor.