Green solutions, zero carbon projects and delivering ‘superhuman’ results are high on the agenda for those exploring the future of water infrastructure at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival next week.
The festival, which takes place at Newcastle Racecourse between Monday 10 July and Thursday 13 July, will see innovators looking for new ideas to help tackle challenges faced by the water sector and beyond.
Those attending will be part of a series of sprints, hacks, and dashes – workshop-style sessions which follow a five-stage process resulting in a solution to a topical problem at the end.
Six sprints fall under the ‘Awesome Assets’ theme and will be led by headline festival sponsors, Jacobs, as well as other organisations including Virgin Media, O2, Farrans, Esh Stantec, Aiimi and Tata Consultancy Services.
One of these sprints will look at how Northumbrian Water can invest in future projects in the greenest, most cost-efficient and carbon neutral way while meeting customers’ high expectations.
Another two will explore the power of robots and AI, to understand how they can work alongside human talent to deliver superhuman results, or to quickly find and classify data on various different assets.
Meanwhile, one sprint will focus on how the company can improve communication to customers during investment projects, to deliver jointly-built plans for the benefit of the community.
Northumbrian Water’s Head of Innovation, Angela MacOscar, said: “Bringing together people from around the world allows us to harness the power of collaboration and innovation and this is where the ideas spark.
“Over the next ten years we have a lot of investment to make in our infrastructure so that it is fit for the future, and we need to make sure we deliver it in the best way possible while making a positive impact on our communities and the environment.
“The festival will give us the opportunity to discuss emerging technologies and explore creative solutions to find real, achievable outcomes and I can’t wait to see what comes out of it.”
For more details about the Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival, or to register for a sprint, go to www.innovationfestival.org