Innovators are set to tackle some of the water industry’s biggest environmental challenges, from water scarcity to reducing storm overflows, at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival next month (JUL).
Registration is now open for the free event – which will see thousands of creative minds from across the globe coming together to find solutions to some of the huge topics that have been hitting the headlines recently.
The eighth iteration of the festival is returning to Newcastle Racecourse again on July 8-11th – complete with a whole host of celebrity guests, music, wellness sessions, fun, comedy and most importantly an array of sprints, hacks and dashes.
Among the 50 sprints, hacks and dashes taking place, a number of them will take on an environmental focus – from improving water quality to achieving net zero and reducing pollution and leakage.
Sponsors from data-giants Cognizant will be leading a sprint on how clever AI technology can be used to improve the health of our local rivers. Construction experts at Jacobs will be looking at how to reduce emissions and maximise recovery of valuable resources from wastewater treatment.
Newcastle University will be looking at how we can best manage rainwater to reduce pollution, and WRc will be taking a focus on how to reduce water wastage from operations.
Led by sponsors such as MMB, Farrans Construction, Portsmouth Water and Consumer Council for Water (CCW), some of the other sprints will focus more on making services more efficient for customers – and will take into consideration things such as water poverty and priority services.
Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water, said:
“These are topics that we know really matter to our customers, and we are so excited to gather some brilliant people all in one place in order to grow some great ideas at speed and scale.
“It is so important for our innovators to get together and come up with creative and tangible solutions to some of the very real problems that we face every day.
“The Innovation Festival is undoubtedly a load of fun, but the whole reason we run the event is for the sprints – which help to generate ideas that help to ultimately make our services better for the people who live in our communities.
“I am excited to see what our teams come up with this year, and I am particularly looking forward to seeing how much passion and energy goes into our environmentally focused sprints.”
The theme for the event is “speed and scale” – encouraging attendees to grow their ideas at a fast pace.
The festival-style get-together is expected to see thousands of attendees descend on the Racecourse, including 400 Year 10 students taking part in the Young Citizens Work Experience Festival – which is a second event running parallel to the main festival.
The full list of sprints can be found here – www.innovationfestival.org
To register, visit – www.innovationfestival.org/register
