Sporting sensations Ellie Simmonds and Steve Cram will be among some of the fantastic speakers topping the bill at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival next month.
The eighth annual event, which has the theme of “Speed and Scale”, will see the record-breaking stars join festival-goers for a series of live talks and Q&A sessions between 8-11 July.
Gold medal-winning paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds will be opening the event with a live chat all about her incredible career, from becoming the poster-girl of the 2012 Olympics to her outstanding charity work. She will discuss how she had to innovate from a young age in order to achieve such a successful career both in and out of the pool.
Day two of the event will see legendary runner Steve Cram delivering a lightning talk about how he was able to go from award-winning athlete to internationally-renowned commentator, and today shares his knowledge with youngsters across the North East and beyond.
Adding to the line-up, and taking “scale” to a whole new meaning, is world-renowned sculptor Dr Willard Wigan – who is famous for crafting the world’s smallest pieces of artwork. He will be imparting some of his creative and inventive wisdom in order to inspire the audience and will be talking about how he innovated to overcome his learning differences.
Olympians and TV stars Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Montell Douglas will also be joining the Innovation Festival as part of the Young Citizens Work Experience Festival, and are set to inspire attendees with their words of wisdom on what it takes to become top of their game.
As well as this, the festival will also see its usual amount of fun, music, comedy and wellness activities taking place in order to get creative juices flowing while innovators tackle huge environmental issues such as storm overflows and water scarcity.
Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water, said:
“This year, the theme is all about speed and scale, and I think that our speakers each reflect this motto perfectly in their own way.
“Every year, our speakers do a fantastic job of really inspiring our innovators to unlock their inner creativity – and I have no doubt that all of our guest speakers will be able to help our attendees to really dig deep and find some great solutions to some huge problems.
“I can’t wait to hear pearls of wisdom from each of them.”
To register for the Innovation Festival, completely free, go to:
www.innovationfestival.org/register
