A North East company has kicked off its third Innovation Festival with the aim of tackling some of the biggest challenges facing society.
Northumbrian Water started its Innovation Festival in 2017, and this year expects to welcome more than 2,500 people from hundreds of different organisations to a week of activities at Newcastle Racecourse.
The event uses “sprints” – where people with a range of different expertise try to find ways of tackling difficult issues during a short period – and will this year consider issues including vehicles of the future, climate change, and the impact 5G networks will have on communities.
Global companies including Microsoft, IBM, and Ford will be taking part in the event, alongside local firms in Northumbrian Water’s supply chain, Newcastle University and Ordnance Survey.
Hundreds of schoolchildren will also visit the festival to take part in activities designed to inspire interest in science and technology.
Northumbrian Water CEO Heidi Mottram kicked off yesterday’s launch, saying: “It’s incredible that we’ve been making our way along this journey for three years now.
“I’m so excited because all year, not just this week, innovation is something that we have at the very heart of what we do at Northumbrian Water. There are so many challenges that are facing us as a planet, and we’re a microcosm of that – the provision of water, looking after the environment, being efficient, using the very best technology that’s available to us.
“We’re trying to do that all year but this event concentrates that. It’s brilliant to have everybody here and I know that there are people in this room from around the world. People have come from over 500 different organisations –you’ve brought your brains and all that mass of information from the organisations you work with to help us this week on the things that we think are really important.”
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North East business broacaster Steph McGovern also spoke at the launch, while Dick Strawbridge, star of Channel 4’s Escape to the Chateau, and Gadget Show presenter Georgie Barrat, are scheduled to appear later in the week.
Festival organisers say their aim is to “produce a year’s worth of work in a week” and have been able to point to a major success from last year’s festival, where plans for an underground map showing equipment from various utility companies won £4m of Government backing.
That scheme, which started in the North East and is now being rolled out nationally, is returning to this year’s festival to be further developed.
Nigel Watson, Northumbrian Water’s information services director, said: “We’ve taken 76 ideas out of the two festivals we’ve run so far and brought them back into our business. We wouldn’t be doing this for a third time if it didn’t work.”