Northumbrian Water will be using its Innovation Festival 21 to focus on the importance of future-proofing assets – and how this will help to create the best possible services for customers.
The festival, which is taking place later this month (OCT), will see the water company joining forces with partners from Wood, Sia Partners, Galliford Try, Trimble and Mott MacDonald to complete a series of sprints, hacks and dashes to look at how to create resilience in assets at a time when it is needed most.
The festival will see innovators from all over the globe coming together to look at problems such as data-storing, asset health, and developing existing assets to make them fit with net zero plans.
One of the sprints will focus specifically on making asset management affordable - to ensure that investments are made in the right things, at the right time and in the right way.
Another of the sprints will look at optimising assets in order to make them more environmentally-friendly.
Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water, said: “All utility and manufacturing businesses will have the problems that we are tackling in this particular group of sprints.
“Whether it is ageing assets, or just wanting to make existing assets more resilient and future-proof, these sprints will delve into the possibilities of what can be done to protect large investments.
“From one of our asset-based sprints back in 2018, the National Underground Asset Register was born – which has now been adopted by the UK Government. This means we have really high expectations on what is to come from these events in IF21!”
The Innovation Festival is taking place on October 18-21, and registration is now open. To register, go to - www.innovationfestival.org/the-festival/
ADDITIONAL FESTIVAL INFO:
- Innovation Festival 21 is the fifth iteration of the water company’s event
- The festival will see experts, engineers, academics, scientists and innovation leaders from across the world join the event as it takes place in a hybrid nature for the very first time.
- In total, over 9,000 people have been involved in the previous four Innovation Festivals so far. The 2020 event saw almost 3,000 people come together saw participants from 37 different countries join us.
- Taking place on October 18-21, the festival is expected to see thousands of people get involved in sprints focusing on issues such as net zero, water poverty, customer experience, employee wellness and technology.