Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1169034
Joining forces Essex & Suffolk Water and Anglian Water came together to stage a three-day innovation event in September, producing a ra of new ideas www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | OCTOBER 2019 | 27 The Knowledge Innovation Zone live climate change-based STEM challenge involving 60 pupils, livestreamed to another 600 pupils around the region. The event also featured live music, yoga and mindfulness activities, tech demonstrations, a quiz night and even musical bingo, while a number of celeb- rity guests dropped in over the three days, including TV legend Carol Vorderman, technology reporter Kate Russell, writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe and Jo Fairley, co-founder of Green & Blacks. "Innovate East was a fantastic event, and it was truly inspiring to see some of the world's leading innovative minds descend on Trinity Park to take a fresh look at the some of the key challenges we are currently facing as an industry and beyond," Heidi Mottram, chief executive of Essex & Suf- folk Water, said. "We saw an incredible amount of creative and inspiring ideas coming out O ver the course of three days in mid-September, Anglian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water staged Innovate East, one of the biggest innova- tion events the eastern region has ever seen, with more than 1,800 people representing 400 different organisations descend- ing on Trinity Park Showground in Ipswich. The aim of the event was to bring together some of the most creative and progressive minds from across the globe, and encourage them to create new ways of thinking in a unique and exciting environment. Utility experts were joined by academics, engineers, scien- tists, students and customers to focus on developing solutions around four key themes: social purpose, natural capital, digital twins and leakage. As well as the sprints and hackathons, there were comple- mentary activities, including a INNOVATE EAST KEY THEMES Social purpose: Exploring how companies can make a real impact in their communities, raising the level of digital skills among young people and ad- dressing how to create a more sustainable society Natural capital: Exploring how the relationship between agri- culture, water and energy can facilitate biodiversity against the backdrop of climate change Digital Twins: A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical entity. There will be billions of things represented by digital twins over the next five years, so Innovate East looked at how the water industry can evolve further to sit at the forefront of the transformation Leakage: Water companies are already using innovative technology to reduce leaks, but how can they take bigger steps to cut waste further? Sprints and hacks looked at what significant steps can be taken in the war on leakage, and how inspira- tion can be drawn from other sectors Anglian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water's CEOs were among the speakers at Innovate East Carol Vorderman appeared at the three-day event as a celebrity guest