Northumbrian has made smart technology improving work and personal lives during the coronavirus outbreak a key focus for its Innovation Festival in September.
The all-digital event will feature more than 30 sprints, hackathons and daily dashes over four days, with one sprint dedicated to how smart technology can bring people together during the covid-19 outbreak and improve peoples’ heath, both mental and physical.
The central theme of the event will be building back better and how the water company and stakeholders in the wider area can achieve net-zero targets. Another topic to be explored is how smart technology can help improve the lives and independence of customers who might need extra support.
The event was scheduled to take place in July but was postponed to next month and transferred from a festival-style event to a digital platform.
Northumbrian’s information services director, Nigel Watson, said hosting the event online opened opportunities for people joining the festival from all over the world to contribute to the innovative solutions.
“Of course, building back better has to start with people. Everyone has been through a lot this year and we want to explore how we can keep the bits of the Festival that people have enjoyed, but build back in the elements of creativity, fun and serendipity that are hard to achieve when we’re working virtually. We can’t wait to get started.”
The festival was first held in 2017 in Newcastle and last year Northumbrian joined forces with Anglian to co-host Innovate East in Ipswich.
The virtual event will run from 14 – 17 September.