More than 25 businesses from across the UK and around the world have signed up to support an exciting celebration of innovation set to take place in the North East next month.
Some of the world’s top businesses are leading the search for answers to some major social and environmental challenges at Northumbrian Water’s week-long NWG Innovation Festival.
The event will see major national and global companies working with other businesses, universities, schools and members of the public to look at a range of issues, including flooding, the environment and social inclusion.
The Innovation Festival is supported by headline sponsors IBM, Microsoft, Reece Innovation, CGI, Ordnance Survey and BT, who will be leading the search for answers.
On top of these, more than 20 other companies have signed up to support the festival, which takes place at Newcastle Racecourse from Monday, July 10, to Friday, July 14.
The NWG Innovation Festival is being delivered in association with Newcastle University, Durham University, Genesys, Interserve in partnership with Amec Foster Wheeler, Costain Resources, PC1, Tech Mahindra, Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB), Wipro, Virgin Media Business, Schneider, Wheatley Solutions, Sopra Steria, Accenture, 1Spatial, Infosys, Unify, ITPS, Esh-MWH, and Pen Test Partners.
The Festival aims to bring together the best innovative minds, using ‘sprints’, which apply leading design thinking techniques to problem solving, to explore and create new solutions to some of the biggest social and environmental challenges we face.
400 people are expected to attend each of the festival’s five days. The work to tackle six key problems will take place in a true festival environment that will also feature live comedy and music, as well as inspirational talks and innovative activity involving young people from local schools.
Nigel Watson, Northumbrian Water Group’s Director of Information Services, said: “The level of support from businesses and academia, here in the North East and around the world, could not have been better.
“The way these companies have come on board has shown that it isn’t just us at Northumbrian Water getting excited about the NWG Innovation Festival – some incredible companies have jumped at the opportunity to get involved.
“We’re looking forward to an excellent week that will hopefully bring forth some brilliant ideas that can address some of these important issues.”
For more on the festival, visit: https://innovationfestival.org/