Last week, Isle rolled out their innovation themed schedule of events at Utility Week Live. The two-day event hosted at the NEC in Birmingham comprised of novel exhibiting technologies, engaging techtalks and fantastic innovation competitions.
Last week, Isle rolled out their innovation themed schedule of events at Utility Week Live. The two-day event hosted at the NEC in Birmingham comprised of novel exhibiting technologies, engaging techtalks and fantastic innovation competitions.
Day one saw the first battle for the ‘Most innovative technology’ award at the Big Water Pitch, with judges Andrea Gysin (Ostata), Nick Mills (Thames Water) and Nityen Lal (Icos Capital) offering their expert opinion. Oxymem, Rezatec, Enviplan, Panton McLeod and Synthotech took centre stage armed with their micro-pitches and fast thinking for the judge’s questions. There were two awards up for grabs, the award for the most innovative technology, from the judges and, the people’s choice award, which was calculated from the audience’s smart phones and totted up on screen with an interactive sliding scale.
Rezatec nabbed the judges award and Oxymem the people’s choice award. Ben Tam commented, “The ‘Big Water Pitch’ showcased 5 diverse technologies that have potential impact the water sector. Congratulations to Rezatec, the winners for 2017! They proved to the expert judging panel that geospatial data analysed through their intelligent software has a multitude of applications and these deserve attention by utilities to inform and drive improvement in the way they operate.”
After the Big Water Pitch, we got the opportunity to delve a bit deeper around various areas of innovation within the water sector during our techtalk sessions. Chaired by Ben Tam, Isle’s Senior Technology Consultant, we saw talks about Satellite Geospatial Data Analytics for Water Utilities, delivered by Philip Briscoe, Rezatec. We were told Don’t just think outside the box, think inside the pipe by Wez Little, Synthotech and shown how Building Water Loss Resilience can be achieved through Cloud-based Technology from Mark Nicol, Echologics.
Day Two saw the techtak session first, chaired by Stuart Moss, UK MD of Isle. Sludge 20/20 the journey starts here was the title of the first techtalk delivered by Ian Patheyjohns & Andrew Rushworth, Orège. We were then asked Can you really afford to ignore the true, hidden costs of hard water? Discover the sustainable solution by Samantha Warren-Mant, Halcyan. Lastly, we were given an interesting perspective on Low carbon: Worcestershire’s growing platform from Ruth Corrall, Worcestershire County Council, Sustainable Communities PM.
After the dynamic and varied techtalks we saw our new competitors and judges take to the stage for the Big Water Pitch take two. Judging this time around were Piers Clark, Isle’s Chairman, Steve Kaye (Anglian Water) and Dr Reinhard Hübner, (SKion GmbH). Competing were, Orège, Neptune Solutions, Echologics and Halcyan. It was a close contest but the judges and audience were both in agreement and Orège took home both the judges and the people’s choice award. Stuart Moss commented, “What a great stage for the 4 technologies pitching for this prestigious prize. The judges were ruthless, but fair and the technologies fielded all the questions and will have a great future in the water sector. Orège was the unanimous winner as the judges see great potential for the SLG sludge conditioning technology across the global market.“
We would like to thanks our innovative booth holders Echologics – Enviplan – Halcyan Water – Neptune – Orège – Oxymem – Panton McLeod Ltd – Rezatec – Typhon, our Big Water Pitch competitors and all of our judges and speakers for making the water innovation zone the place to be at Utility Week Live!