Home / Competition

North East LEP supports SMEs to attend NWG Innovation Festival 2018

13 North East businesses are being given the chance to win £1,000 to support them in taking part in this year’s NWG Innovation Festival.

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership, in partnership with +ADD Strategy and Northumbrian Water, is sponsoring 13 SMEs to join one of 13 ‘sprints’ at the NWG Innovation Festival, which takes place from the 9-13 July 2018 at Newcastle Racecourse.

The ‘sprints’ ask societal and environmental questions that crack teams of experts try to answer during the five-day event. Businesses work to develop ideas and real-world innovative solutions that can be brought to life using design thinking techniques.

Last year’s festival resulted in innovative projects that are making a real difference to the world right now. These include the Newcastle Moss Tree, the introduction of the Refill campaign into the North East, Essex and Suffolk, and artificial intelligence projects including the ongoing development of Alexa skills for the company’s customers.

Alan Welby, Innovation Director at the North East LEP, said:  “Innovation means making the most of new ideas, products, processes and applications to develop new businesses and make existing ones more effective and profitable. It’s at the heart of what we do at the North East LEP and that’s why we’re delighted to team up with Northumbrian Water to offer 13 SMEs the opportunity to get involved with the Innovation Festival. It’s a fantastic opportunity – SMEs are a hotbed of creativity and ideas – this is a chance to work with some really big corporations to help identify solutions that will lead to real business opportunities for them.”

To be in with a chance of winning the £1,000 sponsorship – courtesy of the North East LEP – businesses must be formally registered SMEs in the UK or Europe and available to attend the full five days of the Festival.

For more information on the competition and how to enter, click here. The deadline for entries is midnight on Thursday 28 June.

Some of the Big Questions waiting to be answered at this year’s NWG Innovation Festival include: How can we improve customers’ lives by making the most of Smart technology? And how can innovation and tech improve Design, Construction Operation and Maintenance? And, what will the future of transport look like? Click here to see all this year’s ‘sprints’.

For more information about NWG Innovation Festival, visit www.innovationfestival.org.