Crowder Attended NWG Innovation Festival

From 6–10 July, members of the Crowder team attended the NWG Innovation Festival, the 10th annual event bringing together professionals from across the water industry at Newcastle Racecourse for a week of collaboration, creativity, and knowledge sharing. 

The festival united organisations, industry experts, and innovators to tackle some of the sector’s biggest challenges through interactive workshops, innovation sprints, and collaborative activities. It provided a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas, explore new approaches, and work together to develop practical solutions that will help shape the future of the water industry.

Crowder Consulting has once again taken part in this inspiring event, reflecting our continued commitment to supporting innovation, strengthening industry relationships, and contributing to the ongoing development of the water sector.

Philip Crilly attended the Aimii & Optimatics sprint, “Flowstate”, which focused on helping water companies predict, prioritise, and reduce the impact of outage events through the effective use of knowledge and data. The session provided valuable insight into the processes that begin when an event occurs, as well as the roles and actions of employees at all levels involved in managing the response. It highlighted the importance of high-quality data and software in creating a shared knowledge base to support effective decision-making.



Omar Mahmoud attended the Softwire Sprint, which focused on using data to improve the planning and management of network interventions, enabling faster and more effective responses to operational issues. Discussions highlighted the importance of capturing the knowledge of experienced staff and sharing it with newer colleagues through improved training and centralised knowledge management. The event also explored digital innovations, including platforms that enable engineers to quickly access historical records, procedures and lessons learned from previous incidents. Another key theme was the use of AI to analyse large volumes of historical information alongside live network data to predict the likely location of incidents and identify their underlying causes, supporting more informed decision-making and enabling targeted, proactive interventions across water networks. 

Alan Moran attended Ofwat’s “Ready, Steady, Standardise” sprint, which explored smart meter standardisation and how the water industry can develop a consistent, customer-focused approach as adoption continues to grow. Discussions focused on creating a reliable and accessible customer experience through trusted data, clear communications, timely alerts, and effective support. The sessions reinforced the importance of placing customers at the heart of smart metering solutions and the value of establishing consistent standards across the industry.

Alongside the valuable discussions and collaborative problem-solving, the festival also offered plenty of opportunities to connect and have fun, featuring activities such as jetpack demonstrations, drilling-and-tapping races, and talks from inspiring speakers including Helen Sharman, Alex James, and Jodie Ounsley.

 A huge thank you to Northumbrian Water for organising another fantastic event. We are proud to have been part of the Innovation Festival and look forward to returning next year.