Traditionally a face-to-face conference, Utility Week Live Online 2020 took to the world of online events for 2020 to deliver a 3-day fully virtual event to thousands of utilities professionals, covering content streams for innovation and operational excellence in the UK utility sector.
From 24-26 November, we took up residence at our virtual exhibition stand, along with over 100 other exhibitors, providing attendees from all utilities backgrounds support on topics ranging from carbon reduction to how to make the most of their UVDB membership.
Key themes from Utility Week Live
During the two days, speakers and industry experts covered a great deal of insight. There were two recurring themes that really struck a chord with our team – innovating for net zero and technology for resilience.
UVDB buying organisations, Severn Trent and Wessex Water shared their experience and advice on achieving net zero carbon emissions for the industry. During their respective talks, ‘Targeting net zero – energy use and renewables’ and ‘Getting to net zero – what are our options?’, they highlighted the UK water industries ambitious targets to reach Net Zero by 2030 – 20 years ahead of the UK governments own targets.
Speakers from Northumbrian Water and ESB took a more operational approach to resilience, looking at ‘Storm analysis: impact on networks’ performance’ and ‘Using drone data to enhance short and longer term infrastructure resilience’, which provided valuable insight into what these buyers are looking for in terms of supplier innovation around resilient technology.
Building a resilient and sustainable supply chain
Our own Katie Ferrier, Senior Vice President Customer Engagement & Quality Assurance, and Michael Tournier, Carbon Reduction SME, presented a session on ‘Building a resilient and sustainable supply chain’. They provided insight into the impact COVID-19 has had on the UK utilities sector, how the industry can become more resilient, and the impact of using sustainability as the driver for supply chain resilience. This includes working towards a net zero economy, as laid out in the UK governments sustainable development goals.
Hear what Katie and Mike had to say during Utility Week Live Online, by watching the recording below.
Watch the presentation on demand
