A unique and growing innovation program is running in Newcastle for the first time.
Smart Seeds brings together young professionals from leading public and private sector organisations to develop creative concepts to complex infrastructure challenges. Working in teams, participants and experienced mentors from industry collaborate to generate fresh ideas for the infrastructure industry.
Teams will present their ideas to a judging panel made up of industry leaders at the exclusive Newcastle Showcase Event on 4 August. Along the journey to the Showcase event, participants will develop innovation, presentation and teamwork skills, strengthen their professional networks, learn from mentors and each other, and get a buzz from creating and sharing new ideas.
Founded by GHD, the program ran for the first time in Melbourne in 2013. This year’s Smart Seeds is bigger than ever, running in Newcastle, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Auckland, with more than 200 young professionals in total.
Smart Seeds is supported nationally by Engineers Australia, Optus, Veolia, GHD and Innovation Interchange. Hunter Water Corporation and ARTC have come onboard as city sponsors for the Newcastle program. Other organisations taking part in Newcastle this year include Centennial Coal, Lake Macquarie City Council, Newcastle City Council, Newcastle Now, Port of Newcastle, Roads and Maritime Services, Sparke Helmore Lawyers, University of Newcastle, Veolia and Wyong Shire Council.
Phil Pigram, GHD’s Hunter and Northern NSW Manager, says, “What’s really special about this program is collaboration between people from different disciplines and organisations. Seeing a challenge with new eyes and a fresh perspective is often the way to generate some creative and never-before-seen solutions. We are very excited to bring Smart Seeds to Newcastle and can’t wait see what the teams come up with.”
Jeremy Stone, Group Manager Innovation at GHD, says, “Smart Seeds has grown out of an internal innovation initiative at GHD into an event for the entire infrastructure industry. There is an increasing need for young professionals to learn innovation skills and collaborate to solve increasingly complex and interconnected urban infrastructure challenges.”
For more information, go to www.smartseeds.org
Sponsored editorial article written by GHD.
Photo: Smart Seeds 2015 Challenge participants by Dan A’Vard www.danavard.com