Innovation Festival in numbers

This year’s Innovation Festival brought together local authorities, central government, the supply chain, associations and academia from across the highways sector.

The event, which took place at Newark Showground from 04-05 July showcased emerging technology and maintenance solutions.

Attendees had the opportunity to see the latest innovative products, maintenance solutions and techniques on display as well as in action, demonstrated over a range of live sessions. Not forgetting the amazing food, live music and even a sprinkling of magic!

The festival provided local authorities with a chance to find out about new innovations from the supply chain that will help to meet their current and future challenges and featured a conference programme, indoor and outdoor exhibition as well as live demonstrations.

Did we also mention it was record breaking? Here’s some of the headline figures from this year’s event.

• Overall attendance – more than 600 attendees over the two days: up 25% on 2022
• 230 public sector delegates in attendance
• Representation from 80 different local highway authorities: up 33% on 2022
• The event featured 100 exhibitors – up 69% on 2022
• Event programme featured 6 discussion sessions
• 17 live demonstrations outside the main hall, showing the latest innovations on offer.
• 34 Qualifying Innovator submissions
• 7 winning Qualifying Innovators
• 1 Collaborative Innovation Award winner

Feedback following the event has also been very positive, with

• 97% of respondents to our post event survey said they would recommend the event to colleague and,
• 98% of respondents to our event survey said they would return next year.

Here are a few stats accumulated by our LCRIG team of 10:

• Over 1,000 total man hours organising and delivering the event
• An impressive 169,000 steps walked collectively over 3 days
• 250 chairs mopped down and cleaned
• 200 hotel rooms organised
• Organised 92 taxi journeys

LCRIG Relationship Director, Susanne Ingham said: “The turnout at this year’s LCRIG Innovation Festival highlights that there is a huge appetite to drive innovation forward in the highways sector. Our event showcased a number of industry leading products, services and new technologies which are all designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local roads. We look forward to achieving greater numbers next year.”

You can catch up on some of the highlights on demand here.

Don’t miss out!

Make sure you are part of the action by registering your interest for Innovation Festival 2024 here!