STEAMhouse are partnering with Balfour Beatty Vinci for our next upcoming STEAMlab which aims to reimagine the delivery of massive-scale construction projects

Balfour Beatty Vinci (BBV) Joint Venture is responsible for constructing approximately 90km of the HS2 train line between Long Itchington and Lichfield. A solution is required for efficiently moving people, plant and materials around the sites to minimise the impact on communities and increase the certainty of price and programme.

What’s the Challenge?

The challenge is…

Traditional construction methods will not work for the scale and complexity of HS2. This is underpinned by logistics and communications, both on sites, between sites and across the whole project. Current systems are labour-intensive, largely analogue, prone to loss and delay of information and data.

BBV wish to explore ways to tackle these challenges and take advantage of new thinking and new technology to ensure that the communications and logistics on HS2 are smooth and efficient.

What does this mean in practice?

There are several broad themes that need addressing to fully tackle this challenge:

• Communication and Logistics

• Movement of People

• Movement of Materials

• Best Use of Assets including plant

What will the STEAMlab be like?

Each STEAMlab is a bit different, but the essence is about open working, creativity, innovation – making new connections and exploring new collaborations to find and try out new ideas. Working towards solutions to genuine, real-world challenges.

You may already have ideas or challenges that you wish to tackle within STEAMlab and we encourage you to bring them with you to share with others and develop collaboratively.

Equally, opportunities can appear from unexpected collaborations and people often find themselves getting totally immersed in developing a solution that was completely different to what they had expected.

The important thing is to bring an open mind (and a laptop if you have one! :) ).

What will we be working on?

We will be working together during STEAMlab to identify the most relevant problems to tackle and explore ideas and opportunities. There will be the chance to hear from others, exchange ideas and develop something where you think you have something to offer that idea. That might be knowledge, skills, experience or just sheer enthusiasm! You can then develop your idea with others and form a team to work on that idea during the event.

Opportunities for solutions

A wide range of potential solutions may be suitable to these challenges described above. Your solutions might involve creating new technology, making different use of existing facilities and/or technology, thinking differently about how we work, different business or financial models, creating new processes and different ways of working, new collaborations and partnerships, or combining a number of different components together.

How will we choose which ideas will be worked on?

It’s important that people can work on ideas that are as interesting and relevant as possible to people during the STEAMlab. The specific ideas/problems that will be tackled during this STEAMlab will be decided during the first evening session. Everyone will have an opportunity to share with the whole group the ideas (or challenges) which they wish to work on.

We will go through an exercise where we jointly decide which ideas we will form groups around. Please note that it is important that you don’t come to STEAMlab with a totally fixed idea about what you want to do – you can pitch your ideas but it is ultimately down to the group as to what we will work on during the lab itself. Don't fret, this is all part of the fun of innovation!

Day one: Launching the themes and teams, 4-7.30pm

Day two: Hack Day, 9.30-4.30pm

Participants will be required to attend both days.

Book your free place now.