Infrastructure innovation competition underway for 2015

Participation in the annual innovation competition Smart Seeds, aimed at young professionals focused on solving challenges in the infrastructure industry, is well and truly underway for 2015.

The event draws together competitors from a variety of private and public organisations across the water, energy and resources, transportation, property and building, and environment sectors. Participants in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand are currently working in teams mentored by industry leaders to develop ideas to real-life infrastructure challenges, particularly around the topics of sustainability and livability.

Jeremy Stone, group manager innovation at Smart Seeds creator GHD, said, “Participants can look forward to learning new innovation skills that they can use to influence positive change in their workplaces; skills like creative idea generation techniques, idea assessment and pitching ideas to win support and progress to delivery.”

At the end of the 10-week competition, the teams will present their concepts to an audience of industry representatives and a panel of judges at a showcase event in each participating region. Past winning ideas include a proposal for a floating, rotating bridge to improve pedestrian connectivity in Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour and a concept for temporary ‘pop-up’ shops, galleries and meeting places to breathe life into disused and vacant urban sites.

“Supporters and audiences eagerly await fresh ideas to solve some of our trickiest infrastructure challenges,” said Stone.

For more information on the competition, visit http://www.smartseeds.org/.