F1 innovation to inspire railway

Greater Anglia is seeking to learn from other businesses including Formula 1 manufacturer McLaren Applied Technologies - McLaren Group’s advanced technology, innovation and design company -at a day-long innovation conference next week.

Leaders from Green & Black’s Chocolate, McLaren Applied Technologies, Waitrose, and UK Power Networks will seek to inspire Greater Anglia staff and people from other rail-related organisations at the conference at Cambridge University on Tuesday.

The purpose of the conference is to hear from business leaders about how they built and sustained creativity and innovation in their businesses and how they have tackled difficult business challenges.

Greater Anglia is hoping to find out how learning in one part of an organisation can be shared across the company to improve customer experience.

Greater Anglia Managing Director Jamie Burles said: “We’re constantly seeking to improve at Greater Anglia so that we can offer the best possible service to our customers and serve the region.

“This conference will give us the opportunity to listen to others, take time out from day-to-day duties to think about what we can do differently to get better.

“I’m hoping we’ll all be inspired and motivated by our speakers and workshops.”

Key note speaker at the event is entrepreneur Jo Fairley, who became UK’s youngest ever magazine editor and then became co-founder of Green & Black’s chocolate.

Andy Pascoe from McLaren Applied Technologies, is leading an innovation workshop on how Formula 1 expertise in real time data capture, simulation, and decision science can be applied to deliver the future digital railway.

Other speakers include Nicola Darke and Iona White, of Wazoku, Dave Roat, of Cubic, Christopher Pue and Leslie Izzard, of Waitrose, Matt Rudling, of UK Power Networks, and Dig Woodvine, of XCL International.

The event ends with an awards ceremony for Greater Anglia colleagues who have come up with innovative ideas which have led to improvements.