TU Water Mining Delft

TU Water Mining Delft

The European commission supported the 19 million dollar project of water mining. The aim of the project was to demonstrate innovative water resource solutions. As part of the project, demonstrations in Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, Italy and The Netherlands will be built to show novel efficient ways to reclaim nutrients, minerals, energy and water from industrial and urban wastewater and seawater. The  public-private consortium consists of 38 public and private partners and 4 linked third parties in 12 countries. It will be led by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). 

The challenge

Like for every major cross boarder project it is imperative the collaboration and communication is above par. In normal circumstances the project would have a Kick Off meeting with all involved partners and participants. In 2020 COVID changed the way we meet, communicate and interact with each other and attending mass meetings with over 100 people was out of the question. The TU-team leading this European project had to adapt quickly. TRIMM was asked to transform the intended program into a digital format without compromising on the interaction, engagement and goals of a team kick off.

The solution

Turning a regular conference format into a digital format has some challenges. By taking a LIVE tv show format approach we managed bring participant engagement to a whole new level. Key factors; Location, Program, Interaction, Tech.

Location: By bringing the entire team digitally to an actual running test project we created an inspiring setting for the event to take place. A actual working Floating Farm in the center of the Rotterdam harbour was an unique never seen before backdrop. By placing a modular mobile studio on the docks and camera’s inside the farm, participants emerged in the actual concept of water mining.

Program: The two day program allowed for a brought range of topics to be discussed without stressing the attention span of the audience to a max. In depth topics mixed with open discussion with a panel and some light entertainment as intermezzo ensured a natural flow of information exchange. The perfect mix of live and pre recorded content

Interaction: Allowing the audience to directly interact with the panel through live Q&A, polls and break out rooms resulted in a very high retention rate and valuable feedback sessions between all teams and individuals.  With speakers joining the live feed from remote locations all across Europe we enabled each partner to participate and connect with their peers.

Tech: In order for us to realize this major project we utilized our scalable and reusable Event Platform and brought in additional expertise from our partners to fulfil the hardware requirements when producing on this scale on location (outside). With control, direction and edit located on several places on the docks (due to covid restrictions) we had to improv on our regular workflow. With moderation of chats and different break out rooms our support team created/found a new way of working within our event platform. With our expertise on infra we created an redundant streaming environment that ensured a steady upstream to our servers. Although we did not account for the interference of the ‘connected cows’ the live broadcast was a tremendous success and client and crew are looking forward to the follow up meeting!