Yesterday, the Harwell Campus was buzzing with excitement as we hosted a highly successful drop-in lunch event focused on our 5G project. Despite the quiet Easter period, the event saw nearly 100% attendance, showcasing the immense interest and enthusiasm from organisations at Harwell Campus in how the new 5G Mobile Private Network could benefit them.
Stakeholders from across the campus gathered at Quad Two for short talks by our Director, Craig Bower, and Chris Bridgeman, Vodafone’s Mobile Private Network & 5G Business Development Manager, followed by a Q&A session. Other members of the ECH team, including Vodafone and Spirit Public Sector, were also present to offer support and answer questions.
We were honoured to have a range of senior stakeholders from across the four clusters of Space, Health, Quantum and Energy. Their presence underscored the importance of the 5G project and its potential to revolutionise wireless connectivity for businesses and organisations at the Harwell Campus. Moreover, it reflects our partners’ understanding of 5G’s potential for the Harwell Campus, even in the early stages of our project. Forward-thinking stakeholder partners at Harwell are already seeing the promise of 5G for them and supporting us on our journey to improve connectivity across the campus.
Craig Bower, Director of Oxfordshire County Council’s Digital Infrastructure programme and the ECH programme, commented: “We’ve formed excellent relationships with stakeholders at Harwell, and it was incredibly encouraging to see so many of our partners from across the campus come along to our first campus engagement event. The turnout, in a typically quiet period at the campus, was far more than we expected and just proves how ready and willing our partners at the campus are to understand and adopt new technologies.”
A highlight of the event was the excellent question and answer session at the end. Attendees had the opportunity to engage directly with our team managing the 5G project, gaining valuable insights into how the 5G Mobile Private Network (MPN) can provide a high-speed, secure network tailored to meet specific connectivity needs.
One key message that the ECH team was eager to communicate with the audience, and all organisations operating at Harwell, is that our team doesn’t expect organisations to know the applications of this new network: and that’s ok.
Instead, the ECH team wants to start connecting with the organisations at Harwell so that they can tell us what their business does, what their challenges are, and then our team experts can offer guidance on how the new 5G network may improve operational performance for them. Each organisation across Harwell is different, and so our team would like to connect with these organisations to offer guidance on how they might use the new network most effectively.
With a new technology such as this, we’re eager to support organisations right from the get-go to find their specific use cases, which will ultimately become case studies to prove the benefits of adopting 5G. Their stories will ultimately become the proof and inspiration for further 5G adoption.
One question that came us during the session was “Why Harwell?”. The answer to this question is that, with a campus so vast and dynamic as Harwell, if a 5G network can’t work here, it can’t work anywhere. Recently named the UK’s most successful science campus by the UKSPA, the location is ideal for this kind of project.
Overall, the event was a resounding success that far exceeded our expectations. Our team would like to offer our heartfelt thanks for all who attended the event, as well as those who supported organising the event.
But don’t worry if you missed it…
We will be following up with businesses and individuals who registered their interest at the event, and we will also be planning further engagement activities to provide more Harwell organisations with the opportunity to connect with us. We look forward to continuing our efforts to engage with organisations across the Harwell Campus.
Are you an organisation at the Harwell Campus interested in finding out more about how the new 5G network might benefit your business?
Get in touch with us to arrange an informal call with our team through our contact form.