Placing co-creation at the heart of the Blue Digital Ecosystem was the focus of a subsea industry event taking place in Aberdeen for the first time this week.
Aberdeen Art Gallery was the setting for leading operators, clients, partners, industry bodies and technology providers to gather to share perspectives, challenge thinking and explore how to tackle some of the subsea sector's shared challenges, together.
Through panel discussions, technical sessions and networking, the day brought together those experiencing the challenges, those developing technology to address them and the organisations helping to move the subsea sector forward. Conversations focused on four key themes namely the ecosystem architecture, AI deployment at depth, cross-vertical asset integrity and sustainability through digitalisation.
Hosted by broadcaster, writer and strategist Sepi Golzari-Munro and featuring a keynote address from Global Underwater Hub CEO Neil Gordon, the day also included input from Aize, Aker BP, Aker Solutions, bp, Catapult, Chevron, The Data Lab, DeepOcean, OEUK, ticq and Wood.
The event also provided the launch for the second phase of Tide Breaker, the structured route into the Blue Digital Ecosystem which champions co-creation and adoption of AI solutions that transform subsea operations. The OEUK-endorsed digital initiative offers start-ups real offshore datasets, expert feedback and industry insight to develop and refine solutions whilst giving operators early influence over the tools they will come to rely on. The next phase, to be announced in coming weeks, will follow in the footsteps of successful applicants to the inaugural Tide Breaker phase, Voltquant and Fathom.
Powered by Elementz, Tide Breaker is backed by Elementz's strategic advisory group Compass, through which operator members define technical challenges, mentor participants and evaluate outcomes for field deployment. It is guided by The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data and AI and supported by ONE Digital Tech.
Neil Gordon said: “Having spent many years in the subsea industry, I’ve seen that real progress comes from working together to solve shared challenges.
“At GUH, our Strategic Programmes bring industry expertise together to develop solutions that benefit the wider sector. The Blue Digital Ecosystem shares that ambition, connecting operators, contractors and technology developers to co-create solutions for real industry needs.
“As AI and digitalisation transform our industry, our future success will depend on how effectively we share knowledge, embrace change and work together.”
Elementz CEO Jason Brown added: “The operators, partners and innovators who came together showed exactly why we created the Blue Digital Ecosystem: a desire to build a genuinely new way of working, anchored to the simple truth that value is co-created.
"The challenges of subsea integrity are too big for any one company because the hardest parts don't live inside any single organisation. By dismantling the artificial walls that exist between people who should be working together, we are creating something which is not built for the industry and handed over but built with the people who'll actually use it.”
To find out more visit: www.elementz.digital and www.tidebreaker.digital