Labs, sandboxes and bootcamps
Hands-on formats where participants build, test and decide, instead of only listening.
Impact deal room
Pre-booked 1:1 meetings where investors and funders meet deal-ready pilots and the challenge owners behind them.
- 1:1 meetings across the summit days
- Impact investors, development finance institutions, public funding programmes and teams with deal-ready pilots
- Follow-up meetings and funding leads for pilots
Digital twin sandbox
Participants build and test a digital twin of a real industrial or urban process using shared sample data.
- Half a day
- Engineers, operators and city teams
- A tested twin of a real process and a list of the data it still needs
Tokenisation bootcamp
Hands-on training in how tokenised assets are structured, regulated and used to finance transition projects.
- One day
- Finance teams, city investment officers and founders
- A first tokenisation design for a real asset or project, with its risks
Energy transition lab
Teams work with a real site’s energy data to find where use can be cut and supply made cleaner.
- Half a day
- Energy managers, operators, utilities and researchers
- A measured baseline and a reduction plan for a real site
Resilience war-game
A simulated disruption, from a port closure to a cyberattack, played out by the teams who would have to respond.
- Half a day
- Supply chain, operations and public-sector leaders
- A stress-tested response plan and the weak points it revealed
Interoperability plugfest
Technology providers connect their systems live to test whether they work together against shared standards.
- One day
- Technology providers, integrators and standards bodies
- A test report on which systems work together and what needs fixing
Food Futures Lab
Taste, learn and connect: every meal shows its estimated carbon and water footprint.
- Throughout the summit
- All delegates, with the Forum’s hospitality team
- Reported footprint data for the summit’s meals and the food diverted from waste
Reverse pitches
Cities and companies state their needs, and solution providers respond with how they would meet them.
- Two hours
- Cities and companies with real needs, and solution providers
- A shortlist of solutions for each need
Audit in a day
A guided, one-day assessment of where an organisation stands, with the evidence it needs to improve.
- One day
- SMEs and city departments
- A first baseline and a short list of priorities
Student challenge
Student teams work on a real challenge set by a company or a city and present their results.
- Across the summit
- Student teams, with mentors from industry and research
- Prototype solutions to real challenges
Nature credits simulation
A simulation of how nature credits are measured, verified and traded, and where the risks lie.
- Half a day
- Investors, landowners, cities and researchers
- A shared view of how nature credits can be measured and verified
Edge AI bootcamp
Hands-on training in running AI on devices at the edge, close to machines and sensors.
- One day
- Engineers and technical teams
- A working edge AI prototype and a deployment checklist
AI agent sandbox
Teams build and test AI agents in a safe environment, with human oversight designed in.
- Half a day
- Developers, operations teams and the people who will work with the agents
- A tested agent with documented oversight and redress
Robot safety cell
A live robot cell where teams test how people and robots work safely side by side.
- Half a day
- Robotics engineers, safety officers and workers
- Tested safety set-ups for people working alongside robots
FDE sprint
Forward-deployed engineers and company teams integrate AI into a real workflow in a short, focused sprint.
- One to two days
- Forward-deployed engineers and the teams they work with
- A working AI integration in a real workflow
Latest from the labs
All updates →Updates will appear here as the formats take shape.
Be there from the start.
Programme news, host city updates and the call for contributions, a few times a year.