A Successful User Day
We invited our customers to our new office at Space Park Leicester for our first User Day! We’re keen to keep our customers updated on our latest product roadmap as well as providing a platform for them to offer feedback and open discussions about our products and services. This helps us discover what’s working well and identify any areas for improvement.
It was wonderful to have so many of our clients attend the day, to put faces to a name, and to see such great teamwork from the EarthSense team who helped to make the day such a success.
Here’s what we got up to throughout the User Day…
Discussed our Product Roadmap
Managing Director, Tom Hall kicked off the day with a welcome talk about the importance of air quality which was followed by a presentation by Technical Director, Roland Leigh, and Senior Product Manager, Andy Bewsher who gave some exclusive insights into our product roadmap and future capabilities. The new features and products were very well received, and we’re looking forward to releasing them over the coming months!
Sharing our roadmap gave us a chance to hear what our customers thought about our plans and for them to share what they’d like to see from us in the future. Conversations like these are exceptionally valuable to us, as it allows us to respond to the market and develop our products and services in line with the needs of our client network.
Presentations from Guest Speakers from Aimsun & Sandwell Council
We welcomed presentations from our guest speakers, Tessa Hayman from Aimsun and Elizabeth Stephens and Sophie Morris from Sandwell Council, to share innovative ways in which our technology stack is currently being used by different sectors.
Tessa took us through the award winning project NEVFMA, and how EarthSense, Aimsun, Oxfordshire County Council and Yunex Traffic joined forces to integrate MappAir® modelling data and real-time Zephyr® measurements into Aimsun Live. Using integrated data, we heard how Aimsun have been producing scenario plans and a range of response plans, allowing traffic professionals to strategically react to activity throughout road networks as a means to reduce congestion and subsequently vehicle emissions across cities and towns.
Elizabeth and Sophie presented their project about how Sandwell Council is using Zephyr® monitors, MappAir® modelling and a public portal as part of a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) grant funded project to provide the community with insights into pollution exposure. Elizabeth and Sophie discussed how Zephyr® monitors have been installed at eight faith centres in Sandwell with measured near real-time data in MyAir® displayed on screens in the main areas, providing a talking point to drive conversations and encourage behavioural change throughout the community.
Interactive Breakout Sessions
Interactive breakout sessions were held by Marketing Manager, Anika Bhamra, Head of Sales and Marketing, Greg Lewis and Head of Operations, Owen Gardner. In the sessions, Anika, Greg, and Owen presented a series of posters with questions about our products and services and asked those in the session to provide feedback.
The breakout session helped to facilitate a conversion between our customers about their needs and thoughts about what we have to offer, and it was great to see everybody as engaged with lots to talk about and lots of positive feedback about our products!
Tips & Tricks for Optimal Air Quality Data
After a pause for lunch and networking, we held product specific sessions for Zephyr® users, hosted by our Lead Data Scientist, Jordan White and Senior Business Development Manager, Dave Green, and for MappAir® users, hosted by our modelling team, Oli Crask, Pablo Garcia, and Lizzie Atkin. The team shared insights with our customers on how to get the most out of their measured and modelled air quality data.
During the Zephyr® session, Jordan and Dave talked with customers about their use cases and answered questions regarding the monitor. The group discussed mobile monitoring applications, such as using units to encourage active travel at schools by measuring pollution at school gates during pick up and drop off hours and using units to investigate how ambient air pollution affects indoor concentrations.
Jordan and Dave also presented the different ways in which the data can be interpreted through MyAir®, OpenAir Graphs and charts, and talked about best practices for deploying units and how to analyse measurements for a full understanding of air quality.
In the MappAir® session, Oli and Pablo took customers through the various data options available, such as near real-time (NRT), city, national, global resolutions, and annual averages and discussed use cases that the model has helped to support, such as the BBC Postcode Checker and Future Climate Info.
Pablo and Oli talked about EU Directive 50 (2008/50/EC), the main indicator of modelling performance used by DEFRA, and how MappAir® models are fully compliant. They discussed the wide range of applications that the data could be used for, like air quality alerts, route planning, personal exposure models and more.
What we Learnt about our Products & Services
We had such a fantastic time at our User Day. Thanks to the help of our clients, we received some really valuable feedback about what we currently offer as a business, what products and services work well and what we could do better.
Taking a look at the insights, the User Day has helped to evidence that through providing useable air quality monitors and modelling, we’re helping our clients to understand and visualise air quality concentrations for a wide variety of pollutants. We’re also helping local authorities to engage with the public about air pollution in their area and actions they can take to improve air quality level and supporting traffic management procedures, like alternating traffic light sequences and re-routing traffic, through integrating air quality data with online traffic management systems.
Overall, the User Day was a success, and it was a great effort from the EarthSense team to bring the event from an idea to fruition and again, a huge thanks to everyone that attended.
We’re looking forward to the next one!
Visit www.earthsense.co.uk/contact to find out how we can help you!