THE HEAT 2025 featured a rich day of activities, including inspiring stories, expert workshops, product demonstrations, alt-food tastings, musical performances, art, a participant-led “unconference”, tours of the Harwell Science Campus, a startup pitch competition, speed networking, an evening party – the hottest event on campus… and much more!
9:00 - VIP breakfast
By invitation.
10:00 - Official opening
You’ll be guided through the festival, and will get to explore the festival campus, with climate-tech product demonstrations, future-food tastings, bespoke networking opportunities, and more.
10:10 - Keynote presentations
A lively, informed, engaging and tightly curated session of 10-minute keynote talks, from key figures in climate-tech. Full details to follow in the coming weeks on our Speakers page.
12:30 - Networking picnic lunch
Your ticket will include a lunch voucher, for a nutritious and tasty vegetarian picnic lunch. But we want you to make new friends, so we’ll redeem vouchers only when presented in groups of at least 4 (which means you’ll get to meet fellow THE HEAT participants!)
13:30 - Unconference sessions [and] Six-Minute Ideas [and] New Materials Demo Session
THE HEAT’s “unconference” sessions are driven entirely by you: over 40-minute sessions, participants run sessions that they’ve proposed, including workshops, discussions, talks, science demos, or whatever you’re excited by. This is our “open-source” part of the day, tapping into the knowledge, creativity and thoughtfulness of the crowd. In the morning, you can propose your session with a marker pen on a whiteboard which is divided into 40-minute slots in 8 locations on the festival site. You can then pitch for an audience from the main stage before lunch. Surprise us! AND Come and experience our Six-Minute Ideas sessions, where festival-goers get a short moment to share an idea, experience, recommendation, provocation in a quick-fire against-the-clock format. No slides, just a punchy, lively, fast-paced idea. We’ll schedule these short idea-pitches in advance and give people a time-slot, and we’ll provide a moderator for this stage. AND Come and join the New Materials Demo Session in the New Materials tent for an interactive presentation of the latest in materials science.
15:00 - Startup pitch battle [and] Ask Me Anything - meet the decision-makers [and] Climate Superbrain Game Show
You have a choice this hour: Be a dragon and evaluate five-minute pitches from 10 selected climate-tech startups that are currently fundraising. At our 2024 festival, we had investors from Pale Blue Dot, Creandum, Planet A, Village Capital, Norrsken VC, Zero Carbon Capital, Hedosophia, blisce, Manta Ray, and Extantia present, just to name a few. AND Meet some of the key decision-makers in climate-tech for a relaxed and open Ask Me Anything session. AND Climate Superbrain, led by Zoe Peden – the ultimate game show pitting two brainiac teams against each other in a battle of intellect, wit and climate wisdom. If Never mind the Buzzcocks and QI had a science baby. Prepare to be an engaged audience, pick up a thing or two for climate trivial pursuit nights and exit with a big smile on your face!
16:00 - Conversation Circles
Join a moderated discussion led by an expert. Topics include ‘how to successfully partner with corporate VCs’, ‘fundraising strategies for scaling your climate-tech’, ‘Designing climate products for profit & planet’ and many more.
17:00 - Workshops & speed networking
You’ll have a choice of 40-minute workshops to participate in, led by VOYAGERS with specialist skills to share. There will also be speed-networking sessions, based on participants’ mutual interests (which we’ll collect in advance).
18:30 - Networking party, music performances & food trucks
Participate in a Senegalese drumming circle, then enjoy a music set while you network that ranges from the VOYAGERS rock band, acoustic singers, to DJ sets . Do you want to perform? Tell david@voyagers.io
22:00 - Official close; shuttles to Didcot Parkway train station
All-day activities
Tours of Harwell Campus
Tours of Harwell Campus led by the people that know it best.
Product demonstrations
Energy from space, climate robotics, tidal generators and lots more.
Future-food tastings
Our future-food curator, Daniel Skaven Ruben, is sourcing the best of new protein and food innovation. Taste the future in this interactive area of the festival site.
Book-lovers' exchange
Bring a book that has inspired you; take away a book that inspired a fellow festival-goer.
The tree of hope
Let’s back optimism over despair — and fill a tree with suggestions for ambitious climate solutions small and large.
Music performances
An evening of music performances — including Senegalese drumming, acoustic and DJ sets, and the VOYAGERS Festival Band.
The Hot Takes Climate-Film Festival
Our favourite documentaries and short films with a climate focus.
Art commissions
Displays by artists exploring climate themes.
Bespoke speed networking
THE HEAT is all about making magical connections. We curated meetings we thought you would find valuable.
Office hours
One-on-one meetings between founders, investors, regulators and more.
Nature Tech showcase
13:30 - Workshop / Discussion Circle - 'Using AI/nature tech to unlock nature finance – how do we make the boat go faster?' by Carly Batist, Conservation International
14:15 - 2 x 15 min company presentations / demos - Monitoring and verification for nature restoration projects: NatureMetrics and Carbon Rewild
14:45 - Workshop / Discussion Circle - 'Nature as an asset class – what are the barriers / solutions & next steps?' by Bart Schoonbaert, PlanetaryX.io
15:30 - 2 x 15 min company presentations / demos - Nature as climate & carbon solutions: Treeconomy and Rhizocore
16:00 - Workshop / Discussion Circle - 'De-risking nature: a deep dive into high-integrity methodologies' by Cain Blythe, CreditNature
16:45 - 3 x 15 min company presentations / demos - Commercialising nature solutions: Stabiliti, Kana Earth, Nattergal
Film festival
13:30 - Q&A + Trailers w/ Colin Ramsay, Zoe Broughton, Tristan Copley Smith
14:30 - Screening: Six Inches of Soil (feature)
15:30 - Screening: Rivercide (feature)
16:30 - Screening: The Oil Machine (feature)
18:30 - Screening: Looping Films (shorts)
Music schedule
