The World Water-Tech North America Summit welcomed senior representatives from public and private water utilities, corporate investors, engineering giants and technology companies for two days of networking and decision-making on water innovation, November 2-3. Hosted by Rethink Events and WaterTap Ontario, over 250 delegates attended the summit, debating the successes and challenges of the water industry with regards to investment opportunities, optimizing energy usage and recovery, building resilience, and monetizing efficiencies through data and IoT.
Key takeaways of the summit highlighted flooding as the new drought, along with a thought-provoking panel on how utilities such as San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Aqua America and Hampton Roads Sanitation District are effectively reducing the severity and disruption of weather extremes. When the conversation turned to water reuse, it became clear that larger commercial buildings provide an opportunity for reuse, but face obstacles. Decision-makers also urged that public education was required to make potable reuse a reality in the future. Delegates also pushed for a move towards ‘data-as-a-service’ as opposed to ‘software-as-a-service’ with utilities calling for quality over quantity when it came to data collection.
Leading water industry figures such as The Honorable Minister Chan and the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water’s newly appointed, D. Lee Forsgren both addressed their water policy and infrastructure plans as a means to accelerating innovation. Jennie Moss, Founder of Rethink Events, said, “There has never been a greater need to bring together the industry’s brightest minds to pave the way for a more resilient future in the water industry. We have been organizing this summit for five years and it’s always a wonderful experience seeing decision makers implementing brand new objectives and creating successful partnerships. It was fantastic to have WaterTap Ontario on board this year and we couldn’t have had a greater partner to help run the summit.”
Patrick Kiely, CEO and Founder of Island Water Technologies, had the opportunity to showcase his business plan to an audience of investors and global agribusinesses at the summit. “It was a great experience pitching out technology to all the key industry and investment leaders in the water technology space. The caliber of attendees was very high and the connections we made in only two days were invaluable.”
Rethink Events is hosting the World Water-Tech Innovation Summit in London on February 20-21, 2018. For more information, please visit the website.