The American Water Summit, a North American water business conference, will take place Oct. 20 to 21 2015 at Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver. Organized by American Water Intelligence (AWI) and Global Water Intelligence (GWI), the American Water Summit brings together a gathering of thought leaders, executives and practitioners from the public and private sectors to point the way towards making water an economic value.
This year, the American Water Summit focuses on “Scalable Solutions.” The ability to deliver success at scale is probably the greatest fundamental driver of value in today’s economy. From tech startups to corporate titans, the greatest value lies in taking great ideas and making them work on a greater scale.
“It is a difficult challenge for the American water industry. With a market made up of tens of thousands of utilities and hundreds of thousands of industrial facilities, each with their own unique set of circumstances and outlook, building a critical mass of support behind a new idea is hard work,” said Christopher Gasson, publisher at Global Water Intelligence. “But the potential rewards are enormous, and unlocking them is what this year’s American Water Summit is about.” The event will bring together top decision makers to discuss the themes and ideas that are making a difference to the way that water works in our economy today.
This one-and-a-half-day conference will include strands that focus the discussion on three areas of change:
- Utility finance: Public-private partnerships (P3) move up the agenda with each step the federal government takes away from its funding commitments to the sector. But there remains a great deal of distance between the two sides. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) will co-host a workshop strand at the summit aimed at closing this gap. The sessions will explore new approaches to P3s, which could make collaboration between public and private a scalable solution to the pressures on utility finance.
- Corporate water strategy: As scarcity becomes more of public issue, private businesses are finding themselves subject to increased scrutiny. Three options will be explored: aligning shareholder interests with environmental benefits, working with communities to generate shared value and finding value in waste streams. The sessions explore potential solutions for scaling up a new approach to corporate water strategy.
- Water technology: Scale is the biggest challenge for water technology. Part of the problem is the risk averse and fragmented market – but top executives attending The American Water Summit will work towards a better solution by asking the right questions, including: how does utility technology leadership make a difference? Which new technologies should the industry support? How can the experience of drought be used to advance innovation? Can the mismatch between the challenges customers face and the technologies that are being developed be addressed?
Other items on the program include a keynote address from Jacqueline Hinmann, CEO of CH2M, Harlan L. Kelly of city and county of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and Richard Adkerson, CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. The opening keynote will be followed by a roundtable session in which insight leaders will hold focused discussions to explore industry trends and developments. The closing panel on day two will be led by mayors from a number of progressive American cities that will share their experience in implementing P3s and working with the industry to solve water problems together.
The conference will also include a half-day pre-conference strategy workshop to provide insight into the forces that will move the global water market over the next 12 months and beyond. Hosted by GWI’s research team, it is designed to help businesses working within the sector to formulate their strategy in the international water business, discussing: the end of the commodities supercycle; Prospects in India and China; New technology; Alternative business models; Sales channels and customer propositions; The project market and M&A investment trends.
Source: Global Water Intelligence
