The 2015 Global Water Summit will be held in Athens, Greece, April 27 and 28, 2015 at the InterContinental Hotel Athenaeum. Hosted by Global Water Intelligence and the International Desalination Assn., the summit is a business event designed for water leaders throughout the world.
This event will aim to strengthen the link between water and economic development through a range of sessions. Formats include inspirational plenary talks, dedicated networking roundtables, prearranged one-on-one meetings and breakout sessions and workshops. The purpose of events like the Global Water Summit, which bring together key players in the industry, is to facilitate networking opportunities and accelerate change. Attendees will include more than 500 ministers and executives from government departments, public and private water companies, suppliers, financiers and investors.
Keynote speaker Dr. Rajendra Pachauri is the chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), director general of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) and a researcher of environmental issues. Internationally recognized for his efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and laying the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change, his insights can help determine water's key role in the future of sustainable economic growth.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri will be joined by Dame Ellen MacArthur who made yachting history in 2005, when she became the fastest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe. Having become acutely aware of the finite nature of the resources our linear economy relies upon, she stepped away from professional sailing to launch the Ellen MacArhur Foundation in 2010, which works with education and business to accelerate the transition to a regenerative circular economy.
The Global Water Summit will also feature the Global Water Awards, acknowledging achievements in the international water industry. The categories for the awards will include:
- Water Company of the Year;
- Desalination Company of the Year;
- Public Water Agency of the Year;
- Desalination Plant of the Year;
- Industrial Water Project of the Year;
- Desalination Deal of the Year;
- Water Deal of the Year;
- Water Technology Company of the Year;
- Water Performance Initiative of the Year;
- Water/Wastewater Project of the Year;
- Water Leaders' Award;
- Water Stewardship Award; and
- Water Technology Idol.
The awards will be presended on the evening of April 27 by José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission and prime minister of Portugal.
In 2015, the Global Water Summit will also welcome the Global Water Leaders' Group — a rare gathering of CEOs and ministers who meet at the event every year with the mission to create a better story for water.
Source: Global Water Intelligence
