Agenda

Future Flood Protection: Preventing, Forecasting, Mitigating

A half-day, in-depth seminar and workshop programme exploring the question: How can the global water industry best meet the challenges of extreme flooding events?

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James Bevan, CEO, UK ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, UK

• Which innovative ways of working are driving the evolution of a responsive, dynamic 21st Century water utility?
• What measures should water utilities be adopting to thrive in a digital world?
• Should water stewards be sharing learning and data across borders to better facilitate innovation and projects, and if so – how?
• What are the successful regulatory drivers that support utilities to deploy advanced technologies?
• Which measures need to be taken to avoid looming ‘Day Zero’ scenarios?
• What keeps you up at night?

Session Chair:
George Hawkins, Founder, MOONSHOT MISSIONS, USA
Speakers:
Mads Leth, CEO, VCS DENMARK, DENMARK
Frederico Fernandes, CEO, AGUAS DO PORTO, PORTUGAL
Mel Karam, CEO, BRISTOL WATER, UK
Narkisos Georgiadis, CEO, EYATH, GREECE

• What are the best-practice measures being taken to ensure flood warnings are fit for the future?
• Where are satellites and sensor tech being deployed to best effect and what does success look like?
• What is being done to tackle the growing menace of wet weather overflow as flash flood occurrences increase? How can we avoid rivers becoming sewers?
• How can we best capture large volumes of rainfall without having to build costly, mostly unused infrastructure?
• How do we balance the risks and returns of investing in green infrastructure, sponge cities and planned wetlands?

Speakers:
Muminu Badmus, Managing Director & CEO, LAGOS WATER CORPORATION, NIGERIA 
Julie Foley, Director of Flood Risk Strategy & National Adaptation, UK ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, UK
Chawalit Chantararat, President, TEAM CONSULTING ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT, THAILAND          

• When we talk about resilience what do we really mean? What are the varying regional perspectives?
• From digital solutions, smart pumps and infrastructure to storm management, health + safety and compliance – where are the biggest opportunities emerging?
• How is resiliency being prioritised across people, processes and technology?
• There are new funds emerging that focus on P3 and “green infrastructure” related projects around the resiliency theme that are struggling to get into the market, why is that?
• How can the industry free up resources to accelerate projects?

Session Chair:
Fiona Griffith, Group Director, ISLE UTILITIES, UK
Speakers:
Mogan Padayachee, Innovation & Technology Manager, RAND WATER, SOUTH AFRICA
Mark Fletcher, Global Water Business Leader, ARUP, UK
Andrea Aliscioni, COO, MM SPA, ITALY
Gordon Reid, General Manager – Zero Emissions, SCOTTISH WATER, UK

Innovators pitch their technology and business models with questions from the audience.

Presenters:
Oliver Hofmann, Director, SOUTHWESTSENSOR, UK
Robert Zagozdzon, Director, BLUE BOSON, UK
Carolyn Hogg, Founder, CASCADE WATER PRODUCTS, UK

Speaker:
John Russell, Senior Director of Strategy and Planning, OFWAT, UK

• What is the role of the private sector in solving the critical challenges of reducing water use and improving quality across watersheds?
• How are water stewardship strategies evolving to incorporate new technologies including reuse and closed water systems?
• To what extent is industry actively making direct investments in technology deployment across the supply chain? Where does private sector engagement in water stewardship need to be by 2025?
• Where can synergies and efficiencies be developed between private stewards and public utilities?

Speakers:
Jan-Willem Vosmeer, Senior Global Lead Corporate Social Responsibility, HEINEKEN, NETHERLANDS
Michael Alexander, Head of Water, Agriculture & Environmental Sustainability, DIAGEO, UK
Conor Linstead, Freshwater Specialist, WWF, UK
Marian Evans, Head of Technical & Performance – Industrial Water, VEOLIA UK, UK

How can we best reduce energy expenditure and utilise technology to capture maximum value from wastewater? Bringing together utilities, technology providers and engineers this panel will discuss the key innovations in the market, from reducing energy use in treatment; and utilising grey water in new developments; to capturing energy and resources, and ultimately making potable reuse a viable product.

Session Chair:
Mark Lane, Consultant, THE UK WATER PARTNERSHIP, UK
Speakers:
Keith Haslett, Director of Wastewater, UNITED UTILITIES, UK
Cumali Kinaci, General Manager, ANKARA WATER AND SEWERAGE ADMINISTRATION, TURKEY
Pathan Banjongproo, BANGKOK METROPOLITAN ADMINISTRATION, THAILAND

Drill down into featured topics and share your insight and expertise with a small group of delegates. Come prepared for lively discussion and diverse debate! Two session rotations of 25 minutes each.

Speaker:
Petér Kovács, President, INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE DANUBE RIVER, HUNGARY

This session we will feature a collection of the best examples of how technology is being deployed to tackle leakage.

• How are the barriers to reducing leakage being overcome?
• Who is leading the way in cutting-edge leak discovery? What does best practice look like?
• How achievable is ‘zero leakage’ and who can we learn from?

Session Chair:
Adam Lovell, Executive Director, WATER SERVICES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA
Speakers:
Gwion Kennard, Digital Engineering Director, ATKINS GLOBAL, UK
Tamás Bencze, International Business Development Director, BUDAPEST WATERWORKS, HUNGARY
Maurizia Brunetti, Technical Director – Water Distribution System, GRUPPO HERA, ITALY

• Which innovations in data analytics are utilities looking for right now and how can we best leverage these solutions to optimise operations?
• How are developments in the cloud impacting the water industry? Who is leading the way?
• How are stakeholders within the supply chain successfully adapting to and transforming their approach to support digital integration across utility networks?
• What are the leading digital trends coming through in 2019 and what does the next five years look like?

Speakers:
Miriam Berhane Russom, Senior Program Manager – Azure IoT, MICROSOFT, USA
Albert Cho, VP & General Manager for Advanced Infrastructure Analytics, XYLEM, USA
Greg Gomez, Vice President – Global Flow Instrumentation & International Utility, BADGER METER, USA
Matt Edwards, Head of Enterprise Data – Chief Data Officer, ANGLIAN WATER, UK
Philip Briscoe, Chief Operating Officer, REZATEC, UK

Two presentations from a digital service provider and their clients telling real world stories of where ground-breaking technology has been deployed to great effect. Beyond theory, hear about best practice in building capacity, reducing expenditure and boosting efficiency.

Case Study 1: Continuing Water’s Digital Transformation with the Digital Twin
David Fortune, Vice President of Innovation, INNOVYZE, UK

Case Study 2: Leveraging Machine Learning to Predict Pipe Failure
Robert Berry, Chief Data Scientist, FRACTA, UK

Produced in partnership with the World Water Innovation Fund, this session will focus on:

• How can successful innovation within the water sector better be shared and replicated in similar contexts?
• Which organisations are leading the way in collaborating with technology providers?
• How are forward-thinking utilities developing innovation programmes to trial and assess new technologies?
• How can utilities be incentivised to collaborate with partner organisations to build innovation into the sector’s culture?

Session Chair:
Bob Stear, Chief Engineer, SEVERN TRENT, UK
Speakers:
Marco Aurelio P. da Silva, Head of Projects, Process and Innovation, AEGEA SANEAMENTO, BRAZIL
Danny Ivanoski, Manager of Network Intelligence, YARRA VALLEY, AUSTRALIA
David Balsar, General Manager – Innovation & Ventures, MEKOROT, ISRAEL
Jan Peter van der Hoek, Chief Innovation Officer, WATERNET, NETHERLANDS

Innovators pitch their technology and business models.

Presenters:
Victoria Edwards, CEO and Co-Founder, FIDO TECHNOLOGIES, UK
Hanan Itzkovitch, VP Business Development, WATERSIGN, ISRAEL

• What are organisations doing to capture the value of digital integration?
• It’s all about your people… what must be done to inspire and implement behaviour change from the bottom-up?
• How can resistance to change in the sector be overcome?
• Moving from proof of concept to full integration: How can utilities scale innovations into their day to day operations?

Session Chair:
Lila Thompson, CEO, BRITISH WATER, UK
Speakers:
Frédéric Renaut, Director of Digital Innovation, SAUR, FRANCE
Peter Nicol, Global Vice President – Water, JACOBS, CANADA
Matt Crabtree, Director of Engineering, SOUTH WEST WATER, UK

Leading institutional and private investors in water technology come together to discuss the future tools required to improve the way that money finds projects and vice-versa. Experts in water finance will share insight into the key investment opportunities and barriers that we must face to accelerate key investment into upgrading assets, circular economy initiatives and transformative water technologies that promote clean growth.

Session Chair:
Helge Daebel, Investment Director, EMERALD TECHNOLOGY VENTURES, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
Reinhard Hübner, Investment Manager, SKION GMBH, GERMANY
Alex Money, Director of in3 Programme, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, OXFORD UNIVERSITY, UK
Ambika Jindal, Lead – Valuing Water Initiative, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NETHERLANDS GOVERNMENT, NETHERLANDS
Monica Altamirano, Program Manager Finance for Adaptative Planning, DELTARES, NETHERLANDS

Following feedback from our community, we are devoting the final two hours of the summit for dedicated 1-1 meeting time, allowing you to connect with potential future partners without the worry of missing out on any of the action on stage.

Innovation in Action Tour

Back by popular demand, a tour of Anglian Water’s award-winning ‘Shop Window’ project will include:

• A visit to the Gazeley Water Treatment Plant, a ground-breaking Studlands Pressure Reducing Valve site
• Presentations from Anglian Water teams and their technology providers at the forefront of leakage and carbon reduction
• Valuable insight into Anglian Water’s approach to smart metering, behavioural change, catchment management, advanced wastewater treatment and anaerobic digestion

This initiative – an IWA Innovation Gold Award Winner – is a core component of Anglian Water’s ‘Love Every Drop’ strategy, transforming the business through collaboration across supply chain partners and customers, and supporting start-ups who need real-world conditions to test the viability of their products.