Agenda

Pioneering Greater Flood Resiliency in a Changing Climate

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?

To welcome all delegates to the summit we will be staging an informal networking drinks event.

• 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?

• 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?

• 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 and compliance – where are the biggest technological 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?

Four start-ups pitch their technology and business models to a panel of three ‘dragons’, with questions from the audience.

• 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?

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

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! 2x session rotations of 25 minutes each.

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?

• 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?

Two joint presentations from digital service providers 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.

• Which changes and innovations in the workplace are redefining the engineer of today?
• How are human and artificial intelligence shaping the future of design and asset management?
• What will an engineer’s digital toolkit of the future look like and how will this affect efficiency, productivity and safety in the field?
• How can open data facilitate new products and services?
• It’s all about your people… what must be done to inspire and implement behaviour change from the bottom-up?

Four start-ups pitch their technology and business models to a panel of three ‘sharks’.

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 investment into building assets and adopting transformative water technologies.

While many agree we need to work together to solve water, this is often easier said than done. This closing plenary, led by British Water, will explore and challenge the status quo and come a step closer to answering the question: How do we foster and sustain collaborative innovation in the water industry?

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.

Thursday, February 27, (9:00 – 17:00)