Paris, France – The 12th Global Water Summit, taking place in Paris on April 15-17, 2018, will focus on how new technologies, businesses and sources of finance are blurring the edges of the water sector and driving industry change and innovation.
Organizing body Global Water Intelligence has announced the theme of the conference to be “Transcending Boundaries.”
The arrival of new technologies, businesses and sources of finance are blurring the edges of the water sector and empowering the global water industry to connect, innovate, and rethink the way it does business, GWI said in a news release. Zanny Minton-Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, will be keynote during an opening session discussing this topic.
The Global Water Summit hosted more than 600 water industry leaders and business executives in 2017.
The 2018 Summit will focus on how cross-cutting issues emerging from the boundaries of the sector may drive performance and create new opportunities for businesses that are ready to build and engage with the new models and stakeholders.
The event will address four key topics:
- How is the migration of new and disruptive technologies from the digital revolution and the field of material sciences impacting scientific and technological development? Do these migrations signal an age of business process re-engineering?
- With the entry of non-traditional sources of finance and companies from different business backgrounds such as investment, software, ICT, and construction, where is the impact of new financing tools and new sources of capital needed most? How much finance does the water sector need in order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals?
- How can utilities and industries proactively respond to a changing environment? Are they moving overground or looking beyond the fence towards shared infrastructure and multi-use assets?
- Global versus local – the internationalisation of the water sector is increasingly faced with contemporary political and environmental challenges. How can the water sector continue to foster a competitive market?
The summit will be held at the Marriott Conference Rive Gauche Hotel Conference Centre in Paris on April 15-17. It will feature more than five hours of one-to-one networking sessions and expert-led roundtable discussions, as well as a two-day agenda with session strands focused on industry, desalination, finance, technologies and digital solutions.
The “Transcending Boundaries” theme will be further explored in many of these agenda strands. For example, the first Finance session will bring together utility leaders in a workshop to discuss ‘blended’ finance structures, whilst the second Industry strand session will explore Industrial synergies and new technology solutions.
Session speakers include:
· Jeffrey Kightlinger, General Manager, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
· Jerson Kelman, Chief Executive Officer, Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo – SABESP, Brazil
· Cecil McMaster, Chief Information Officer (CIO), The New York City Department of Environmental Protection, U.S.A.
· Jacques Euler, Beauty Division – Manufacturing Sustainability, Procter & Gamble.
· Neil Brennan, Managing Director, Western Water, Australia
· Per Møller, Head of Symbiosis Center Denmark
· Sarah Le Gallou, Technical Lead Engineer – Water Resources, EDF
In addition, the summit will see new utilities named to The Leading Utilities of the World, a global network of the world’s most successful and innovative water and wastewater utilities working to foster innovation in the sector.
The Global Water Awards 2018 Gala Dinner will take place on April 16 at the Pavillon d’Armenonville. The awards reward initiatives in the water, wastewater and desalination sectors that are moving the industry forward through improved operating performance, innovative technology adoption and sustainable financial models.
Fore more information, visit www.watermeetsmoney.com.
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