The American Waterworks Association's Annual Conference and Exposition, known to attendees as ACE, brings together the wide variety of individuals involved in the spectrum of the water sector. What began as an informal gathering of 22 men discussing the need for safe drinking water in the late 1800s has evolved into the premier show for the water industry to share the latest trends, challenges, policy, and technology. This year's show will take place June 11-14 in Philadelphia, PA. While the show may be a whole season away, the opportunity to get the super-saver registration discount is closing soon (March 30 to be exact).
Cynthia Lane, Director of Engineering & Technical Services spoke with us to share what attendees can expect at this year's event.
What can public sector attendees expect to take away from ACE?
The show is designed to be a one-stop-shop for everything related to running or managing a water utility. In practice, water utilities typically include close public and private coordination that involves many manufacturers, consultants but also federal, state, and local government employees closely aligned with the workings of the utility.[Tweet "#AWWAACE17 is a one-stop-shop for everything related to managing #water #utilities. #GovEventsBlog"]
There is a lot of discussion about policy, and this year we expect to host a number of discussions around water quality. We will also have representation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to discuss the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) and how local utilities can avail themselves of that program's funding for infrastructure improvements. U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) representatives will discuss public health issues with water and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) representatives will discuss source water protection. We also will host a special certificate program and networking event for public officials looking to learn more about the inner workings of utility management.
What are some of the key themes to this year's presentations?
In planning the program, we try to strike a balance between what presenters offer to talk about via our call for papers, and what the utilities are telling us they want to hear. Infrastructure funding and affordability are high on both lists as is lead management in drinking water. In addition to these hot topics, we also make sure we cover "business as usual" with sessions on water treatment, management, rates, and more.
What sessions are you most excited about?
Discussions around managing lead look to be very popular and we will have a session that dives into the Flint drinking water crisis and shows how that system has moved to a modern, optimized distribution system. We will also have some very interesting sessions on how to incorporate green infrastructure into systems. Returning speakers, Peter Grevatt from the USEPA Office of Drinking Water and Andrew Sawyers from the USEPA Office of Wastewater Management, are always very popular speakers. This year they will focus on how federal regulatory agencies are viewing innovation.[Tweet "450+ exhibitors at #AWWAACE17 display the best in water industry products/services. #GovEventsBlog"]
The ACE exposition offers an experience to remember with more than 450 cutting-edge exhibitors displaying the best water industry products and services to simplify a water professionals job. We have expanded educational offerings on the show floor this year and combined some of the AWWA destinations into the AWWA Pavilion such as Publishing and Education, opportunities to get involved with AWWA showcasing the Partnership for Safe and Clean Water, Community Engineering Corps, the Great Lakes Water Utility Energy Challenge and The Water Equation.
What is the balance between networking and education at the show?
We put a big emphasis on getting people to interact between sessions. Even in our sessions, our speakers are passionate about sharing their experiences, good and bad, and hearing thoughts from their peers. Case studies are a huge component of our content and they include successes as well as failures. We have a wide variety of formats from presentations to panels to poster sessions. We build in a lot of breaks to give plenty of time for interaction. Also, our track format keeps people with similar interests together through the show that leads to ongoing discussion from session to session.
What is new this year?
The AWWA Pavilion will feature an interactive mosaic where attendees and exhibitors will be able to snap fun images, post them to social media and see the mosaic come to life. This activity will be a unique and fun way to get attendees involved at ACE on the show floor and throughout the conference. We will build an on-site campaign to create the "buzz factor" surrounding attendee/exhibitor engagement. The final image is a surprise - so be sure to stop by our booth #1125 or follow #AWWAACE17 to see the final result!
In addition, we have six competitions for attendees to watch or take part in during the conference - the "People's Choice" Water Tasting and "Best of the Best" Tap Water Taste Test, Pipe Tapping, Meter Madness Competitions, Top Ops and the new Hydrant Hysteria Competition.[Tweet "Cynthia Lane, @AWWAACE Dir. of Engineering and Technical Svcs. shares what to expect at ACE. #GovEventsBlog"]
Thanks again to Cynthia and her team for sharing this look at ACE17. For more information on the event, you can find it here on GovEvents.
