International Blog

Off to an early start as this was the CIWEM/EWA day with a session in the morning at WEFTEC. I arrived at the speaker's room to find the three people speaking in our session all uploading new slides. I went to seminar room to find that they had the wrong version of my slides, so off i went to the speaker's room!!

It was the final day of WEFTEC and we were an early session, a graveyard slot so the room was not buzzing but there was a steady flow of people in and out. The seminar we hosted focused on the Water Framework Directive, how the impacts of a changing climate will affect the implementation of that directive, River Basin Management Plan for the Rhine river and how this compares and contrasts to The Great Lake Management system in the US. I found out that the great lakes surfaces area is almost as large as France and Germany combined! It was fascinating to see how the US manages transboundary water issues and how that contrasts with Europe. It was a really good session a number of good questions followed.

I then had lunch with the speakers, Jean Philippe Torterotot, President of EWA and Jon MacDonagh-Dumler from Michigan University, Institute of Water. Then we all had a quick look round the exhibition and went to some of the last presentations. WEFTEC officially finished at 5pm! Very interesting conference and exhibition, bigger and better than last year and apparently a record show.

In the evening I had an amazing opportunity an American singer/songwriter who plays the guitar and piano, his music combines blues, pop and jazz. He played in Lafayette square where on Wednesdays there is a free concert, you pay for drinks and the money goes to help support the poor in New Orleans area, great idea and great music.

This has been a great trip and I will offer some impressions on the visit and New Orleans later!

Today was full on! I found out that a meeting I was due to attend has been re-scheduled for early in the morning, so it was a rush up to the convention center. I walked with my bag, not easy but at least in New Orleans there are sidewalks!! I was also lucky with the humidity which has gone this week, it is pleasant in the mid 20s degrees/70s Fahrenheit and a nice breeze. I made the meeting and joined the Japan Sewage Works Association (JWSA), Water Environment Federation (WEF). I was representing the European Water Association (EWA). The discussions focussed on the joint JWSA-WEF-EWA conference (which is held every three years), that will be taking place in Japan on 28^th and 29^th July 2011. The event will focus on cutting-edge technologies and best practices on sewerage and will feature presentations, exhibition, workshops and poster sessions - full details at http://www.gesuikyou.jp/conference/En/

Then a quick follow on discussion, followed by a very quick look at the exhibition - I found out to today that over 980 stands are at the show, I am not going to get the event properly!! Then I joined the luncheon for the Paul L. Busch award, given by the Water Environment Research Fund (WERF), now in its 10^th year the award goes to a researcher or team whose innovative work is leading to environmental improvement. The winner of the 10^th award, who also receives a grant of $100,000, is Kartik Chandran, an associate professor at Columbia University, whose work is looking at using methane in wastewater treatment plants and transforming it into methanol, a viable green fuel. He was presented with the award by Nancy Love who was the first ever recipient of the Paul L Busch award and a former supervisor of Kartik.

I then met with the organisers to discuss the CIWEM involvement in future WEFTEC sessions. Whilst in the room I bumped into Rebecca Arvin who used to be an intern at CIWEM. Rebecca has now finished her studies and is working with WEF for a short period of time in a role she hopes will become permanent. It was great to see Rebecca pursuing an environmental career and I like to think that CIWEM had some small part in her decision!!

The later part of the afternoon was taken up with the speakers briefing meeting and the small task of loading up slides for the session that I will be managing tomorrow! The session starts at 08.30 and it is a facilitated discussion focusing on the EU Water Framework Directive, how to manage climate variability within this policy context and the comparability with management of the great lakes. I then rushed to the business center to print out some materials.

The evening concluded with dinner with the speakers at a fish restaurant, New Orleans knows how to do fish!! Now I hope I don't miss the alarm in the morning, it's an early start!!

WEFTEC began officially on Saturday 2^nd October when the technical sessions started but the exhibition kicked off yesterday. The whole event is running at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center, which is a big place!!

The exhibition is taking place in what seems like one great big long hall, although I think it is actually Halls A - J that are being used and the partitions have been taken out. It is hard to get a sense of the number of exhibitor's present, 600-700 maybe more. Everything is zoned around numbers in increments of 100 going up to 7500 so you find the companies that you want to see by orienting yourself to the nearest relevant number block, stand 1845 is near 1800 etc. There is a big long thoroughfare that runs through the whole exhibition.

This focus is water and wastewater and almost every company present is involved in this sector which makes WEFTEC a very significant show for those in the industry. There was a lot of activity taking place at the show and a constant flow of people coming in and out of the exhibition hall, particularly in between the technical sessions. It is very interesting set up as attendees get credits for being at WEFTEC and attending the talks so there is a captive audience for the event and for the exhibition. It certainly looks bigger than Orlando in terms of size and exhibitors, in terms of attendees, difficult to say.

In the evening I joined some contacts and went to one of the many reception events being hosted. This was in a bar on Decatur Street which runs the length of the French quarter alongside the Mississippi River. The focus of the events is Bourbon Street, Decatur and Frenchman Street, all of them around the French quarter. I then went to New Orleans many seafood/fish restaurants, it is not only famed for it's fish, it is also very good.