"Making Smart Water Mainstream"
The SWAN 13th Annual Conference will be held May 9-11, 2023 at the Crowne Plaza Glasgow in Scotland. How do we move the industry from early adopters to the early majority? Our theme, "Making Smart Water Mainstream" will focus on the practical, "how to" value of taking the smart water journey by navigating through current, global utility challenges. 

Our hybrid format will enable online attendees to live stream select sessions or view them on-demand.

​Scroll down to view the full agenda.
Join us on May 9th for three, pre-Conference Workshops focused on Digital Twins, Scaling Innovation, and Young Professionals, and on May 12th for the Scottish Water Study Tours.
(Click below to learn more)
Wednesday, May 10th
The Conference will take place in-person with select, live-streaming options. 
*All times below are in Glasgow GMT and content is subject to change.
​​
8:00 – 9:00 am           Conference Registration & Coffee
​
9:00 – 9:10 am           Conference Introduction 
Nadia Abboud, President (ENAY Group) & Tom Freyberg, Founder & Managing Director (Atlantean Media)
​
9:10 – 9:30 am            Keynote: Simon Parsons, Director of Strategic Customer Service Planning (Scottish Water) 

9:30 – 10:30 am          Practical Lessons for Organising for Digital Innovation
Moderator:  Rob Mustard, Director of Transformation & Digital (Scottish Water)
Speakers: ​
  • Reginal Joseph, Assistant Commissioner for Digital Transformation (New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection, US) “Digital Transformation in Water and Wastewater Treatment: NYCDEP Lessons Learned”
  • Louise Meadows, Chief People Officer (Greater Western Water, Australia) “Greater Western Water's Culture-Led Integration”
  • Amanda Bridger, Head of Change and Programmes (Anglian Water Services, UK) “Creating Exploratory Working Climates for the Achievement of Innovation Goals”
  • TBC

10:30 – 11:00 am         Refreshments and Networking

11:00 – 11:45 am          Assessing Value: Quantifying Integrated ROI
Moderator: Amir Peleg, CEO and Founder (TaKaDu) 
Speakers: ​
  • Nele Philips, Program Manager R&D (De Watergroup, Belgium) “Assessing the Value of R&D Projects: Methodology and Use Case at De Watergroep”
  • Janelle Boelter, Director of Infrastructure Management (Las Vegas Valley Water District, US) & David Shaw, SVP - North America (RedEye Apps Inc) “Effecting True Organisational-Wide Change: How RedEye Supports Executives To Quantify ROI and Impact Change Across The Entire Utility”
  • Ben Stanford, Associate Vice President (Hazen and Sawyer) “Understanding the ROI In Smart Infrastructure Projects Helps Accelerate Adoption”​

11:45 – 12:30 pm          Easing the Smart Metering Journey          
Moderator: Nav Otal, Director of Utilities (City of Bellevue, US)
Speakers: ​​
  • Karl Cilia, CEO (Water Services Corporation, Malta) “Implementation of Smart Metering Technology in Malta” 
  • Siya Bashe, Director, Commercial Services Department - Water and Sanitation Directorate (City Cape Town, South Africa) “How the Disciplined Secures Innovative Projects”​
  • Antonio de Castro, Project Technical Manager (Canal de Isabel II, Spain) “Leveraging the Power of Smart Meters in Large Utilities: The Case of Canal de Isabel II”
12:30 – 1:30 pm            Networking Lunch

1:30 – 2:15 pm              Remote Monitoring to Drive Condition Assessment
Moderator: Dave Collins, Associate Director (Atkins) ​
Speakers: ​
  • Keith Kolkebeck, Director of SCADA (Veolia) “7+ Year Journey to Smart Water at Veolia - Starting with the Foundation”
  • Valerie Dresscher, Project leader Future Asset Management (Evides, Netherlands) & Juan David Santamaría Sánchez, Solutions Engineer (Syrinix) “Automatic Transient Source Triangulation in the Netherlands”
  • Chloé Meyer, Senior Analyst (Bluefield Research) “Seeing Things: The Coming Wave of Remote Asset Monitoring”
2:15 – 3:30 pm             Interactive Roundtable Session (Topics coming soon)
3:30 – 4:00 pm             Refreshments and Networking

4:00 – 4:15 pm             SWAN Update & Awards
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4:15 – 4:40 pm              Waterside Chat (TBC)

4:40 – 5:30 pm             Collaborating to Scale Innovation
Moderator: Scott Branum, Principal Technologist & Fellow - Digital (Evoqua Water Technologies) ​
Speakers: ​​
  • Ian Pemberton, Principal - Water Environment Science and Technology (Oftwat, UK) "Promoting Efficiency, The Role of Price Review and the Innovation Fund"​
  • Dominique Derangere, Head of Water - Sanitation Department (NEVERS, France) & Stephane Gervais, EVP Strategic Innovation & Smart Data (LACROIX Group) “Using Artificial Intelligence with IoT for Water Networks: From Co-Innovation to Deployment 1 Year After”
  • Emma Milburn, Marketing and Channels Director (South East Water, Australia) “The Successful Transformation of a Utility at Scale”
​
5:30 – 5:40 pm             Summary and Conclusion 
Nadia Abboud, President (ENAY Group) & Tom Freyberg, Founder & Managing Director (Atlantean Media)

6:30 – 8:00 pm            Drinks Reception on the Tall Ship Sponsored by ExploreAI
Thursday, May 11th

*Day 2 will begin with two, separate water and wastewater tracks in different Conference rooms until lunch (only the water track will be live-streamed)
Water Track (Argyll Suite)
​Sponsored by Arcadis
 
9:00 – 9:10 am         Welcome Remarks by Arcadis

9:10 – 10:00 am       Leak Optimisation: A UK Perspective
Moderator: Victoria Edwards, CEO & Co-Founder (FIDO)
Speakers: ​
  • Scott Young, Economic Demand Manager for Strategy Innovation (Scottish Water, UK) & Dr. Gurch Chana, Director of GCR Tech (Mobiltex Data Ltd.) “Transient Detection with High-Speed Dataloggers Enables Targeted Burst Reduction and Creates Millions in Savings for Scottish Water”
  • Tanya Dady, Asset Strategy Manager (SES Water, UK) & David Kenny, International Sales Director (Mueller Water Products) “DMA Asset Health: A Holistic Approach to Network Asset Management”
  • Stuart Mawditt, Managing Director (SME Water) “Paradigm: Delivering Demand Insights for the UK Water Industry”

10:00 – 10:30 am      Refreshments and Networking

10:30 – 11:15 am        Leak Optimisation: A Portuguese Perspective
Moderator: João Cabrita, Head of Contract Management (ERSAR) 
Speakers: ​
  • Andrew Donnelly, Board Advisor/Head of Water Loss and I&I Control Department (EPAL, SA, Portugal) “Maximising Use of Network Monitoring & Leakage Management Systems in Times of Crisis: Through COVID and Drought at EPAL and Águas do Vale do Tejo”
  • Ana Rita Santos, Hydraulic Engineer (AGS, Portugal) “AGS’s Journey through the Implementation of a Performance Based Agreement in Romania to Reduce Non-Revenue Water”
  • Ricardo Gentil Lopes Ferreira, Civil Engineer (Águas e Energia do Porto, EM, Portugal) “Repair Leaks ASAP: Advanced Tool for Identifying Leaks Nests in the Water Supply System”
    ​
11:15 – 12:00 pm         H2Know Your Water Quality
Moderator: Jordi Raich, Sr. Manager Analytical Solutions (Badger Meter)
Speakers: ​
  • Cezar Augusto da Rosa, Head of R,D&I (Augen, Brazil) & Flavio Eduardo Soares e Silva, Electrical engineer (CORSAN, Brazil) “Digital Platform to Manage and Control the Production and Distribution of Drinking Water from Underground Sources”
  • Dr. John Gaffney, Product Owner – Water Quality (Siemens) “Enabling Water Quality IoT Monitoring with an As-a-Service Business Model”
  • TBC​
Wastewater Track (Castle Suite)
​Sponsored by Arcadis

9:00 – 9:10 am          Welcome Remarks by Arcadis

9:10 – 10:00 am         Sewer Monitoring Optimisation: A UK Perspective
Moderator:  Mahesh Lunani, Founder & CEO (Aquasight)
​Speakers: ​​​
  • Dr. Nick Mills, Head of Storm Overflow Task Force (Southern Water, UK) & Brian Moloney, CEO (Stormharvester) “Enhancing Wastewater Network Performance through AI at Southern Water”
  • Denise Clifford, Wastewater Network Controller (Thames Water, UK) & Ross McIntosh, Technical Director (ExploreAI) “Understanding Sewer Network Dynamics to Reduce Networks Pollutions"
  • TBC

10:00 – 10:30 am       Refreshments and Networking
​
10:30 – 11:15 am         Sewer Monitoring Optimisation: Global Perspectives
Moderator: Carmen Snowdon, Director of Commercial Services (WRc Group)
 Speakers: ​
  • Marco Westergren, Chief Analytics Officer (InfoTiles) “Locating and Quantifying Inflow & Infiltration in the Wastewater Network through Machine Learning”
  • Tom Woolley, VP Global Sales (Optimatics) “Optimisation of Wastewater Networks before Capital Investment”
  • Ramesh Mani, Director of Products (Jacobs) “Driving Prescriptive Asset Management for Buried Sewer Infrastructure with Artificial Intelligence”

​11:15 – 12:00 pm          Operationalising Smart Wastewater Technology
Moderator: Emma Harris, Head of Smart Hub (Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, UK)
Speakers: ​
  • Tom Davies, Deputy Executive Manager – PDCA (Trinity River Authority of Texas, US) & Sahil Chaini, Senior Manager, Customer Success (Transcend Software) “Trinity River Authority Incorporates Generative Design Software into its RFP”
  • Paolo Gelli, Responsible for Operations Idrico Area, Bologna (Hera Group, Italy) “Improving Soil Health through High Quality Repurposed Sludge by using Live Wastewater Data”​
  • Natalie Lamb, National Water Industry Account Manager (QuadraChem Laboratories) "SENTRY: Using Real Time Microbial Performance Monitoring for Energy Optimisation in Wastewater Treatment”
12:00 – 1:00 pm        Networking Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 pm          SWAN Masterclasses

Masterclass #1: "Cities Adapting to New Realities: From Risk to Water Security"
Lead facilitators: Cody Pope, Chief Innovation Officer (Vector Center) and Fredrick Royan, VP Sustainability and Circular Economy, (Frost & Sullivan)

Masterclass #2: TBD

2:05 – 2:50 pm          Adapting to New Climate Realities
Moderator: Johanna Money, Researcher (Scottish Enterprise)
Speakers:
  • Yahya Ugrader, Net Zero Carbon Project Manager (Environment Agency, UK) & Paul Kirkup, Associate Director (Jacobs) “Implementing Condition Based Maintenance at Pumping Stations that Manage Flood Risk”
  • Joukje Keuning, Program Manager Infra 2025 (Vitens, Netherlands) & Rogier de Groot, Business Development Manager (Samotics) “Energy Optimisation of a Pumping Station via Smart Algorithms at Drinking Water Utility Vitens”
  • Raisa Kyrönseppä, Development Engineer, Water Distribution (Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority, Finland) “Forecasting as a Main Tool to Control Water Distribution”

2:50 – 3:10 pm           Refreshments and Networking​

3:10 – 3:30 pm           Keynote (TBC)

3:30 – 4:15  pm          Closing the Divide in Emerging Markets
Moderator: TBC
Speakers:
  • Ir. Abas Abdullah, Acting CEO (Air Selangor, Malaysia) “Air Selangor's Digitalisation Journey”
  • Kwanele G Sibanda, Local Project Coordinator (City of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) “Smart Pressure Management”
  • TBC

4:15 – 4:30 pm          Closing Remarks
Friday, May 12th
Scottish Water Study Tour
SWAN is partnering with Scottish Water to host two simultaneous study tours, one to their Intelligent Control Centre and the second to ​Laighpark Waste Water Treatment Works sponsored by Metasphere.
​*Now at full capacity
Tour 1: Intelligent Control Centre
​
9:00 am                 Bus leaves from Crowne Plaza Lobby

9:30 – 9:45 am      Arrival at Scottish Water Head Office and Welcome Coffee

9:45 – 10:45 am    Site Tour       
  • Transformation Overview / How Intelligent Control Centre is Critical to its Success​
  • ICC Today / Future Aspirations
  • Tour of the Intelligent Control Centre    

10:45 – 11:15 am      Comfort Break    

11:15 – 11:45 am       Travel back to Crowne Plaza Hotel  
​Tour 2: Laighpark Waste Water Treatment Works

​9:00 am                  Bus leaves from Crowne Plaza Lobby

9:30 – 9:45 am       Arrival at Laighpark Waste Water Treatment Works

9:45 – 11:15 am        Site Tour
  • How the new exemplar WWTW application is utilised, which makes visible end to end performance of the WWTW. 
  • Understand how condition monitoring is being used on the equipment, driving better insights operationally and for investment needs.
  • Look at the final effluent monitoring equipment and how this gives 24/7 visibility of what the WWTW is doing, making visible opportunity and risk.
  • Discussion on the Real-Time control which optimises aeration and reduces energy consumption.
  • Top to bottom tour of the treatment works and general discussion on how wastewater is leading on a range of Transformation projects.     

11:15 – 11:45 am         Travel back to Crowne Plaza Hotel        
Lead Conference Sponsor

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