Positive change, infectious optimism, and an exciting announcement from Victoria’s Minister for Water – there was a lot to love about Intelligent Water Networks’ Annual Members Conference last month.
The Intelligent Water Networks (IWN) conference was held at Deakin Downtown in Melbourne on 22 May.
More than 145 people from across the Victorian and Tasmanian water industries joined in person and more than 50 online. They all came together for a day focused on the power of positive disruption. It featured an exciting lineup of speakers as well as panel discussions, interactive sessions, and technology stalls from sponsors, including Detection Services, ARQ Group / NCS, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Deakin University, and Iota.
A power-packed agenda
Victoria’s Minister for Water, the Hon. Harriet Shing, MLC, opened the IWN annual conference. She provided an insightful opening address and some exciting news. The Minister announced the “Water Minister’s Climate Innovation Challenge.” It will be governed and funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and IWN. The Challenge will be set up and facilitated by IWN’s Champions Group as part of their Leadership Program. Details of the Challenge are scheduled for release early in the new financial year. So, watch this space.
Deakin University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Partnerships David Halliwell, discussed how we can continue to work collaboratively on innovation, leveraging our strong industry and university partnerships. Deakin Professor of Computer Science, Svetha Venkatesh, presented the positive disruption power of artificial intelligence (AI). Venkatesh focused on the importance of small data and how we can use experimentation to drive improvement.
After lunch, Centre for Optimism Founder Victor Perton quashed any post-meal fatigue. He gave a presentation on the power of optimism, creating an infectious buzz around the room with a session of laughter yoga. Perton then handed over to Tane Hunter from Future Crunch. Tane delivered an enlightening keynote presentation on the power of positive disruption. With a background in medical genomics, big data and evolutionary biology, Tane lives for positive change. His presentation focussed on “encouraging intelligent optimism to overcome our biggest challenges whilst helping individuals and organisations understand what’s coming next as we all move into a new era.”
Future-forward discussions
The IWN annual conference also involved panel discussions and an interactive session. These were led by a diverse mix of IWN’s team from across the Victorian and Tasmanian water industries, including leaders, program managers, data analysts, engineers, people managers and more.
Topics aligned with the conference theme and included:
- Data and insights by digitising water. This panel brought together IWN’s Digital Metering Program, Data and Analytics Program and Pipeline Intelligence Program.
- Growing in a digital world was a mentoring focussed session run by the IWN Alumni and Champions Programs
- Disruptive technologies for emerging challenges. This panel discussed the connection between the IWN Asset Management and Optimisation, Biosolids and Resource Recovery and the Energy & Carbon Programs
- The link between edge technologies and inclusion discussed the association between the IWN Edge Technologies, Diversity and Inclusion Technology and Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration
The day came to a close after an insightful panel on leading positive disruption in the water industry. This involved IWN Chair Andrew Jeffers, VicWater CEO Jo Lim, North East Water Managing Director Jo Murdoch, Greater Western Water Chief Transformation Officer Jennifer Rebeiro and Yarra Valley Water Managing Director Pat McCafferty.
More information
IWN will be publishing the videos on the IWN Knowledge Hub (available to all IWN members).
For any other questions, feedback, or ideas for next year’s IWN Members Conference, please get in touch with the team on enquiries@iwn.org.au