30 March 2007

For the past four years the Water Directorate and AWA have proudly sponsored the Conference Attendance Award for young water industry professionals. The aim of this award is to assist a water industry professional from a regional NSW water authority with up to 5 years experience to attend the AWA’s national water conference.

A strong field of five young water industry professionals nominated for the 2007 award. This year, Jon Francis, Environmental Scientist, Orange City Council was the recipient of the award.  Jon's report on OzWater 07 is reproduced in full below. 

Nominations for the Enviro 08 Conference Attendance Award will be called in December.

Feedback received from Jon Francis on OzWater 07

As a representative of Orange City Council, I would like to thank the Water Directorate and the Australian Water Association for providing me with the opportunity to attend the Ozwater 2007 Convention and Exhibition. I have now been at Council for four years, and the award enabled me to attend my first Ozwater Convention. This letter aims to provide feedback on the benefits received from my attendance at the event.

One of the first challenges I faced in attending Ozwater was trying to figure out which sessions I would attend. In general, I settled on streams that included the keynote speakers, recycled water, stormwater and general case studies. I also managed to catch the Young Water Professionals workshop on the Sunday. Following the Convention, I joined a tour of the Illawarra Wastewater Strategy.

I will begin with what I think was one of the highlights of the event, that being the Young Water Professionals Workshop titled “The Next Wave in Water”. Whilst there is value in hearing about experiences of young professionals, the highlight for me was the introduction to the World Café method of facilitating meetings. The main benefit was from being included in the demonstration of a tool that I will now be confident to use in a stakeholder engagement process.

A secondary benefit was the early introduction to many other professionals, made in such a short timeframe. This was no doubt an aim of the organisers, and managed to smoothly blend a learning process with a professional networking version of speed dating.

One of the main themes that carried from the Sunday workshop into the presentations was that of the importance of trust as a factor for community acceptance of any changes made by a water authority. This was succinctly discussed in reference to potable re-use by Louisa Kinnear, a social scientist with Water Corporation. I believe the general theme is particularly pertinent to NSW local government, given the significant level of engagement with the community concerning a vast range of topics, and therefore, the potential to lose trust over issues not associated with water management. I thought that Louisa’s presentation was one of the best at Ozwater.

In regards to the quality of presentations, I agree with the critique that Ian Law gave at the Closing Plenary, whereby he felt that there was room for improvement with the presentations overall. In saying this, I feel that I was better off for each of the sessions I attended and came away with a broader understanding of management in the water industry.

The timetable for the event proved to be fairly well balanced with generous breaks during the day’s proceedings. After spending the first day or so catching up with people during the breaks, I made a conscious effort to spend some time at the trade displays. Whilst I attacked this with a couple of specific issues in mind, I managed to get well distracted along the way, given the quality of displays. I came away with some good information that we are already starting to follow-up on. I was also impressed by the quality and variety of issues covered in the poster display.

One of the services that I was really impressed with was the demonstration sessions of “Ollie’s Island ” at the Australian Water Associations stand. This is a “Sustainability Edu-tainment Program” in a CD ROM format that is aimed at school aged children. The CD is loaded with information and will be a useful educational tool for Council as we work closely with schools in the region. These sessions were complemented with a display of other quality resources.

I found that the technical tour of the Illawarra Wastewater Strategy was worthwhile, despite being at the end of a busy few days. I was particularly interested in drawing comparisons with the re-use scheme that Orange City Council operates. Whilst it was good to see and hear about the layout of the scheme, much benefit was gained from the small group discussions that opened up.

The Illawarra technical tour emphasised the importance of having effective liquid trade waste management in ensuring a consistent supply of treated effluent. Lack of reference to this important issue in the presentations at Ozwater was one of the “missing” aspects of Ozwater as raised in the Closing Plenary. I appreciated the openness that Sydney Water displayed on the tour and see this as a good example in maintaining relationships and trust between local water utilities. I see the sharing of information between water utilities as an important first step in allowing for the building of trust in the broader community.

As a result of my attendance at Ozwater, I believe that the greatest short term benefit for Council will be associated with my involvement in the development of our Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy. I will not only be able to reference lessons learnt from case studies, but also convey the importance in the method chosen in engaging the community.

I found that by attending Ozwater I was able to increase my industry knowledge via

methods other than routine review of emails, magazines and media articles. The conference proved that a lot can be learnt from personal interaction and opportunity to question others about their challenges and successes. Ozwater was organised to foster and enhance these opportunities, and did so in an effective, relaxed manner. The social activities, such as the end-of-day drinks and Gala Dinner, cemented Ozwater as a motivational and fun experience.

One suggestion that I have for the Water Directorate is to examine the possibility of providing the award to two candidates each year, and to pass on contacts prior to the event. This would allow the recipients to learn about at least one other colleague’s role and their work issues in some detail. It could also further strengthen relationships between local water utilities in NSW regional areas.

Another suggestion is to consider the value of sending recipients to an IWES

course. Whilst this training does not have the profile of an event such as Ozwater, I have found it to be very worthwhile, both from a professional learning and networking perspective.

Thanks again to the Water Directorate and Australian Water Association for this worthwhile experience. I would be happy to discuss any of the points raised in this letter. If you require further information please contact me on 6393 8043 or jfrancis@orange.nsw.gov.au

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