Reflections And Lessons From 2020: WWEMA Looks Back On How We Adapted
By Mike Dimitriou
As 2020 draws to a close, all of us at the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA) have been reflecting on the challenges of the year, how we responded, and the impacts it will have on the future. Like many businesses and organizations, COVID-19 presented unique challenges to our ability to achieve our goals and priorities. These challenges forced us to modify our traditional business practices and procedures in response to the pandemic and its affects.
These changes have been particularly acute for businesses and utilities in the water sector, as they have affected revenue, growth strategies, workplaces, workforce health and safety, travel, customer relations, and even contracting protocols. Every aspect of our work has been abruptly impacted and this disruption is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
The pandemic has affected all aspects of our business practices, and like other associations, WWEMA has had to transition to a virtual format for our meetings. This had a major impact on our ability to interact with our peers, regulators, and others in our industry. Our meetings are a critical component and one of the key elements in our ability to anticipate and plan for the future. Keeping up with the changing needs, regulations, and nuances of the water and wastewater markets is difficult under normal circumstances. And our needs haven’t changed. As an industry, we still have to deal with an aging population and population shifts, new regulations, the public’s water-quality concerns, funding infrastructure needs, and climate change, which offer challenges and opportunities to our industry.
Still, we persevered and adapted. We developed new approaches to getting the job done and were able to accomplish many of our goals and meet the new and rapidly changing needs of our members and industry. This includes:
- Working with EPA to name water and wastewater manufacturers essential providers
- Developing and updating a COVID-19 Business Impacts Fact Sheet that provided practical regulatory, legislative, and health and safety information for our members and a public COVID-19 Fact Sheet containing credible resources to help our industry
- Conducting and distributing the 2019 COVID-19 Business Impact and 2020 Market Indicators Surveys
- Working with our associate members to publish Frontline News
- Participating in the Department of Commerce ETTAC meetings
- Working with regulators and congressional staff on both infrastructure and PFAS issues
- Going virtual and holding two very successful online conferences
- Adding a number of new member companies, holding our board and committee meetings, and electing new board members and a new executive committee
- Developing a member testimonial video found HERE
In November, WWEMA held its virtual 112th Annual Meeting titled Navigating Unchartered Waters – Steering Your Business To Success. Going virtual with our conferences, while not ideal — particularly from a networking perspective — allowed us to open our meetings to a broader audience, within both our member companies as well as the wider water community. We were able to host a networking lunch and distinct networking sessions on the economy, technology, and impacts of COVID-19 on business practices. We extended an open invitation to everyone in the water sector to join us for our virtual 112th Annual Meeting, which resulted in over 250 registered attendees and the largest number of first-time attendees in WWEMA’s history. WWEMA staff adapted by researching and implementing a simple online platform to facilitate both the programming and the need to connect with others in the industry, a major experience missing from our current day-to-day activities.
Our speakers targeted the changes going on and their impact for the future. They shared their insights on technology trends affecting our work and how to take advantage of these rapid changes, the state economic and fiscal picture as well as the broader economic outlook, and legislative as well as regulatory actions that will impact the water sector into 2021 and beyond. The goal was to help prepare us for additional uncertainly as we move into 2021. The meeting is one of our key yearly events and serves as a major platform to help us fulfill our mission and advance the objectives of the overall water technology market. WWEMA’s goal for the Annual Meeting was to help us connect while providing insight and practical information to help our members, and the water community, function as effectively as possible in the new business climate.
Finally, we see that the impact of 2020 and COVID-19 on our business practices is going to leave a permanent mark. Here’s some things to think about.
- Having a connection and voice is even more crucial
WWEMA’s ability to quickly disseminate key federal and state program and policy information, and more importantly be the manufacturer’s voice in the development of such policy, is more critical now than ever.
- The importance of personal interaction with clients, peers, or vendors is now even greater
The most critical impact on us just reinforced what we already knew — building relationships in face-to-face meetings is a critical element of doing business in the water industry.
- We must be flexible and adapt
COVID-19 forced us to accept more change and be innovative; this will impact how we react to other major events in the future.
- New business methods we adapted to will stay with us
Virtual is here to stay. Expect to continue with online meetings, working from home, and less travel, even as we slowly begin to get back to large meetings and gatherings.
- Fewer or smaller on-site regional and national conferences
The trend was there. COVID-19 just accelerated it.
Even though the pandemic forced us to change many of our personal and business practices and to rethink how we safely live our lives, run our businesses, and do our jobs, it did not change what we had to do and who we are. It just changed how we do it. Hope is on the horizon, and we anticipate in 2021 that our industry will see continued modest growth — something that might not have seemed possible just a few short months ago!
Mike Dimitriou is President of WRT, LLC and the 2020 Chairman of the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA). Since 1908, WWEMA has served as the ‘Voice of Water and Wastewater Technology Providers’. A volunteer organization, our mission is to advocate for the advancement of technology solutions in the water community. With all the change in the industry, and all the challenges we deal with every day, WWEMA is there to support us by giving us resources that we could not access by ourselves and help us make sense of all the market and policy uncertainty. WWEMA gives us the support to help deal with those challenges that are difficult, if not impossible for an individual organization to address on its own. With WWEMA, we are One Voice. There is strength in all of us working together with One Voice — to benefit our clients, water quality, and our employees. For more information about WWEMA, go to www.wwema.org. Contact WWEMA’s Executive Director Vanessa Leiby at vanessa@wwema.org to discuss membership or Association benefits.