WEFTEC Now the Largest Annual Water Quality Exhibition In The World
Alexandria, VA — WEFTEC®.06, the Water Environment Federation's 79th annual technical exhibition and conference, hosted 17,632 attendees and a record 965 companies using 245,155 net square feet of floor space last week in Dallas, Texas, officially designating WEFTEC as the largest annual water quality exhibition in the world.
"The core of WEF's mission and the reason it was created over seventy-five years ago, was to educate professionals within the water quality community," said newly-appointed WEF President Mohamed Dahab. "I'm pleased that WEFTEC continues to build upon past successes to offer the best educational opportunities available today and grows each year, not only in size, but in scope to meet the evolving challenges of water quality professionals."
In addition to the expansive show floor, attendees selected from a high-quality technical program of 95 technical sessions, 25 workshops, 8 facility tours and several special events. Of particular interest to attendees was a standing-room only session on compounds of emerging concern (CECs) and a well-attended session on a 2006 Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) biosolids report. The CEC session focused on endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and will be followed by a 2-day symposium in July 2007 with tentative plans for a 3-day specialty conference in 2008. The WERF report - released this past June - investigated the hypothesis of fecal coliforms entering a viable but non-culturable state during digestion and the potential for reactivation and re-growth after centrifuge dewatering. Phase 2 of this work - currently in progress - will verify and better understand the reactivation and re-growth phenomena and develop mitigation strategies.
In addition, the Federation also announced the adoption of a new climate change resolution during the Opening General Session on Monday, October 23. Officially adopted by WEF's Board of Trustees on October 20, the resolution recognizes climate change and its impacts on the planet's natural hydrologic cycle. Then-president Michael Read made the announcement following the keynote address by Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and top climate change scientist. Recognized as the leading U.S. expert on climate change and global warming, Dr. Hansen provided an in-depth overview of the issue, discussed future scenarios, and outlined practical implications to hydrology and water management to an audience of nearly 2,000 water quality professionals.
The following day, as part of the "WEF Celebration of Excellence", Read ceremoniously "passed the gavel" of Federation leadership to Dahab. Also inducted were the 2006-2007 WEF Officers: President-Elect Adam Zabinski, Vice President Rebecca West and Treasurer Charles Weir. The ceremony culminated with awards presentations in recognition of the outstanding achievements of the most talented and dedicated professionals in the water quality community. In all, over 25 awards were presented at various events during the four-day conference.
On the international front, 1,970 international attendees - including 206 trade delegations from 13 countries - visited the Global Center where conference exhibitors had the opportunity to meet with buyers and market experts. The Federation also worked in cooperation with the United States Trade Development Agency to organize a networking session with WEFTEC exhibitors and delegates from six sub-Saharan African regions including Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. The session provided exhibitors with the opportunity to learn more about new developments in the region's water and wastewater sectors.
Other conference highlights included a Water is Life, and Infrastructure Makes It Happen™ program update, WEFTeach , poster presentations, student activities, and Operations Challenge 2006 where the Water Environment Association of Texas Trinity River Authority (TRA) CReWSers successfully defended their title against a record 43 teams from the United States, Canada and Argentina .
Already recognized as the largest water quality event in North America, WEFTEC continues to grow as plans for WEFTEC®.07 get underway. To date, nearly 800 companies have already reserved over 236,000 of net square footage space at the San Diego Convention Center for WEFTEC.07 which is scheduled to take place October 13-17, 2007 in San Diego, California.
SOURCE: Water Environment Federation (WEF) - WEFTEC