WWEMA Window: Do You Have A Seat At The Table?
What do a national expert in water reuse, a motivational speaker, a Chinese technology accelerator program operator, and an entertaining economist have in common? They were among the many speakers at the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA) 106th Annual Meeting, November 6 to 8 in Tucson, AZ. To quote an advertising slogan for The Washington Post newspaper, “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.” For WWEMA, our quote would be, “If you aren’t a member, you missed out on an incredible educational, market-expanding, business-building opportunity.”
This informative program was a direct result of listening and responding to our members’ requests for leading-edge speakers to discuss not only the water and wastewater municipal markets, but to look more broadly at new markets such as water reuse, and opportunities to connect more intentionally with states, engineering consulting firms, and technology accelerator programs.
WWEMA’s 2015-2017 Strategic Plan, approved during the Annual Meeting, is an important foundational document to guide WWEMA’s efforts and activities. Its three major themes are “Advocate, Inform, and Connect,” and while each of these will serve as our guiding principles, our implementation efforts going forward will be significantly strengthened in the areas of “Inform and Connect.”
For example, our Membership and Marketing Services Committee unveiled a long anticipated leading-edge Market Index Report at the meeting to help WWEMA members understand market trends in the municipal sector and ultimately project future economic conditions. We also will be creating a webinar series addressing internal business best practices; holding joint events with states, engineering firms, and national water associations on topics of mutual interest; and sharing information on topics that impact business performance and growth — all driven by member input and outside stakeholder involvement.
While WWEMA will continue its long history of advocacy on the Hill, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and with stakeholder partners, the reality is that the “rubber hits the road” at the state and local levels. In recognizing this, we plan to design programs to help connect state drinking water and wastewater engineers and programmatic staff with our member technology manufacturers to provide opportunity for education and reduce barriers to technology acceptance.
WWEMA sits on the American Water Works Innovation Initiative steering committee and is actively involved with the Water Environment Federation on its LIFT program. At the Annual Meeting, WWEMA members engaged with the director of one of EPA’s two new centers on technology solutions for small systems. A short group exercise identified a plethora of barriers and challenges that environmental equipment manufacturers face every day in trying to get their products approved and installed at the state and local levels. Through the “magic” of technology, this list was immediately posted as a survey using Survey Monkey, and attendees received the web link to complete the survey to rank the most important barriers.
Additional critical players in technology acceptance are the national, regional, and local consulting engineers who interface directly with municipalities and state programs. WWEMA envisions developing partnerships with many of these engineering firms for the direct exchange of technology and product information to help facilitate acceptance and use in the bidding and proposal process for new projects.
So the question of the day is, “Do You Have a Seat at the Table?” If not, check us out at http://www.wwema.org. Join WWEMA today and add your voice to those of your colleagues and peers. Together we can make a difference!