Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and former NASA astronaut, will be the keynote speaker at AMWA’s 2016 Executive Management Conference on Monday, October 17. Dr. Sullivan calls NOAA “America’s environmental intelligence agency,” and she will spotlight the agency’s work to better enable decision making on water information-driven problems by improving its ability to provide timely, reliable and actionable information.
This year, Dr. Sullivan launched the National Water Center and a new Office of Water Prediction to address water decision-making needs by providing better forecasts and hydrologic analyses. The first major product developed by the office is the National Water Model, a new forecasting tool to simulate how water moves throughout the nation’s rivers and streams, paving the way for the biggest improvement in flood forecasting the country has ever seen. She also convened a National Conversation on Integrated Water Information for the 21st Century with federal and sector leaders to better coordinate information gathering and improve the quality of NOAA forecasts and predictions.
Also on the agenda, members of the Water and Wastewater CIO Forum from Denver, New York City and Southern California will address fundamentals of cloud computing and big data and analytics, discussing how these evolving capabilities are driving business value in the water industry. Water leaders from Detroit and New Orleans will discuss efforts to attract and train the next generation of workers, particularly under-represented and disadvantaged workers. And, utility executives from Tucson and Cincinnati will present initiatives to restore and retain customers’ confidence in drinking water.
The Executive Management Conference agenda is packed with practical, insightful presentations featuring many of the industry’s top water utility leaders. The program also features AMWA’s annual awards ceremonies to honor water utility excellence; receptions and other informal opportunities to network with water sector colleagues; an entertaining presentation on local legend and lore by Arizona Historian Marshall Trimble; and a special tour of the Central Arizona Project’s headquarters and Lake Pleasant storage reservoir.
There’s no better place to update your water management knowledge base, fine-tune your utility leadership skills and expand your water sector network.
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Find the full conference agenda and register online.