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Program
8:30 am - 9:00 am - 13 September 2023
Delegate Check-In
9:00 am - 9:40 am - 13 September 2023
Conference Open
- Annual Conference, In Person & Virtual - Plenary
Join VicWater CEO Jo Lim for the commencement of the 2023 Annual Conference.
9:05 am
Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation
Join VicWater Chair David Middleton for the official opening of the 2023 Annual Conference.
Join the Honourable Harriet Shing MP, Minister for Water to provide the Opening Address of the 2023 Annual Conference.
9:40 am - 10:40 am - 13 September 2023
Keynote Presentation
- Annual Conference, In Person & Virtual - Plenary
Nicki Hutley is a highly experienced economist, with broad-based expertise in both macroeconomics and microeconomic policy, gained over more than three decades in financial and investment markets and in economic consulting.
10:40 am - 11:00 am - 13 September 2023
Morning Tea Break
11:00 am - 12:45 pm - 13 September 2023
Session 1
- Annual Conference, In Person & Virtual - Plenary
11:00 am
Maintaining good regulatory outcomes in an increasingly challenging economy. How do we balance health, environment and customer?
The Victorian water sectors key regulators: the Essential Services Commission and the Environment Protection Authority join to discuss their respective regulatory postures and visions for delivering a comprehensive regulatory framework for Victoria's water sector.
Moderator:
- Freya Marsden, Chair at Victorian Government Sustainability Fund
Speakers:
- Kate Symons, Commissioner and Chairperson, ESC
- Lee Miezis, Chief Executive Officer, EPA
Presented by TCV Managing Director Michael Larkin.
Presentation by, Vision Super
12:45 pm - 1:30 pm - 13 September 2023
Lunch Break
1:30 pm - 3:40 pm - 13 September 2023
Session 2
- Annual Conference, In Person & Virtual - Plenary
Cost of living pressures are impacting a greater proportion of our community with people having to make hard decisions regarding which bills to pay.
What trends are panellists seeing in this space, what support is offered to customers and how is its effectiveness being measured?
Facilitator:
- James Garriock, Insync
Speakers:
- Ciara Sterling, CEO, Thriving Communities Partnership
- Dona Tantirimudalige, Managing Director, Westernport Water
- Mokica Mackintosh, Managing Director, Echo MS
- Emma Youill, General Manager Customer and Growth, Goulburn Valley Water
2:30 pm
Panel - Current challenges with construction/capital projects
Cameron FitzGerald - Managing Director - Southern Rural Water, Mr Tim White - Executive Director - Utilities Regulation Advisory, Andrew Pitney - Sector Lead Partner - Maddocks, Mr Craig Dixon - Executive General Manager, Service & Asset Lifecycle - Melbourne Water, Jyoti Wardhen - Managing Director - Morphosis Advisory
New capital projects are facing a number of challenges including competition from Victoria’s Big Build program, global supply chain constraints reducing the availability and driving up the price of materials, increasing govt regulation/requirements and a constrained labour market.
How are project proponents dealing with these challenges and what learnings are there for future projects?
Facilitator:
- Tim White, Founder & Executive Director at Utilities Regulation Advisory
Speakers:
- Cameron Fitzgerald, Managing Director, Southern Rural Water
- Andrew Pitney, Partner, Construction & Projects, Maddocks
- Jyoti Wardhen, Managing Director, Infrastructure & Property Advisory
- Craig Dixon, Executive General Manager - Service and Asset Lifecycle, Melbourne Water
Hosted by Echo MS's Tony Kelly
3:40 pm - 4:00 pm - 13 September 2023
Afternoon Tea Break
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm - 13 September 2023
Session 3
- Annual Conference, In Person & Virtual - Plenary
Steve Avery, Head of Smart Cities and Digital Twin Program at NCS will provide the sponsor's address.
4:05 pm
Water Digitisation - hosted by IWN
Jason Cotton - Program Director - Intelligent Water Networks (IWN), Mr Paul Sewell - Managing Director - International Unmanned Asset Inspections Pty Ltd, Mr Brett Chilton - Chief Commercialisation Officer - Skand.io, Mr Kale Needham - CEO & Founder - Spiral Data, Mark Lee - VAPAR, David Mason - IOTA
This session is about removing some of this complexity and mystique around the application of digital technologies in the water sector. IWN and it’s collaboration partners will be sharing 4 use cases resulting from trials of the application of AI and machine learning in the water Industry that are solving real problems and delivering real customer and business value.
Hosted by Jason Cotton, Program Director - Intelligent Water Networks and featuring the following speakers:
- Paul Sewell - IUAI and Brett Chilton - Skand
- Mark Lee – VAPAR
- Kale Needham – Spiral Data
- David Mason – IOTA
6:30 pm - 10:00 pm - 13 September 2023
Annual Conference Dinner
(Inc. pre dinner drinks)
Dinner Speaker - Steph Roman, Salesforce
Dinner Speaker - Steph Roman, Salesforce