Jo Lim, VicWater CEO will provide a brief welcome and housekeeping before our official ‘Welcome to Country’ commences.

The Welcome to Country will be provided by Uncle Dave Wandin, Wurundjeri Elder

The VicWater Conference will be hosted on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples, as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land. We pay our deepest respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Therese Tierney, VicWater Chair will provide the Official Welcome and give context to the conference program’s theme – Future-Ready: Innovation, Optimism, and Opportunity.

Will Sarni is a globally recognised leader in water strategy, technology innovation and technology investing.

Hayley Monks, Managing Director, Echo Managed Services interviewed by Jo Lim, CEO, VIcWater

The Victorian water sector’s 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.

Facilitator Jo Lim

Victoria is at a monumental moment in its journey toward Treaty, built on a foundation of truth and justice.

The water sector, with its unique leadership and influence, has a critical role to play in shaping this future. This session will elevate Cultural priorities and showcase the powerful perspectives of First Peoples and sector leaders as we take our foundational steps on this journey.

Facilitator Tiffany White, General Manager Strategy and Community, Yarra Valley Water

Phin Zeibell, Head of Research, TCV

In September 2023 the Victorian Government announced a plan to build 800,000 homes over the next decade to improve the supply of affordable houses. As part of this, a commitment was made to speed up water connections in greenfield areas to get Victorians into their new homes faster, working in collaboration with local government and developers.

This panel will bring together representatives from state government, the civil construction sector and the water sector to discuss how we can be more innovative and collaborative in delivering the critical infrastructure needed to support population growth, as well as providing enhanced outcomes for customers, community and the environment.

Facilitator Margaret Riley, Senior Director Water Australia, KBR

Panellists

We’re taking ‘better together’ to the next level in this interactive session led by circular advocate Jodie Bricout. At its core, circular economy is about designing out waste from systems. Wastes materials yes – but also wasted carbon, wasted infrastructure, wasted potential.

Once we’ve taken stock on how far industry and government have shifted on the circular economy since we last tacked this topic three years ago, we will be working at our tables on where our industry should focus next.

Facilitator Jodie Bricout, Design Director Circular Economy, Aurecon

Presented by Howie Sim, Senior Partner, Global Growth Markets, Enterprise, nsc

This session will be hosted by Jason Cotton, Program Director, IWN

In-Stream is an exciting new initiative launched earlier this year under the Intelligent Water Networks (IWN) banner. It is a 12-month cycle of co-creation and collaboration between the public, private, research and tertiary sectors to actively generate real, fit-for-purpose solutions to the opportunities and challenges facing the Victorian water industry. In this session, our In-Stream ‘Pioneer Plus’ sponsors ncs/aws and Salesforce will provide an update on progress.

Speakers

Conference sessions conclude for Day 1