WEX Global Water & Energy Exchange has taken place on 2-4 March 2020 in Valencia, Spain. Idrica, the leading company in digital transformation for the water industry, has hosted this edition featuring 80+ speakers from 40+ countries. International experts have discussed about “Smart Circular Solutions for a Sustainable World” and have generated synergies in the 1-to-1 private meetings, which are one of the distinctive features of the event.
Delegates were welcomed to Valencia by Jim Southworth Chairman at Box Energi, Enrique Cabrera Vice President of IWA and Carolina Pascual Villalobos Councelor in Valencia of Innovation, Universities, Science & Digital Society, along with Jaime Barba Sevillano CEO Idrica.
Conference Sessions
The first Conference Session was led by Mr Barba under the title “How Deep Tech is transforming water, energy and smart cities”. During the panel, different experts discussed about the importance of digital transformation in companies and reached to the conclusion that digital is about technology, but transformation is about people.
Pilar Conejos, Head of Network Control and Regulation at Global Omnium, joined the Digital Twin panel moderated by Gigi Karmous-Edwards and explained how GoAigua technology is helping the water utility in daily operations. On the other hand, Miguel Ángel Ayllón COO Idrica shared different ideas regarding energy efficiency in the conference session on the topic.
“Digital is about technology, but transformation is about people” – Jaime Barba CEO Idrica
Other key panelists were Dionisio García CEO Global Omnium, who joined the Leaders Forum and presented the digital transformation and innovation processes at the Valencian water utility, or Patricia Pastor Managing Director GoHub, who took part in the analysis and debate around short presentations of innovative technologies from invited companies in the Innovations Forum. In addition, Pablo Alcoriza Vento CTO Nexus Integra and Oliver Grievson joined the Technical Leaders Forum on Smart Instrumentation and Control, where the former argued that smart sensors are here to stay. Elisa Valia-Cotanda, Councilor for the Water Cycle in Valencia, participated in the conference session on water reuse along other experts and highlighted that digital transformation is a reality in the water network in Valencia.
WEX Global 2020 Awards
The WEX Global Awards 2020 were presented during the gala dinner at the Valencian Oceanographic. Their aim is to protect the planet by broadcasting the best examples of circular economy strategies and innovative projects in the water sector. After Jon Z Bentley’s speech (Water Sector Leader at IBM) on how to build a smarter planet and the challenges we are facing, the winners were announced in the different categories: i) Desolenator – Process technology & Innovation, ii) APG-Neuros – Water & Energy, iii) Cambi Group – Water & Wastewater, iv) SCUBIC – Smart Software Solutions – Operations, v) Miya – Infrastructure, vi) DuPont Water Solutions – Technology, vii) Saudi Water Partnership – Finance & Partnerships and viii) ACCIONA – Desalination. The National Water and Sewage corporation from Uganda won the Idrica’s Circular Economy Water Project of the Year 2020. Miguel Ángel Ayllón COO Idrica joined the jury of experts for these awards.
GoAigua Digital Twin
Other key moments of the event were the golf tournament during the social day and the visit to GoAigua’s Digital Twin at the control room of the water utility Global Omnium. Delegates had the opportunity to discover how this technology provides the operational teams with incredibly valuable use cases on a daily basis and is helping to make short term decisions and plan for longer term actions in the city. A group of leaders from key water utilities in the United States also joined the visit and showed a high level of interest in GoAigua’s technology.
It is no coincidence that WEX Global occupies a unique place in the water conference calendar. This edition has included top-notch discussions on smart water management, IoT technologies and the digital transformation of the industry. Thank you for joining us in Valencia.
