WEFTEC Heads Back to the Windy City
The 86th annual WEFTEC Show returns to Chicago Oct. 5-9 at the McCormick Place Convention Center, a five-day event that is expected to draw thousands of water quality professionals and exhibitors to the Windy City.
As the largest annual water quality conference and exhibition in the world, WEFTEC 2013 will use more than 300,000 sq ft of exhibition and meeting space at Chicago’s famed McCormick Place Convention Center. To date, the 2013 technical program includes nearly 1,000 expert speakers, 140 technical sessions, 27 workshops and 10 local facility tours. A wide range of topics and focus areas allow attendees to design their own, unique learning experience with the opportunity to earn continuing education credits.
The 2013 focus areas include: resource recovery including nutrients and energy; energy management; stormwater; collection systems; wastewater treatment design; facility operations and maintenance; utility management and leadership; residuals and biosolids management; water reclamation, reuse, and desalination; disinfection and public health; watershed management and sustainability; industrial issues including petrochemical, refinery, and food/beverage industries; and innovation across all topics.
Contained on one level of the convention center, WEFTEC’s unrivaled exhibition will complement the technical program by providing access to more than 900 exhibiting companies and their technical experts who will show the latest developments, research, solutions, and cutting-edge technologies in the field. Also featured on the exhibition floor will be mobile sessions and the popular Innovation Pavilion and Stormwater Pavilion.
Building on the success of its expanded stormwater focus, WEF will also launch its first-ever Stormwater Congress. Co-located with WEFTEC 2013, the event will be held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place from Oct. 7-9. It will feature focused programming on stormwater-related issues and provide access to all WEFTEC exhibitors, including those in the Stormwater Pavilion and other conference exhibitors that feature equipment and services on stormwater and wet weather-related issues.
Other conference highlights will include the Opening General Session and the Water Leaders Session on Mon., Oct. 7; the annual community outreach project, poster sessions, the design competition, the 26th annual Operations Challenge competition, and more.
Kevin Carroll, a best-selling author, speaker and agent for social change will deliver the keynote address during the Opening General Session. As the founder of Kevin Carroll Katalyst/LLC and the author of three highly successful books, including Rules of the Red Rubber Ball, What’s Your Red Rubber Ball?!, and The Red Rubber Ball at Work, Carroll works to inspire businesses, organizations and individuals — from CEOs and employees of Fortune 500 companies to schoolchildren — to embrace their spirit of play and creativity to maximize and sustain meaningful personal and professional growth.
For more information about WEFTEC, visit www.weftec.org.
Sharon M. Bueno is managing editor of Trenchless Technology.
