Actions from qldwater Innovation Forum
Date: 29-Jun-2017
A number of ideas were captured during our Innovation Forum on 14-15 November, and our Technical Reference Group has now had the opportunity to consider potential actions. Below is a brief summary of those priorities.
- Improved event administration
We have thrived for many years on being able to run casual and informal events with great information exchange, and for our regional conferences in 2017, this won’t change. The Innovation Forum has however grown in scope and delegates, to a point where we believe it requires a higher degree of professionalism. We have developed an events plan for the year with some changes to incorporate feedback from delegates. This includes the use of the EventsAir management system to streamline registrations and conference communications.
- Projects/ issues
There are a number of topics where feedback from attendees has been noted and we will work to incorporate ways of addressing identified needs into existing programs, including:
- Varying levels of service for small communities
- Operator capacity issues including pursuing mandatory drinking water operator certification
- Extended regional collaboration opportunities, including capital planning
There are others for which we plan to develop small projects and materials and we are seeking further input from interested members of the industry:
- Partnerships between industry and regulators – a variety of suggestions including secondments, training, MOUs etc. TRG has agreed that we will work up some case studies on successful examples, in particular the DBYD Water Connections Tour Week held each year. Several of the members visited have indicated that the opportunity to show DEHP and other Queensland Government representatives around sites, engage with councillors etc. ultimately led to positive change and resolution of long-standing issues.
- Re-establishment of the ERA Expert group with a chair and defined program of issues to address. There are a number of other suggestions which will be passed onto this group for consideration including ways of improving the uptake of government initiatives including the “voluntary market-based mechanism for nutrient management.”
- Better linkages with financial agencies, including QTC, QAO, economic regulator with associated communications materials. Ways of simplifying the benefits of sound infrastructure planning and contributions of industry innovation.
- Revisit a customer’s session at a future innovation forum, given the importance of this area and the focus it has received nationally.
- Set up a series of guests to attend TRG from other industries, to explore areas of common interest and potential learnings.
- Investigate further some of the options explored during the remote sensing keynote, at least around low cost solutions with staff in-house using publicly available data/ imagery.
We are seeking feedback from our members on these issues either formally or informally – if you have suggestions please contact us.