Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Karyn Polito, Speaking at NEWEA’s 2017 Annual Conference Opening Session.
The 2017 NEWEA Annual Conference, held January 22nd – 25th, was a great success! NEWEA would like to thank all of our attendees and contributors for making this, once again, a world-class water quality event.
This year saw the highest attendance ever, with a total of nearly 2,100 registrants, including technical session attendees, exhibitors, and guests. We even had some public attendees from outside of our industry take advantage of the free exhibit hall passes as a result of our successful marketing campaign in the Boston area. We hope everyone got to see our advertisements on MBTA buses and in T stations!
This year’s conference also included a new regulator rate, to encourage more participation from our regulatory partners. Nearly 50 attendees came to the conference using this new, affordable rate. The inclusion of the regulatory community in our technical sessions and networking conversations is key to ensuring our members and other conference attendees can form the required partnerships to achieve our common goals.
The AC17 also saw the beginning of what promises to be a new tradition: the Young Professionals Summit held on Sunday afternoon as the conference was gearing up. The selected day and time allowed for increased participation from YPs throughout the industry. We were excited to have 68 young professionals at this event, where they had the opportunity to learn more about ways to achieve success in our industry, and hopefully made some new connections along the way.
We were also pleased to once again welcome Mr. and Mrs. Fish to the stage in the atrium. Hundreds of children came to the event from various schools in Boston and nearby towns to enjoy this educational and humorous performance, sponsored by NEWEA and offered to the schools at no cost.
The overwhelming success of this annual conference would not be possible without our exhibitors. This year, we had 205 booths, as well as a new Innovation Pavilion that was spearheaded by the New England Water Innovation Network (NEWIN). We hope to continue to grow this new partnership in future years, in order to bring promising innovative technologies to the forefront of our industry.
Our success was also helped, for a change, by some cooperation from our unpredictable New England weather! Thank you to everyone who attended, and for those who did not, we hope you will join us at AC18 next January.
– Elena Proakis Ellis, Meeting Management Council Director
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