World Water Congress & Exhibition

Justify your attendance

We’ve developed a how-to guide to help you convey the direct benefits to your employer.

This guide has downloadable templates that you can adapt to suit your needs.

SUMMARY:

• Highlight what you can bring back from your experience that will benefit your organization. For instance: business opportunities, network, knowledge, information, technologies and learning.

• Familiarise yourself with the program and identify any speakers you’d like to network with. Learn about them and have some questions ready for when the time comes.

• Push the fact the World Water Congress is THE water industry event to attend internationally, that applies to a range of disciplines and topical issues.

• Offer to deliver a presentation on your learnings from the congress and how your organisation can build up opportunities in the aftermath.

• Have a plan in place that shows who will help cover your workload when you’re out of the office. Who will make decisions on your behalf? Who will complete any unfinished activities?

• Look for synergies that can help you justify the trip. Are there partners, clients and/or colleagues at the Congress or in Brisbane that you can contact during your stay?

Note: IWA members and students get reduced registration fees – and other benefits including access to IWA’s online network IWA-CONNECT.ORG.

To become a member click here.

World Water Congress & Exhibition

Benefits to you and your organisation

General benefits and statistics

A detailed overview of reasons to attend the Congress can be found in the document Why to Attend the Congress. A quick summary:

The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition is the perfect forum for connecting and networking with over 5000 of the world’s leading water professionals.

The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition will gather the foremost professionals, top specialists and thought leaders from industry, government, utilities, regulators and research organisations leading the debate and finding the solutions to the critical challenges facing the water sector.

The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition will be an agenda setting meeting tackling the water sector’s key issues, bringing together current trends, latest research, guiding strategies, and leading practice.

Some statistics:

200+ exhibition companies and institutes from around the world 5000+ water sector leaders representing over 90 countries 9 world-renowned thought leaders as Keynote Speakers 5 exclusive leadership forums; 1 inclusive Emerging Water Leaders forum 86 technical sessions 38 workshops 5 pre-congress Technical trainings 1 pre-congress Learning and Networking session 7+ Soft Skill Learning session

Benefits specific to your organisation

Whilst you might understand the benefits of attending IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, your manager may not. This means you need to clearly investigate and then articulate the benefits to your organisation and perhaps substantiate this by connecting the knowledge requirements in your organisation to the conference programme and exhibition offering.

To prepare follow the following steps to investigate the Congress for relevance, and download the benefits table to articulate the benefits in detail

1. Content and Best Practices to fill the knowledge requirements of your organization:

a. Identify the Technical sessions and Workshops that are relevant to your organization;

b. Identify Leadership Forum (invite only) relevant to your organisation and contact the organizer to see if you can get an invitation.

2. New contacts for networking/ business opportunities:

a. Check out the key organisations attending:

i. Sponsors.

ii. Exhibitors – tools/ technologies they may exhibit.

iii. Workshop organisers.

iv. Platform and poster author’s affiliation.

b. Identify (Key Note) Speakers.

3. Learning and Training to develop your competencies:

a. Check out the pre-congress trainings (at extra cost);

b. Check out Master Lectures and learning sessions (skill development/ career development) designed to develop competencies applicable for your department/ organization.

4. Familiarise yourself with IWA Network; If you are not yet a member note that IWA membership offers benefits beyond the significant reduction in registration fees.

World Water Congress & Exhibition

Cost overview

A few additional expenses come along with attending a conference, especially if you’re arriving from overseas. Before you can justify these expenses, it’s time to work out what these expenses are. Fill in or edit the cost overview template:

Conference Registration Full-Conference

(Mind the early bird rate)

€

Pre-congress (Saturday and or Sunday) Training

€

Ticketed Events (xxxxx) €

Airfare €

Accommodation (x nights) €

Transportation (to and from airport at home and onsite)

€

Subsistence (check your organisation’s policies to see if you have a per diem/ estimate daily cost)

€

Total €

Employer LetterNow that you are well prepared it is time to put your proposal in writing to your manager/ supervisor.

Dear <insert Manager’s name>

I would like to attend the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition hosted by the International Water Association. I have reviewed the Registration Brochure, the Preliminary programme and their presentation Why to Attend the Event detailing the benefits of attending. Attending the conference would bring our department major benefit, as it aligns with the following organisation priorities:

<Insert priority> <Insert priority> <Insert priority>

The Congress will enable me to attend a number of professional sessions directly applicable to my work, and will allow me to network with a variety of water industry experts and colleagues from around the world.

Across these four days, I will be able to:

Hear from expert keynote speakers from across the world Update my knowledge through technical sessions Discuss and collaborate on <insert your field> relevant workshops Learn through attending pre-congress trainings, Master Lectures, & Learning

sessions (Soft skill development and career development) Benefit from networking opportunities with a diverse range of water

professionals Get up to date with industry trends and new technical developments in

Exhibition and through Business Forums. <insert specific business/networking opportunities for your organisation>

I would like to seek approval for attending the conference at the following complete breakdown of the event costs:

Registration Fee: € < check registration rates and insert the relevant registration fee for you)Airfare: € [xxx]Transportation: € [xxx]

Accommodation: € [xxx]Subsistence Meals: € [xxx]

TOTAL: € [xxx]

For more information on this Congress, visit www.worldwatercongress.org

Please accept this proposal and thank you for your consideration,

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