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The PNCWA2024 Annual Conference Committee is proudly led by:
A Message from the Conference Chair:To My Fellow Water Professionals: Our PNCWA2024 Conference Committee is happy to bring you a new experience with you all as the annual conference returns to the heart of Boise! The theme and focus of this year’s conference is “Forging a Resilient Tomorrow.” We strive to provide our region’s professionals with an opportunity to grow their professional connections and knowledge of our industry through exposure to unique challenges facing our communities and advancement in approaches to solve them to inspire further innovation to solve future problems. The schedule for PNCWA2024 is full of learning and networking opportunities!
Throughout the event, be on the lookout for the emerging water industry leaders participating in the PNCWA WAVE program! Participants are regularly highlighted in the PNCWA Digest and on LinkedIn. We are excited to continue sharing our plans for PNCWA2024 over the coming months and look forward to seeing you in Boise this September!
A Message from the Technical Chair:
Hello folks! Are you counting down to the Basque Block Party this year at PNCWA 2024?! We are too! But we are also nerding out on the impressive selection of abstracts we received this year. It goes without saying that there would not be a Technical Program without you, but still: a heartfelt thank you to all of the speakers who submitted such quality abstracts. It was difficult to select the final ~150 from the 253 submitted, and a lot of credit goes to the support and effort from the team of reviewers. Thank you to those of you who spent extracurricular time reading through your abstract allotment and providing thoughtful and insightful comments (and we have NOT forgotten the prizes for the first nine to complete your review, it was not just a ruse to get you to hurry up!). We are also grateful for our continued collaboration with the WateReuse Association who helped review reuse-themed abstracts to put together a full reuse track for Tuesday’s program! As with last year, the review process was double-blinded, and other innovations were carried forward to this conference. The inaugural Exhibit Hall Technology Showcase was a hit in 2023, and so we are hosting that again this year with a separate exhibitor presentation area adjacent to the Exhibit Hall. This will allow for a quieter and more focused space for the presentations, facilitating any Q&A and resulting conversations. The conference schedule also contains a mix of 30-minute presentations and 60-minute blocks for panel discussions or chunkier topics that we really need to sink our teeth into. For the first time this year, we implemented a feature to categorize presentations into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, which we hope will point attendees to presentations they can get the most benefit from. Don’t know much about biosolids? We have a Beginner presentation for that. Pretty good with the microbiology on anammox treatment? Come hear an Advanced talk on PdNA! It is also exciting to see that a quarter of our technical sessions will be led by first time presenters or students working on innovative research from our powerhouse Pacific Northwest universities. There are also presentations and panels that look beyond the PNW to capitalize on what other folks are doing and how we might learn from them to benefit our communities here. We already know that you water professionals are a hardy group that confronts and overcomes obstacles as part of the daily routine. We hope that this technical program informs, inspires, and connects us to advance solutions that Forge a Resilient Tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you all! Embrey Bronstad, Brown and Caldwell
A Message from the President:Hello good folks! The Pacific Northwest Clean Water Association (PNCWA) exists to promote education, connection, and collaboration amongst clean water professionals in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Our annual fall conference, this year in Boise, is the premier gathering for people in our industry. Our theme this year is Forging a Resilient Tomorrow, and I’m proud to be part of such a resilient Association. Since returning to an “in person” event following the pandemic year 2020, our attendance numbers have rebounded: Boise (hybrid) 2021 - 385, Spokane 2022- 850, and last year’s record crowd of 1,100 in Tacoma! Of course, you know that because our sponsors have been a huge part of the conference’s resiliency and growth – allowing PNCWA to continue offering a “full experience” for all attendees. For those who have sponsored past conferences, my heartfelt thank you! I am so excited to return to the Boise Centre this fall – the proximity to restaurants, entertainment, and green spaces makes Boise my favorite host city. And, as I promised when Lara handed me the gavel in Tacoma, we’re going to have fun while we’re there. Thank you for your dedication to the Association, to our members and friends, and to our industry! Layne McWilliams, Parametrix
Conference Planning Committee Members:Andrew Matsumoto Bret Kreier Brittany Downing Chris Miccolis Cody Sprague Embrey Bronstad Haley Falconer Haley Goddard Hannah Thomascall Kari Davis Kristi Steiner Layne McWilliams Matthew Shroll Mike Ollivant Natalie Monro Roy Bradley Royce Davis Steven Drangsholt |