Conference report: IDA/GWI Blue, Green & Gold – Zurich

Appropriately staged in Zurich, this year’s International Desalination Association finance and desalination conference, held jointly with Global Water Intelligence on 27-28 April 2009, attracted around 320 delegates, mainly from desalination, but also from the finance, environment and general water sectors. The historical symbiotic relationship between money, water and environment was now out of balance, said IDA president Lisa Henthorne in her opening address, while Professor Ian Goldin, director of Oxford University’s 21st Century School, told the Zurich delegates in his keynote speech how central water would be to the challenges of the 21st century.A new feature this year was a literal “round-table” session in which a room was filled with round tables each devoted to a separate topic with a chairman in place and delegates moved from table to table at regular break times. What seemed like a gimmick last year, the Technology Idol competition, was back again and well attended with half a dozen new entrants, and GWI duly presented its awards for the year at a dinner addressed by former US vice-president Al Gore. This article appeared in the May/June issue of D&WR magazine.

Appropriately staged in Zurich, this year’s International Desalination Association finance and desalination conference, held jointly with Global Water Intelligence on 27-28 April 2009, attracted around 320 delegates, mainly from desalination, but also from the finance, environment and general water sectors.

The historical symbiotic relationship between money, water and environment was now out of balance, said IDA president Lisa Henthorne in her opening address, while Professor Ian Goldin, director of Oxford University’s 21st Century School, told the Zurich delegates in his keynote speech how central water would be to the challenges of the 21st century.

A new feature this year was a literal “round-table” session in which a room was filled with round tables each devoted to a separate topic with a chairman in place and delegates moved from table to table at regular break times.

What seemed like a gimmick last year, the Technology Idol competition, was back again and well attended with half a dozen new entrants, and GWI duly presented its awards for the year at a dinner addressed by former US vice-president Al Gore.

This article appeared in the May/June issue of D&WR magazine.