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Several Tonkin team members recently attended Ozwater24 in Melbourne - Australia's premier water conference and exhibition. The theme this year was 'Accelerating Action' - highlighting the vital role water is playing in the climate crisis of our current time. Water and stormwater engineering is where Tonkin made it's name and still remains as one of our key market sectors - so Ozwater is a key event on our water team member's calendars.
This year Carmen Wentrock, Jeff Tyler, Elsinore Mann from our Adelaide office, and Colin Salem from our Brisbane office represented Tonkin at Ozwater24. They have shared their key insights and takeaways below.
Carmen Wentrock's insights
"Ozwater24 in Melbourne was bustling with energy, from the plenary sessions to the technical paper presentations to the exhibition hall. I am encouraged by the conversations that are lead by the keynote speakers, of which Gina Chick and Sam Bloom were standouts. The Water Leaders Forum was engaging and challenging, with discussion on the topics of gender pay gap and AI in the water industry. The highly anticipated Gala Dinner was a wonderful evening of celebration of the successes in the industry. It was particularly inspiring to see the quality of our YWP and Water Professional award finalists. It is with optimism that I look around the room, recognising how far we have already come, and acknowledging the depth of talent and solutions that are possible."
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Elsie Mann's insights
"Ozwater gives us the opportunity to reconnect with people in a way you can never do at home. I loved bumping into fellow alumni and hearing of their career journeys, helping make connections for people with common interests and challenges across the country, and meeting new people and hearing their perspectives. There was a big focus on how we can leverage AI and digital technology to make better decisions, a topic dear to my heart. It was great to see some commonality, plus get inspiration from the different approaches people are taking. I loved hearing in particular from Gina Chick, her message about our need to break the habit of trying to conquer nature, and instead learn from those like our first Nations people, to listen and observe and work with nature and all it's complexities. I also loved the Welcome to Country at the Gala dinner. A conference like Ozwater is the perfect forum to accelerate action through sharing, connection and inspiration, thanks AWA. It's incumbent upon us all to continue the momentum."
Colin Salem's insights
"My highlights of Ozwater24 included the trade exhibition and getting to spend some quality time speaking with suppliers around current projects and latest innovations in the industry. It was also wonderful to hear people asking if I know David Smith - one of Tonkin's Principal Water Engineers and longest serving staff members. It's great to have such a well-known and respected technical expert in our team.
I really enjoyed the 'Integrated optimisation of water main renewals and capital improvements to minimise life-cycle costs' presentation by Andrew Faulkner and James Miller. This provided insights into the power of Optimatics and advanced computer algorithms to provide optimised planning solutions, and lead into the hot topic this year of AI and machine learning.
The decarbonisation message only appears to be getting stronger with clients putting more reliance on monitoring of project and program emissions on the quest to net zero, and this focus needs to remain at front of mind in detailed design solutions."
If you have a complex project and are looking for water engineers to assist, please don't hesitate to drop us a line.