Dacar--Whats Happening--Watermark 2000 Article
Exhibits seen as way to boost attendance at water conference
Pittsburgh Business Times, September 15-21, 2000
May open door to more small companies
by Ethan Lott
DOWNTOWN -- The International Water Conference has been flowing continuously for more than six decades. But this year's 61st event in October will, for the first time and after much debate, include an exhibition hall.
The Oct. 22-26 IWC at the Westin William Penn, titles, Watermark 2000, marks the annual return of one of the longest-running events in the city. The conference focuses on issues relating to industrial water. It does not address municipal drinking water and wastewater issues.
Over the years, the IWC has been a largely technical affair, with dozens of technical papers presented to showcase emerging advances in the industry. Companies also could host hospitality suites for networking.
This year, the IWC is adding the exhibition booths. This decision was not without debate.
James Datesh, president and CEO of West End-based Dacar Industries Inc., was brought onto the IWC executive committee this year to help lead the addition of an exhibition hall. Family-owned Dacar mixes chemicals used in treatment processes. Mr. Datesh is the past president of the Association of Water Technologies and had been in charge of a recent AWT convention, giving him experience putting together exhibitions.
Mr. Datesh said for the past two decades the possibility of adding exhibitions -- and thereby slide the IWC more toward the socializing and business networking -- has been hotly debated. The IWC board ended its fence-sitting and decided to add the exhibition hall to help attract more smaller companies that have to be choosy about what events to attend.
"The conference's real target is the end user. This should be very end user-friendly, both for networking and it's an easy way for new attendees to go down and start to socialize," Mr. Datesh said. "These are engineers. Engineers are not always the most gregarious."
Mr. Datesh said the exhibition space filled quickly, exceeding expectations. "We were worried we'd be sitting around in August looking for exhibitors," Mr. Datesh said. "The booths were snapped up quickly, within a few weeks. There was a keen interest in it. For its inaugural year, I'm delighted."
Paul OBoyle, vice president of business development with Golden, Colo.-based Global Water Services Inc, the general chairman of Watermark 2000, said the hope is that the exhibition will increase attendance and participation at the long-running conference.
"We wanted to spiff up the conference a little bit and attract more people," Mr. O'Boyle said. "With cutbacks and consolidation, a lot of end users are limited in the number of conferences they can attend."
Mr. O'Boyle works out of his Pittsburgh home handling Global Water's business in the East and Midwest. Global manages water-cooling programs, primarily in the power, steel and refining industries. This type of work is at the heart of what the IWC has been addressing over the years.
Major topics for Watermark 2000 include cooling water, steam generation, industrial wastewater treatment, pretreatment and business management trends.
Mr. O'Boyle said a major interest this year will be the keynote speech by Nalco Chemical Co. Chairman and CEO Christian Maurin, looking at where the industry is headed. The acquisition of Nalco by French-based Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, and the acquisition of Robinson Township-based Calgon Corp. by Nalco has been a major story in the industry. Nalco, of Naperville, Ill., is the world's largest producer of specialty chemicals and services for water and industrial process treatment. Mr. Maurin was named Nalco CEO in March.
"There's a lot of changes taking place," Mr. O'Boyle said. There are more than 50 companies on the advisory council and at least a couple hundred companies will be represented by the estimated 1,000 attendees, Mr. O'Boyle said. Between 15 percent and 20 percent of attendees are international.
