Archive for May, 2013

The Water Industry Deserves Credit for Innovation

Posted on May 22nd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Water Industry Deserves Credit for Innovation
By Vincent Caprio

We hear our elected officials use the word “Innovation” daily in their speeches.  Have you noticed that you never hear a Governor, Senator or Congressman use the words Innovation and the Water Industry in the same sentence?  Innovation as defined by Webster’s dictionary is the following:

1: The introduction of something new
2: a new idea, method or device

During the last 5 years I have had the opportunity to listen to hundreds of presentations from engineers and scientists employed by GE, Veolia, American Water and United Water.  Here are a few presentations from the past year that emphasize Innovation and cite a variety of new methods and devices.

An interesting look at the evolution of technology in the water industry:
Terry E. Biederman, P.E., Global Industry Manager- Water, GE Intelligent Platforms

Leveraging Data to create a paradigm shift from Reactive to Proactive Utility Management:
Brent Fewell, VP, Environmental Compliance, United Water

Mobile + Data + Analytics = Future
Kyle Reissner, Senior Marketing Manager Automation Software, GE Intelligent Platforms

Why does the Water Industry not get recognition for Innovation?

Americans’ Understanding of Water Lifecycle and Solutions Falls behind Water Challenged Countries…

1) Americans take their access to water as a birthright. Water is the family member they have always had their entire life. 31% of Americans don’t know where their water comes from, compared to only 14% of those in China and 15% of those in Singapore.

2) Most Americans take their water supply for granted and with their lack of science do not have the skill set to understand a water system. The Water Industry is under the radar and is very effective in solving their problems. 42% of Americans don’t know how their water is purified, compared to only 17% of those in China and 19%of those in Singapore.

3) Americans have a lack of understanding of science, emerging technologies and innovation breakthroughs. Americans in the 1980s began to equate Information Technology (formerly known as Data Processing or Management Information Systems) as America’s leading technology. The 1980s Information Technology revolution led to the 21st century Consumer Electronics revolution.  Today, Americans’ perception of innovation is an application for a smart phone or a tablet.

I have always enjoyed the following quote from Peter Drucker, Management Consultant. It sums up my thoughts in regard to Innovation. “Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation.”

The Water Industry should be proud of the thousands of innovative products they have created during the last 20 years. Remember to tell your friends and family what we have achieved. We are Innovation.

NanoBCA Recommends 2013 NNI Stakeholder Workshop – June 11-12 – DC

Posted on May 22nd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Griff Kundahl and I will be participating in the 2013 NNI Strategic Planning Stakeholder Workshop.  The NanoBusiness Commercialization Association (NanoBCA) recommends this workshop to our members and the Nanotechnology Community.

DATES: June 11-12, 2013

LOCATION: USDA Patriot Plaza Conference Center, 355 E Street, SW, Washington, DC

SCOPE: The 2013 NNI Stakeholder Workshop will obtain input outside the U.S. Government on the future directions of the NNI. The recommendations of this one-and-a-half day workshop will inform the development of the 2013 NNI Strategic Plan.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this workshop is to obtain input from stakeholders – both those new to nanoscale science, engineering, and technology and those already familiar with these fields and with the NNI – regarding revisions to the NNI Strategic Plan that will be proposed in advance of the workshop.

Participants will be invited to suggest additions to and provide feedback on wording and emphasis areas in the NNI goals, the objectives that support these goals, and the Nanotechnology Signature Initiatives. Comments will also be solicited on the relationship between these topics and the revised Program Component Areas, which will be presented at the event.

AGENDA: Click here for an agenda in downloadable .pdf format.

Click here to REGISTER.

This workshop is free and open to the public with registration on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration is now open and will be capped at 120 people.

HOTEL: A limited number of hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn Capitol Hotel are available until May 17th. Reservations can be made online by following this link or by phone at 888-847-1675 with booking code N8N.

NANO NEWS
CDC sets carbon nanotech safety guidelines

USA Today quotes Lynn L. Bergeson in Article on NIOSH’s Nanotech Safety Guidelines

Seven Words of Advice for EPA Chief Gina McCarthy
By Scott E. Rickert, CEO, Nanofilm Ltd.

Nanotechnology could bring affordable clean water to rural poor

Unique Method for Creating Uniform Nanoparticles Developed by Researchers

Hope to see you in DC.

Regards,
Vincent Caprio “Serving the Nanotechnology Community for Over a Decade”
Executive Director
NanoBusiness Commercialization Association
203-733-1949
vincent@nanobca.org
www.nanobca.org
www.vincentcaprio.org

Learn How Water Enters the Digital Age at the Water 2.0 Conference

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Water Innovations Alliance Presents

The Water 2.0 Conference

* * *

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

8:45am – 5pm

1299 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Suite 900 (9th Floor)

Washington, DC 20004

$250 Registration Fee

Please join us as we discuss our smart water network and other water infrastructure issues at the Water 2.0 Conference on

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 at

1299 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,

Suite 900 (9th Floor)

Washington, DC 20004.

Water enters the digital era. Big Data Solutions, Information Powered Utilities and Smarter Customers. The Conference will focus on the social/economic benefit of digitally enabled water solutions.

Space is limited.

To guarantee you spot, register for the conference today.

Featured Speakers Include . . .

Alan G. Hinchman

Global Marketing Director – Infrastructure

GE Intelligent Platforms

www.ourwatercounts.com

Mr. Hinchman is an expert on how to provide digital technology solutions to municipal water infrastructure issues.

A complete bio

can be found here.

David Drake

Founder and Chairman,

LDJ Capital

www.ldjcapital.com

Mr. Drake is the founder and Chairman of LDJ Capital, a Private Equity firm in New York City, and of its subsidiary The Soho Loft Capital Creation Event Series, a global events and media company covering education and creation of financial innovation programs for the Private Company Marketplace.

A complete bio

can be found here.XX

Vincent Caprio

Executive Director, Water

Innovations Alliance Foundation

www.waterinnovations.org

Mr. Caprio is the Executive Director of the ‘Water Innovations Alliance Foundation’ and is one of the foremost advocates for government funding of emerging technologies at both the State and Federal levels. Mr. Caprio has testified before the state legislatures of New York and Connecticut.  Mr. Caprio is the founder of the Water Innovations Alliance Foundation (WIAF) Conferences and has successfully produced 10 WIAF Conferences.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Jud Hill

Managing Director,

NGP Global Adaptation Partners

www.ngpgap.com

Mr. Hill joined NGP in 2010 and serves as Managing Director. He is an industry leader in the water and environmental services sectors. He has over 30 years of experience in both water and environmental service company operations as well as over a decade of private equity experience in the water industry.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Erik Hromakda

CEO,

Global Water Technologies

www.gwtr.com

Erik Hromadka has served as CEO of Global Water Technologies (OTC Pink: GWTR) since 2009. He refocused the company with an emphasis on new technology, targeting opportunities to reduce loss in drinking water systems by introducing “smart grid” data and interactive tools.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Amanda Brock

CEO,

Water Standard

www.waterstandard.com

Ms. Brock is recognized as a leader and pioneer in water treatment for water-based enhanced oil recovery and produced water treatment/reuse.

A complete bio

can be found here.

John M. Przybla, PE, GISP

SVP,

Woolpert

www.woolpert.com

Mr. Przybyla is a Professional Engineer in 5 states and a Certified GIS Professional. His work encompasses over 75 organizations in his 33 years of professional experience, including utilities, local governments, public institutions, airports, and Federal agencies.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Jon B. Freedman

Global Government Relations Leader, GE Water & Process Technologies

www.gewater.com

Mr. Freedman is a recognized expert and frequent speaker on water policies. He teaches a class at the University of Pennsylvania called, “The Future of Water,” and he has recently spoken on water issues at conferences in China, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the United States. He also served for six years on the Board of Directors of the WateReuse Association, and chaired its National Legislative Committee

A complete bio

can be found here.

Blythe Lyons

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council Program on Energy & Environment

www.acus.org

Ms. Lyons has provided energy policy consulting services, with a focus on nuclear fuel cycle and nonproliferation, to utilities, industry, nonprofit and academic institutions, and various national as well as state governments since the late 1970s.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Terry E. Biederman, P.E.

Global Industry Manager – Water

GE Intelligent Platforms

www.ge-ip.com

Mr. Biederman joined GE Intelligent Platforms as Global Industry Manager-Water in March of 2012. Prior to GE, he was Director of Public Works for Waterford Township, Michigan for sixteen years where he was responsible for operations of the Water/Sewer and Facilities and Operations Divisions.
At Waterford Township, he was responsible for transforming the DPW into a state-of-the-art smart water operation leveraging advanced technology and management practices.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Kathryn Craig

Director, Workflow Solutions,

Hach Company

www.hach.com

Ms. Craig works with Optimization Solutions, Intelligent Information Management and Hach Homeland Security Technologies to develop breakthrough technologies used to improve water quality and treatment optimization.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Kevin M. McGovern

CEO,

The Water Initiative

www.thewaterinitiative.com

Mr. McGovern is the Chairman of The Water Initiative® and has founded over 15 companies. The Water Initiative’s mission is to deliver point-of-drinking (POD) water solutions to developing countries around the world.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Paul F. Boulos

President, COO & CTO,

Innovyze, Inc.

www.innovyze.com

Dr. Boulos is a President and Director of MWH Global (www.mwhglobal.com), one of the world’s leading environmental engineering and construction firms, with more than 7,500 employees in 31 countries and annual revenues exceeding $1.5 billion. Dr. Boulos is also leads Innovyze, a global multi-million dollar smart water engineering software company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MWH Global.

A complete bio

can be found here.

Dennis Nelson

President and CEO,

Project WET Foundation

projectwet.org

Mr. Nelson founded Project WET in 1984 while working at the North Dakota State Water Commission. Through extensive partnerships and successful fundraising efforts, he has developed the program into a global leader in water resources education around the world.

A complete bio

canm be found here.

To see a complete list of Conference speakers please click here.

To see the agenda, please click here.

Please contact Vincent Caprio with any additional questions in regard to sponsorship or speaking opportunities: vince@waterinnovationsfoundation.org

________________________________________________________

The Water Innovations Alliance is an industry association focused on developing new funding, increasing collaboration and raising awareness for cutting-edge water technologies and the problems they solve.

The Alliance serves the entire spectrum of the water sector: corporations, investors, engineering firms, start-ups, NGOs, research centers, municipalities, and others in the field.

The Alliance is located in Washington DC, Cambridge, MA, and Shelton, CT. It is a 501(c)(6) trade organization. To learn more about the Alliance and its membership, contact Vincent Caprio, vince@waterinnovationsfoundation.org

Agenda Updates – Water 2.0-WIAF Conference – Weds May 15 – DC

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Today, we would like to share the Agenda Updates for our Water 2.0 Conference on Wednesday, May 15th in Washington, DC.

The Water 2.0 – Water Innovations Alliance Foundation Conference will focus on the social/economic benefit of digitally enabled water solutions:  Big Data Solutions, Information Powered Utilities and Smarter Customers.  We will be discussing our smart water network and other water infrastructure issues.

REGISTER TODAY $250

We have added several new speakers:

Alan Hinchman, Global Marketing Director-Infrastructure, GE Intelligent Platforms

Kathryn Craig, Director, Workflow Solutions, Hach Company

David Drake, Founder & Chairman, LDJ Capital

John M. Przybyla, PE, GISP, Senior Vice President, Woolpert

Jon B. Freedman, Executive Counsel – Government Relations, GE Power & Water

Jud Hill, Managing Director, NGP Global Adaptation Partners

Amanda Brock, CEO, Water Standard

Dr. Paul Boulos, President & COO, Innovyze

Blythe Lyons, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council Program on Energy & Environment

Kevin McGovern, Chairman & CEO, The Water Initiative

Dennis Nelson, President & CEO, Project WET Foundation

Erik Hromadka, CEO, Global Water Technologies

Cat Shrier, Ph.D., P.G., President & Founder, Watercat Consulting LLC

Terry E. Biederman, P.E., Global Industry Manager- Water, GE Intelligent Platforms

Click here to see the presentations from our last Water 2.0 Conference on February 26th 2013 at 30 Rock in NYC.

RESERVE HOTEL TODAY  $319 per night
The Westin Washington, DC City Center
1400 M Street NW
Washington, DC 20005

WATER NEWS
Is Water or Gas More Fractured?

Written by Ron Steiger

Our Blue Horizon: Children and the Future of Water
Written by Dennis Nelson

GE Unveils New Corrosion Protection Technology for Refinery Steam Systems

GO GREEN! EPA News You Can Use – April 2013 EARTH DAY EXTRA

Looking forward to seeing you on May 15th in Washington, DC.

Regards,

Vincent Caprio
Executive Director
Water Innovations Alliance Foundation
203-733-1949
vince@waterinnovationsfoundation.org
www.waterinnovations.org
www.vincentcaprio.org

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Ed Youdell, Gov. George Allen & Vincent Caprio at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Ed Youdell, Gov. George Allen & Vincent Caprio at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Griff Kundahl, Scott Livingston & Vincent Caprio at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Griff Kundahl, Scott Livingston & Vincent Caprio at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Griff Kundahl, Gov. George Allen & Vincent Caprio at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Griff Kundahl, Gov. George Allen & Vincent Caprio at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Vincent Caprio & Griff Kundahl at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

Vincent Caprio & Griff Kundahl at 2013 Nanotech Commercialization Conference

NanoBusiness Recommends NIST Survey Participation

Posted on May 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

We recently completed our 5th Annual Nanotech Commercialization Conference, April 9-10th at the Wake Forest Biotech Place in Winston Salem, NC.  We would like to thank our 225 participants who had the opportunity to hear a fabulous line-up of Speakers.  During our last NanoBCA conference call we had the opportunity to hear a presentation from David Leech, Senior Analyst for Industry and Technology Evaluation, TASC, Inc.

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is sponsoring a small study to assess the value of voluntary consensus standard in emerging technologies. Their focus is on the existing nanotechnology documentary standards that have been developed by ISO/TC229 (Nanotechnologies), ASTM E56 (Nanotechnology), and IEC/TC113 (Nanotechnology Standardization for Electrical and Electronics Products and Systems). The assessment leader, David Leech, discussed the nature of the effort with our group at our weekly teleconference, March 21, 2013. Mr. Leech asked for NanoBCA help on two items: (1) quick-turn responses to qualitative background questions from our members; and (2) our participation in a survey (a few weeks away) that will try to quantify some of the kinds of benefits discovered in the background question responses. The nine background questions are below.

Our industry needs consensus standards to close some of the many gaps in definition, measurement, risk analysis, and regulation that exist today. Supporting this assessment will help NanoBCA move the ball forward by demonstrating the economic significant of standards development activities and encouraging our industry’s participation in standards efforts going forward.

Economic Impact of Nanotechnology-Related Documentary Standards

– Background Questions –

1. What business units, and key personnel from your organization were involved in the development (and/or use) of nanotechnology-related documentary standards? (Did key personnel make presentations or publish papers that we can read?)

2. What dates bound your involvement in the development process? If there were important activity phases, or interdependencies with the activities of other organizations, please indicate their start/stop dates?

3. In a sentence or two, what has changed within your organization because of your involvement in the standard development activity and due to the availability of the standard(s) in question?

4. What conventions, processes, and/or standards were in place prior to your involvement in the standards development activity? How long had they been in place?

5. Why were existing processes or standards deemed inadequate? What changed to make them inadequate? What evidence could you offer in support of the claim that something significant had changed to which your activity was responding?

6. How did the development of the standard(s) in question hope to solve the problem?

7. Can you provide points of contact (POCs) in business units external to yours (or in other organizations altogether) that you believe may have benefited from your participation in the standards development process and the publication of the standard(s)?

8. Given the compelling need for the documentary standard(s) in question (provided in the response to question #5), if the specific standard development process in which you engaged had not (or does not) come to fruition, what alternative (competing?) approach(es) to addressing the problem could have been utilized? (This is a historical question, not a conceptual one. Often there are several rival solutions — not all equally good — to a given standards-related problem that could have come to the fore in the absence of the one in which you actually participated?)

9. If the standard development project(s) in which you participated offered the best, most cost-effective, solution to the problem at hand, what made it superior to the alternative approach(es) identified in your response to question #8? Did the development/adoption of the standard result in “resource” savings, or schedule advantages over alternatives identified in your response to question #8?)

I urge NanoBCA members to take 15 minutes to respond to Mr. Leech’s “Nano Standards Background Questions,by email response David.Leech@TASC.COM or by phone (at a convenient time to be worked out with him). Mr. Leech is anticipating our responses. Please try to respond by Tuesday, April 30th.  All the answers you provide to David will be held in the strictest confidence. They will not be shared with NIST or the standards development organizations whose standards are the focus of the analysis. Information from the background survey will be used in such a way that no individual person or company will be identified.

Thank you.

Regards,

Vincent Caprio “Serving the Nanotechnology Community for Over a Decade”
Executive Director
NanoBusiness Commercialization Association
203-733-1949
vincent@nanobca.org
www.nanobca.org
www.vincentcaprio.org