The following transcript is provided by YouTube, mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode click HERE.
[Music] foreign [Music]
is proudly sponsored by the rising tide Mastermind the rising tide Mastermind is
one of my favorite things that I look forward to each and every week because I
get to see people that have my best interest in mind I know this because I
have their best interest in mind and when you get people together in a room
like that you can just imagine how people want to help other people if this
sounds like something you want to learn more about go to scalinguph2o.com forward slash Mastermind
[Music] welcome to scalingup H2O the podcast where we scale upon knowledge so we
don’t scale up our systems my name is Trace Blackmore your host for scaling up
H2O and Nation this is going to be a fun episode I know a lot of you know about
the industries that we try to promote in the industrial water treatment World
specifically the non-profit agencies that put together conferences that allow
us to learn more in a very easy way while we’re meeting new people and by
the way those people can now help us continue our Learning Journey well we’re
going to meet somebody that is involved in another organization that we’ve talked about in the past and we want to
make sure that you are in the know about the International Water conference so
that is to come that’s the interview that we are going to have here today but
before I get started I wanted to thank everybody who replied to my call of
action last week and that was to sign up for the global 6K that’s taking place on
May 20th and if you don’t know what I’m talking about you can get all that information by going to scalingup
h2o.com forward slash 6K or you can listen to last week’s episode and of
course the global 6K is all about how do we bring attention to the global Water
Crisis now what’s the global Water Crisis people don’t have water to drink on a global scale and we are very lucky
in the majority of the places that this podcast has listeners we can simply turn
on the faucet and nice cool clean drinking water come comes out of the
faucet and we didn’t have to walk but a couple of feet to get that well that’s
not the case for billions and I said billions with a B people in the world
where they have to walk six kilometers on average to get the water that they
are going to drink and trust me it does not look anything like the water that is
coming out of your faucet so with that I
want you to make sure that you understand this that you are celebrating
the industry that we are in and you are letting other people know that we coming
together can actually solve the global Water Crisis now one of the things you
can do to bring awareness is on May 20th you can sign up for the global 6K and
this is the easiest 6K that you will ever do because it’s not about the time
that you get in the race it is about the information that you are sharing as a
member of this event so as I mentioned before go to scalingup h2o.com forward
slash 6K we’ll have all the information that you need on that page you can join
team scaling up or you can create your own team but Nation I urge you this is
my call to action this is my plea because you are going to get so much out
of doing this it’s going to be a Saturday and I promise the weather’s going to be awesome wherever it is that
you are and you’re going to register it’ll cost you fifty dollars and by the way that fifty dollars is enough to
bring clean water right to where somebody is so one person gets drinking
water for fifty dollars that’s just just amazing I think it’s amazing what World Vision does that is one of the things
that they do and on that Saturday or on the Saturday prior hopefully a couple
weeks prior you will receive a racing t-shirt a medal and then also a bib with
the child that you are sponsoring this is the child that you have brought clean drinking water to and you’ve now kept
them in school because they are not walking six kilometers to go get water
that nobody would really want to drink if they had a choice and now you’re
going to go walk run crawl whatever you want to do for the next six kilometers
and I guarantee if you go to a place where there are other people they are
going to stop you and they’re going to ask you what you are doing and this is your opportunity to tell them exactly
what and why you were in the 6K and I promise somebody will think about water
differently somebody will also think about what they can do to help everybody
solve the global Water Crisis so we can all do this together and we can all have
a lot of fun while doing this as a company owner as a team leader I love
getting the team involved in the global 6K because now we’re able to celebrate
together that we are in this industry it’s all around water we are probably the biggest savers of water when you
look at what we do as industrial water treators so celebrate that we are
actually making sure that we’re using that valuable resource to its fullest
capability before we waste it and a lot of us even have some input in how that
water is cleaned up so it can be recycled so this just allows us to get together as a team and celebrate being
in this industry and an extra bonuses we’re going to bring clean drinking
water for every single person that signs up for that 6K and how awesome is that
one more time scaling up h2o.com forward slash 6K well Nation one of the things
that I love to do is learn and a gentleman that helps us out each and
every week is James McDonald hello and welcome to the periodic water
table with James where we think and learn about water chemistry drop by drop please use your week to search online
ask your colleagues or even pick up a book to learn more about each week’s periodic water table topic if you do at
the end of the year you’ll be 52 water chemistry smarter so let’s raise the water table of
knowledge together and get started today’s topic is
sulfite aside from sodium sulfite what are the other forms of sulfite used in a
duster water treatment what are their chemical formulas what are some advantages of using one
form over another if used in boilers what pressures can sulfites be used or not used why
how do you test for sulfite what may interfere with the sulfite test does age of the water sample matter when
testing does how vigorously you stir the sample matter how accurate is the sulfite test
have you ever tried running the sulfite test on sulfite free water just to see what it might show
in what unit to measure is a sulfite test result expressed how quickly does sulfite react
is a catalyst ever used to speed the reaction if yes which catalyst
can this Catalyst ever cause issues itself how should one control the feed of a
sulfite-based product are sulfites ever fed ahead of pre-treatment such as an RO
why can a speed and stroke settings impact the effectiveness of such a feed
remember knowledge is power and taking the time to learn more about water chemistry each week will help make you a
force to be reckoned with be sure to post what you learn to social media and tag it with hashtag
watertable23 and hashtag scalingup H2O I look forward to learning more from you
thank you James when nation I told you what we were going to be talking about at this point in the episode so here it
is here’s the interview my lab partner is Michael solar of Bowen
Mike welcome to the scaling up H2O podcast straight
so I understand you’re a long-term listener of the show now I am there there are a lot of different
topics covered on this podcast and in the travel I do it is enjoyable and
rewarding to listen I’m not kidding it’s just a lot of fun well that is awesome I
can’t wait to talk with you and introduce you to the scaling up Nation uh you can probably do that better than
I can what does the scaling up Nation need to know about Mike who is Mike
Mike Soler is an engineer has got a passion for business I’m the vice
president of Business Development for Bowen and my role is to develop our what we call Private water wastewater
treatment projects and that’s effectively any project that’s not a municipal and we have a great team that
does Municipal work if someone would like to know more about me they would
understand that I come from a big family I have seven brothers and sisters and I
uh I got into the engineering world because four of my brothers are Engineers as well and I’ve been blessed
to work around vertical construction such as prisons to a chemical research
facility where we could blow off the side of the building and not tear up the inside big box retail account for 17
years worked in the Telecom business but I started in this business in the Water
Business and then in 2007 I got back into the water business with Bowen and I
just have a lot of fun that’s me we are definitely in one of the greatest
Industries in the world I would say no question people say well what does Bowen
do I say well think about it this way if you drink it you flush it or you turn it
on we do it that’s what we do we’re uh water Wastewater power and
Industrial company and this business golly all you have to do is read any newspaper or pod or anything to to
understand that our populations are growing around the world and we have a finite amount of H2O that’s it
so you and I were speaking before we started recording the podcast and we
have been to the same place I’m trying to remember the town in Ohio was but I’m
speaking of the Ohio reformatorium and uh if if you listeners out there
have no idea what I’m talking about you probably know this prison you just don’t know you know it it was the prison that
they featured in The Shawshank Redemption and I got to spend an afternoon there my wife saw it one of my
favorite books one of my favorite movies and we got to see all of the place that
of course Andy spent so many years trying to plan his Escape even saw the
pipe that they mocked up for him to escape in and got a picture behind the
wardens desk but you did a lot more when it came to that prison can you tell us a
little bit about that sure yeah Rob Reiner and Castle Rock put that film on and golly this was the
previous Century trace this is back in the 80s a 1980s that I built the
replacement and it’s in Mansfield Ohio and the replacement prison that replaced
the Mansfield Correctional Institution that Reformatory and it was a real place and those scenes in that movie are the
real locations the whole that Andy Dufresne was put in I saw it the walk
around the wall those big stone walls and dropping the the gravel it was real
it was absolutely utterly real and the thing that tipped me off the most and it
really resonates with me is the last scene of that movie because at that point in time in the last scene of that
movie they show a Popper’s graveyard looking up toward the wall and that was
real and it is real that is it is right next to the railroad tracks so fascinating place and also an
awe-inspiring place because of the construction that it took to build what was there much less the new stuff that
we built it was just an amazing so every time we get to see that movie go oh
that’s a good memory you are actually there for not quite a decade building the prison that replaced
the reformatorium is that correct well I we’ve got our stories a little mixed up it was about four years actually okay
yeah the Ohio Bureau of Prisons took a decade and they built a lot of different prisons over the state of Ohio in that
period of time the 80s and early 90s but uh yes this one was a four-year event
and it was a very large facility they had maximum housing eight buildings
closed custody outing three buildings and a big Administration an industrial building one of the things that you know
state of Ohio was doing at that time was really trying to have the folks that
were incarcerated learned something that they could do because they would be getting out of prison and what is a trade what is a craft what is a
something that they can rejoin society and so all of those elements came to part as part of the Ohio Correction
Facility and what you built was I guess beautiful in its own right but when you compare it
to the building it replaced very different design oh yes oh yes yes the original design
was much more uh Victorian I may have explained this to you if you watched
that movie Close Enough toward the end when you see they see the warden and the police are coming in and they Zoom right
in on the door handle the Seal of the state of Ohio is on that doorknob and that’s how it was throughout the the
original and then there were probably the uh the facility we built was out of Precast and at the time there was a
relatively new material it was called sandwich-wide Precast where he had an architectural finish on one side then an
insulation and then some nylon tabs and then it goes into the concrete but uh it was all built in a very different way
and than what the original prison was yeah yeah I remember the tour went into
the architect and had a lot of great information about him I don’t remember a
lot about that but I do remember them stating that the state of Ohio and the
architect believed that if the inmates were in a place that was beautiful that
they could respect that that would help their reform I’m guessing along the line
they did away with that type of thinking well to a degree one of the one of the
biggest differences between the original prison and the new president was the amount of recreational space and so when
you look at modern day movies you’ll see these large rooms where the folks can
gather and then all of the housing units the the cells are up on mezzanes and
they look over so that’s a lot different than the original which was what you see in that movie a hallway and a cat calls
and a lot different and then the outside area in the new prisons had the same
types of exercise equipment yeah weight lifting and basketball hoops and so on soccer those kind of things but it’s a
prison let’s not mistake this is uh it’s not a vacation it is not a vacation spot
now well let’s switch gears just a little bit and let’s talk about the
International Water conference how are you involved with the IWC
I’m on the executive committee for the IWC and and that’s 21 folks who lead the
conference from an executive where are we going how are we going to get there and we really rely upon our advisory
committee members which are we’ve got 60 advisory committee members and welcome more because the advisory committee
really helps set the direction of what is going on with the conference because
let me explain to you what the conference is about it’s it’s a technical conference and it’s focused on
Industrial water treatment and really it’s focused on the expertise and
emerging issues associated with water treatment there are lots of really positive confidence wealth does a great
job aww a jobs equipment conferences but what the International Water conference
focuses on is the expertise associated with tough to treat Waters and a lot of
them are industrial and so my role in that is as a Constructor so I’m not a
consultant engineering consultant I’m not an owner user but I’m a Constructor
an EPC Boeing is an EPC in design Builder and what we bring to this is what
happens once it’s designed how do we put it in place and so that’s the lens through which I I look at in our team we
send the eight folks each year to this conference because I get all fired up to talk about it because these are the
smartest folks on the earth about water and if they don’t know the answers to the questions they will find someone who
can give the answers to the questions and what we focus on is with the
technical content and the expertise we will work on the networking because we
all know in this business there’s not a person who does everything themselves we
rely upon each other it’s about the people and the product and so my role in
the conference is the executive committee member and past general chairs is to bring folks to the conference who
want to display and discuss and present true technical papers data analysis use
with citations and so on prior work and allow them to stand up and talk about
the product the results not the commercialization we’re not a conference that’s focused on a commercial product
presentation in fact we discourage that because what we understand what we believe in our hearts is
whether you’ve been in the business five years six months 45 years you have
something to bring to this conference and you have something that you can learn from this conference so come with
that receiving attitude and that giving attitude and oh my gosh it is it is really a lot of fun there’s a thousand
to twelve hundred people to come to this conference every year and we move it around from Orlando to San Antonio live
we’ve had one since several audit uh Scottsdale Arizona so that’s what makes
it a lot of fun oh I was going to ask you I’ve been to several International Water conferences and they’re very
different in how the papers are presented in fact I believe there’s
three people on the panel and if you haven’t seen that or if you haven’t presented that way it can be a little
intimidating I know you know a lot about that can you share with our audience if they wanted to present a paper at IWC
what they could expect so here’s the format here’s how the format Works folks a person or a group
of folks will write a technical paper and that true technical paper will have scientific data in it with analysis
recommendations and even you know future work just like a a true technical paper
would be presented if you were doing a short form Master’s programmer or trying to write a journal article that’s the
mission because what makes this conference different is that paper will
be sent to what is called a discussor this is a person who’s practiced in a similar art whether it’s Ro ion exchange
fgd water recycle electronics micronutrient water hard to treat
whatever it is because of who we work with we have folks who can read that
paper and they have a mission their mission is to describe any gaps or maybe
stretches of interpretation of the day data talk about what wasn’t presented in
the paper such as how this product or this process could be used in a
different application challenge some of the cost numbers that might be put into the paper but effectively in front of
the audience at right after the author presents their paper with the PowerPoint
the discusser stands up and says I read it and here’s what I saw here’s what I read here’s what I understood and here’s
what I didn’t understand so within that perspective the audience can generate
their own questions because they may have had the same question now the author is given an opportunity to
respond to the discussor so it’s not a prosecutorial interrogation it’s you
said one thing great we saw something else would you like to give us a short reply great then we turn it over to the
audience for questions and answers and that is a key component so it becomes a dialogue type of a presentation more
than a 30-minute stand up push it up accept it the way it is no questions and
that’s what creates the energy for the conference I have to say it was probably one of the best formats that I’ve seen
for papers it really makes sure that the presenter is presenting what they need to present I did see one where it did
become a little heated and there was another individual there and I believe
he was just there to make sure that everybody was staying above board they weren’t insulting anybody is that an
official position on that panel it is yes there are three positions what we call a session management roles the
first one is the session chair and that is the person who reviews the author’s
papers provides technical comments generally there have some deeper experience with regard to the subject
matter there are 72 papers I don’t know if you realize there are 72 papers that
are presented in two and a half days wow so it’s uh it’s a really neat a lot of
content but session chair the discussion leader so again maintaining timing maintaining
consistency for what they said that they don’t ad-lib something that they didn’t write down we want to know what’s being
said because it is a professional conference we encourage questions we
don’t encourage conflict and so the third person is the executive committee whose person who’s responsible for that
session and saved my role produce water whatever it may be and they are the
referee you can challenge professionally you can ask this question and we do we
have folks that are interested in each other’s comments but when it starts to cross the line by Tone or by question
that’s where we stop in say you know folks what is the real question ask it
in a professional manner so that you can receive a professional response because what are we here for education and
dialogue and quite frankly hopefully what you saw was that was was the approach that was taken in in that
session that you saw in and yes some people do get prickly when they’re questioned about their information what
we ask and what we coach we even have videos on our International Water conference website on how to write a
proper abstract how to make a proper presentation well we encourage folks to do is to start with I’ll get back with
you if we don’t know the answer you know we encourage them to not muddle through
just say I’m not sure yet I’ll get back with you and use that pause methodology
to take that little bit of steam out of the room if we get to there other times it gets to be a pretty fun Affair when
you have competing views and someone has a different life experience okay they
had a different data set congratulations yeah I will say that I saw one that was
fairly heated actually I’ve seen a couple like that but I will say it every single occasion somebody has stepped in
from the executive committee and they’ve said okay let’s handle something this way and immediately they did so you all
definitely have a formula that works and I have seen so many presentations where
I’ll think I have my mind made up on the presentation and then the other person will get in they will deliver their
opposing view or some more data and not only does it clarify what I thought I
already learned it creates a lot more questions and I think the IWC has some
of the most robust questions out of any conference I have ever attended because
of that that’s that’s good to hear good to hear I would want your uh listeners
in the nation to understand that what we’re talking about are the anomaly conditions out of this 72 very first we
might have we might have two or three because two individuals know each other very very well and they just love to
stir it up but I would just encourage everyone to sub if they’ve got an idea
if they have an outcome or if they’re working through a process and they’ve got some interesting data and maybe it’s
not perfected presented write that abstract and say Here’s what we’re doing here’s where we thought we were headed
so far our hypotheses have turned up certain sets of information and we’re continuing to work on it and we have
first-time authors who do that quite a lot because us whether it’s recycled
water or whether it’s pfos we’ve been doing pfos as an example we’ve been doing a pfos program we’ve had four
papers for the last uh this will be the fourth year might be even the fifth year where we’ve had strong technical papers
about what is it how do you deal with it what are the levels of removal can you really destroy it all kinds of
interesting subject matters and some of them have been presented by early career
first-time authors who really quite frankly when they step off the podium
and they say wow that was fun if I could let me tell you a short version of a
story about a fellow who wrote a paper with me he was a project engineer for us and we built a power plant and had a
conversion from coal to gas and we had a lot of all the water change out great he
was on the project well I helped with the development of the project and did some front-end engineering role it
turned out this young man went to school with my son at the Rose home Institute of Technology now I’m not a spring
chicken I know this is a radio show podcast but it was fun because I asked
Ben is his name I said Bend would you like to write this paper because we meaning you and our field teams did an
incredible job hit the schedule nailed the chemistry got it built right and he goes I’ve never done that I said that’s
fine when he finished writing the paper and then stood up in front of a room of
probably 60 folks had someone challenge his paper his
response after that was oh that was easy those were easy questions and I said Ben
it’s because you lived it you were the first person to do it you knew exactly
what that person was talking about and there was no hesitation in your voice because you had lived it and he had
never presented at a professional conference like that and here he was three years out of school so that’s the
kind of fun that we have that’s a great story and I am sure that
there are other bins out there listening and it’s so intimidated one that we told
some of the stories that we did uh so and you’re right you’re and I had no idea you guys did that many papers at a
conference that is just amazing we’re going to talk about that in a second but you’re right what we just mentioned was
an anomaly but I’m sure that’s what every potential presenter is thinking is
going to happen they’re also thinking oh I’ve never presented at a professional
conference if there’s a bin out there right now and they’re thinking how do I get started what’s step one with even
starting an abstract and becoming a presenter at the International Water conference
step one is to go to the abstract and submission link which I believe will be
in the show notes and if you go to the eswp.com
water that’ll take you right to the Water conference and there’s a section
for submitting abstracts and there’s a whole guide a document that says here’s
what a great abstract would include here’s what it looks like and then there’s a video about how to write a
good one so not only can you read it on paper it’s follows the APA for American
Psychological Association format but then you get to hear someone explain to you what really triggers people to say
boy that’s a really interesting concept or that’s an interesting idea I’d like to hear more about it which is what an
abstract is you’ve got to grab someone’s attention to talk to have them say tell
me more about this interesting subject and give me the data that goes and backs it up so that’s the first step and the
second step is my contact if you’ve got my contact information put them on the show notes and have him reach out to me
via email over your cell phone that’s fine because most likely they know
somebody that I know or we won’t be more than two or three away from that connection and we can explain how
straightforward it is you don’t have to write the paper as part of the abstract you have to put an idea out there and
then organize the thoughts and that’s the first step to getting involved in being an author what is the selection
process once you have abstract submitted great question so those abstracts come
in to the executive committee and the 21 of us review those abstracts and we get
120 150 abstracts a year maybe 180 depending upon the year we review them
for their topical content do they match up with what the goals are for the Water
conference and you’ll see that on the website does it cover a water subject or whether it’s a technical way or an
implementation way we then review it for the author’s perspective have they
presented before or not we do like first-time presenters are they supported as part of their being author are they
doing it with a collaborator are they collaborating with an owner again we do like to have owners present at our
conference because they have a wonderful perspective about how things operate then we look at what is the topic
relative to an emerging topic that we’re looking forward to because is our view
at the International Water conference is we want to be ahead of the Leading Edge
of what’s happening in Regulatory Affairs 12 years ago it used to be
flughast desulfurization Mercury removal arsenic removal managing Boron those
kinds of things that’s less today but pfos is so much greater water reuse and
Recycling and how are people doing this lots and lots of informations available through AWA and weft on gray water
that’s great but what about industrial boiler cycling whatever that may be when
we review those topics we score them and we have this whole Pareto chart of
scoring and and we select the highest rated papers and then we look at what
their categories are because you know we may have 25 beautiful papers in in pure
industrial wastewater treatment well that’s not going to be interesting to our audience our audience has lots of
varied interests so we want to have a breadth of knowledge across the so we seek to cover the things that we’ve I’ve
talked about Ro ion exchange Power Industrial Trace metal removal those
kinds of things because every one of those has a connectivity to our industry
and we want to bring folks that can come and learn about what they already know
about and then why don’t they walk across the hall and say hey I heard this I don’t know much about this
because like a a professor told me when I was in college a long time ago he says Michael we will not teach you everything
you need to know in four years but what we will teach you is how to learn
so are there so many slots for pfos so many slots for a different category so
maybe if I now chose a category that’s more obscure ahead of a better chance of
getting selected is there any technique to that there is a technique to that and I would
encourage folks to to go after those emerging topics what we do seek is to not have any more than two sessions over
that two and a half day period a session has either three or four papers in it and we don’t want to have more than two
sessions of a subject matter because we want to cover that breadth so if you’ve got an interesting paper on something
that’s not highly published in terms of technical content yes please write it up
but there seems to be a lot of interest right now in lithium and how to deal with it how to address it how to recycle
it yeah it’s a solid waste material but it contacts water in every way shape or form chromium we’ve got issues related
to chromium what are the constituent standards associated with that these are emerging topic issues and then we have
actually on the website as well a list of emerging topics so those are the ones
where we’ll be looking for for sure once you’ve selected an abstract and you
notify the person that yes we are interested in you developing your presentation for the conference what is
the next step for them the next step is for them to write the actual technical paper and that is an
important distinction for our conference versus at other conferences we require
that a technical paper is published because we publish that as part of our
conference proceedings so technical paper what does it have it has an opening statement a background statement
it has data it has an analysis section it has references citations prior work
that might be included in now new work so that’s the next step is to actually
write the paper because the paper will be somewhere in the range of 7 to 12
pages long depending upon the amount of graphs that may go in it understanding that let’s start with the end in mind if
we are going to stand up or we’re going to talk about a subject matter and we have 25 minutes to do so we really have
a rather narrow Focus that you’re going to write a a technical paper about it
may take you seven or eight pages maybe 12 pages to write it to show the data but imagining that each one of those
technical sections takes four minutes to actually analyze in six and a half or
seven minutes to talk about the data itself boom you quickly fill up a 25 minute presentation so that’s how we
encourage our authors to to begin is what is that narrowly focused conversation that you want to have and
the information you want to present and then yes you’ll end up with a 12 11 maybe 10 slide deck that will take up 25
minutes between even including entrance slides and closing sides it just happens
that way when you’re trying to explain these technical subjects is there a view process before the paper
is actually viewed with the public there is yes so the full process is this
author publishes a first draft of the paper to the session chair the session
chair and the executive committee person and potentially the discussion leader would read that provide feedback
whether that’s grammatical format gaps things that don’t make sense to the first reading they’ll send that
readability probably we have a fellow who had taught us how to really write a
better paper um anyway they’ll send back those comments to the author the author will
then adjust the paper to address the comments and send it back as final once that is done
then that final paper is the final paper it’s sent to the discussor
and then the discussor reviews it provides a written reply
they call it their discussion and it we ask the discussers to really
focus on you know three to five key points in the paper not to address every paragraph that’s in the paper
the discussor then prepares a presentation so that the author knows
what the discussor is going to say and the professional relationship between the author and the discusser is that the
author has to understand that while they know what the discussor is going to say
please don’t address the discussor’s comments as part of the paper presentation
so you can see how you know an author might get their feelings hurt or they want to to address something that’s
pointed out but if we follow the letter of the law and we’re trying to be transparent to both parties
the we asked the author to this is what the discussor is going to say because you get a rebuttal period you get five
minutes for addressing the discusser’s comments please don’t address them under the presentation of the paper just
present the paper topic and that’s what makes it work because think about the
consumer think about the participant in the conference they’ve never read they’ve never heard they don’t
understand a lot until they first hear it and so that’s what we wanted to have
them do is bring them into the conversation into the thought have them gather that that thought up in the top
of their head here’s some challenge along the way that says oh I didn’t think of that maybe
that generated another question it’s like you spoke and then what’s the with
the author able to provide a professional reply we didn’t cover that
because it wasn’t part of the scope but we didn’t have time to cover it in the paper but the data is available whatever
it may be then the audience now says oh I heard it
I heard the challenge I heard a reply hmm well I have a different question because my first question was irrelevant
relative to the paper and that’s the whole process and it takes about 50
minutes five zero minutes to go through that whole process on at the conference do you have to be a member of the IWC in
order to present or attend a conference no not at all it is open to anyone
anyone around the world and then who would become a member and what are some
benefits of being a member well if being a member would be on the advisory
committee and how you become a member of that is you make an application contact
Dave tjorski at the engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania reach out to me
and we can get you signed up it’s really a volunteer organization you got to pay
just a little bit of a stipend to join the advisory committee and we meet three
times a year to talk about the items that are associated with the conference so anyone can join as an advisory
committee generally their company sponsors okay so whether it’s pure
alight or violia or whoever it may be the company would send a representative
but individuals we have sole Proprietors who are Consultants they’re members as
well so we’re not restrictive in addition to the papers there’s also an
exhibition can you speak a little on that oh yes the exhibition I’m grinning
because that that’s really a lot of fun we’ve got a hundred exhibit spaces give or take a you know whichever year in the
venue that we’re at and the exhibitors have everything that you would imagine that would be at a technical conference
you’ve got your meter manufacturers you’ve got your Consultants you’ve got product providers you’ve got contractors
we have a booth there have had for a very long time but what makes that fun is the exhibitions are open between the
technical sessions so we’re not competing been with each other so think
about what we start with we are an expertise focused conference the commercial side of it is a very
important part you have to have that in business so middle of the day and in the
afternoon the exhibitors wide open Hall you know food and drinking the things that go with that along with with H2O
theater that anyone who wants to pay just a little bit of money they can stand up and provide a commercial
message because that’s not part of the technical program but the exhibition Hall is a place where people truly
gather and network and set meetings and discuss the things that they’re working
on there has not been a conference in 14 years that I’ve been to the conference
where there isn’t a deal that I’m working on somewhere in the in the hall it’s just that neat because the people
who are the deciders are there it really is a great conference I have not been to one in a while I need to fix
that and I understand that you’re very formulaic on when and where you have the
conferences so I went to one in Orlando and then it rotates through can you explain that
sure this year it’s November 12th through the 16th in San Antonio Texas right on the Riverwalk so if you’ve not
been to San Antonio it’s a great place if you’ve been to San Antonio it’s everything you can imagine it’s that
Riverwalk is is a neat neat location and that is a fun place to go in the middle of November before Thanksgiving and it’s
always enjoyable from a weather perspective it does rotate from Orlando
San Antonio and like I say we’ve been out in Phoenix area in Scottsdale and here’s the prime motivation we are
pragmatic in that to drag everyone from the west coast to Orlando or everyone
from the east coast to Scottsdale it is a cost and time issue here’s the other
thing we have owners and users who are across the entire nation and we want
them to be able to attend in the most convenient way possible so we go to these population areas
it’s easy to get in it’s easy to get out there’s usually a university so we can
pull in that true educational component if the students so choose but it’s also
a fun destination for in the month of November and it’s after a couple of the
other conferences you know wef is in September and Iowa’s are the weas are around the states are in different parts
of you know the summers in the fall early Falls so that’s why we have November but that’s also why we rotated
across the the United States because we want to make it easier to get to
so if you were just able to get one thought into our listeners Minds about
the IWC what do you want that thought to be that thought would be the reason you
want to attend is because you will learn something that you didn’t know
confirm something that you probably know and have a lot of fun connecting with
the human beings and they’re getting their phone numbers so that when you run into an issue that’s two years from now
you know I know just a lady or gentleman to call who can lead me in the right
direction that’s what I would ask them to know outstanding I have no doubt that people
are going to want to find out more information about the IWC what’s the best way for them to do that
to go to the website search the website if that becomes confusing or is
incomplete reach out to me look at the show notes you can reach out to Dave
teorski at the engineering Society of West Pennsylvania again on the website happy to direct you in any way but that
personal contact is very very welcoming and probably helpful well Mike this has
been very informative I know this is a volunteer position for you probably
don’t get a lot of thank you so I want to thank you for all the work that you
and your co-members do to put on such an incredible conference and then you going
above and beyond by coming on this podcast and sharing all of those things with the scaling up Nation thank you so
much for that you’re welcome Trish very very honored to be here [Music]
well Mike thank you for coming on the scaling up H2O podcast it’s always great
when we have people that are willing to share something that they do and you
know that’s a volunteer position that Mike is doing with the IWC and there’s so many people out there that are
volunteering with organizations and these are all non-profits so they couldn’t do what they do without all of
the volunteers out there so whenever we talk about all the events that are coming up think about all the volunteers
that are working within those organizations to make sure that you have something that you can get something out
of there’s so much learning at all of these conferences and of course the IWC
conferences taking place November 12th through 16th in San Antonio so maybe you
want to meet Mike maybe you want to learn more about the International Water conference we will of course course have
all of that information on our show notes page and I also want to give a
shout out to Jay Harwood and Jim Summerfield so a few years ago when this
podcast was just getting started they invited me to their conference which was
in Orlando at the time I was their guest and I interviewed Jim and Jay on episode
124. we are in the middle of the conference center so you get to hear all
the hustle and bustle that’s there but Nation there are so many conferences out
there and trust me if you’re not going to conferences I think you’re missing a golden opportunity to learn because it’s
difficult to find all the information that we need to know about our industry so we can start to learn it then when we
learn it we can then apply it so we can actually know it so a great way a to
start learning tons of information is to figure out a conference that you want to
go to now do you want to supercharge that learning experience if you do then
volunteer with that organization and when you volunteer don’t think I’m going
to get all of this stuff and that’s why I’m going to do it you’ll never be happy that way
if you volunteer because you’re going to meet some new people and that you are
going to give to that organization if you volunteer with that mindset it will
change everything and I promise whatever you give will come back to you minimum
tenfold I volunteer with several organizations and that has been proven
every time that I do that so whatever the organization is you can go to our
events page and you can find all the things that are coming up and if you
want to get involved in any of those items I know that they would love to
have you here are a few things that are coming up that maybe you want to check out these are all outside of the United
States so the fourth Global Smart Water Summit is taking place May 25th through
26th in Berlin Germany so the focus of
this is on Smart Water grids best practices in water management modern
filtration and water treatment techniques to include all the latest Innovations if this sounds like
something you want to learn more about you can go to scalinguph2o.com go over to our events
page and we will have everything you need to know to make a reservation and
put it into your calendar as well in Darwin Australia the 21st International
Symposium on health related water microbiology is taking place that’s
going to be June 4th through 9th that’s hosted by the International Water Association this is a forum that
exchanges scientific information with health related professionals about water
if this is something that sounds interesting to you and why wouldn’t it
infectious disease and water treatment all together Under One Roof to try to
figure out how we make water safer for everyone we’re gonna have information about that at scalingup h2o.com and
navigate over to our event section and then finally the International Water
Association is hosting their sixth annual International Conference on eco
Technologies for Waste Water treatment this is going to be in Spain June 26
through 29th this event aims to discuss the latest Cutting Edge Eco Technologies
for a sustainable transition in Waste Water treatment reuse and resource
recovery if this is the type of water treatment that you practice maybe this
is an event that you want to check out for all of these events including the
International Water conference and more go to our events page and we will have
all of that information for you something that’s coming up that I want
to talk about as well is the fact that the rising tide Mastermind is having our
live event in just a few short weeks Nation we started the rising tide
Mastermind with the idea that our job is hard that most people don’t understand
the issues that come up in industrial water treatment and we wanted a forum
where you could just get help with what was going on in your life in your career
and you could just start there you didn’t have to back up and explain all
the things somebody needed to know about your industry because people just don’t get what it is that we do since that
time we have well over 60 members we have six groups with a waiting list for
group seven and it’s not just about technical it is about life what is going
on in your life that you need help with and Nation you pick the topic I promise
we have talked about it and the rising tide Mastermind members are better
because they are part of a group they have a group of people that care about
them that they care about and the simple goal is how do we get each other further
faster and have more fun at the same time well that’s the rising tide
Mastermind and each and every year we get together here in Atlanta Georgia a nation we have members all over the
world and we come right here to Atlanta Georgia and we have an amazing three-day
event we have workshops we normally have an assignment that we’re using to build
our professional skills we have a lot of networking and a lot lot of group time
we have speakers come in it is my favorite few days of the year and it’s
because all these people are coming together and you get to see them in person normally we’re over virtual
meetings and those are great we get a lot accomplished but there’s just something different when everybody comes
together and that’s happening May 23rd through 25th I cannot wait for that
event so many listeners out there are rising tide Mastermind members and I
can’t wait to see you here in Atlanta and for those of you that are not a
member of the rising tide Mastermind well maybe the rising time Mastermind is not for you and maybe there’s another
group out there for some of you maybe the rising tide Mastermind is exactly what you are looking for and perhaps you
should check it out you can go to scalinguph2o.com forward slash Mastermind and you can find out more
about what the rising tide Mastermind is and then if you want to dive deeper you
and I can get on a conversation to see if this is the right group for you but I’m going to be honest it’s not the
right group for everybody so maybe there’s another group out there now since I lead the rising tide Mastermind
and I believe in The Mastermind concept so much I’m a member of another
Mastermind group called iron sharpens iron and Aaron Walker is the founder of
iron sharpens iron in fact he’s been on this podcast twice episode 184 and
episode 248 we call him big a he’s one of my mentors and Nation the simple fact
is life is hard and life throws some pretty hard stuff at us on a regular
basis and it is just difficult especially when you’re navigating
through life alone the whole thing about the rising tide Mastermind iron sharpens
iron or any Mastermind is you’re not alone anymore and I tell you when you’re
not alone and when people know more about you and they care instantly more
about you because they know more about you it is amazing how people will help
each other up when they fall down in fact what normally happens is they catch
you on the way down so you don’t really fall and now it’s more of a learning
experience and you realize that you’ve got all these people that have your back for the sole interest that they want you
to get better remember the entire Mastermind concept is how do we support
each other while getting support and making us all get further faster while
we have more fun one more time just in case you did not get it that’s going to
be scaling up h2o.com forward slash Mastermind Nation I hope you find an
event that you want to attend and if you enjoy that event it’s my further hope
that you find a committee or something that you can volunteer with for the two
reasons that you want to give and you want to meet new people and if you
volunteer with those two things in mind you will be amazed at what comes back to
you and for an extra twist if you really want to have more fun at life if you
want to go further faster then I urge you to look into the Mastermind concept
Nation thank you for listening to the scaling up H2O podcast and I’ll have a
brand new episode for you next week of scaling up H2O
[Music] combination it’s my hope that whatever
you do in the industrial Water Treatment Community that you do it with excellence
and if you’re in the same type of water treatment that I’m in I do that by maintaining my certified water
technologist designation I know so many of you out there are studying for that prestigious certification and I’m here
to help I’ve answered each one of the mock exam questions letting you know the
logic behind how questions are asked and also doing all the math to show you how
to set things up so you can easily find the right answer and make sure you don’t
select one of those sneaky wrong answers go to scalinguph2o.com forward slash cwt prep
again that’s scalingup h2o.com forward slash cwt prep to sign up today