Why I Attend HydroVision International

Attendees at various stages in their hydro careers share what makes HydroVision International a valuable learning opportunity.

By Gregory B. Poindexter

Compared to 10 years ago, the business world is increasingly dominated by swipe and tap, a forward from point and click likely spurred on by the efficiency of mobile communication platforms. In such a world: Does face-to-face interaction have importance? Further, does in-person interaction between business professionals justify costs for travel, lodging and time away from normal business when compared to the ease of swipe and tap?

Read on to hear, in their own words, how industry professionals answer, “Yes” to these questions and the benefits they receive from attending HydroVision International.

Power producers

Harrison E. Mutikanga, managing director and chief executive officer of Uganda Electricity Generation Co., has worked in hydropower for fewer than four years, before that working for a water and sewerage company.

Mutikanga said: Attending HydroVision International is important because you meet a lot of people doing similar work, so it’s an opportunity for networking. We realize that the challenges are similar everywhere. We try to pick up a few lessons that are valuable to us, especially us in Uganda where we are constructing new hydropower plants.

Josh Bessette is the apprenticeship and training coordinator for the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. He joined Reclamation in 2016.

Bessette said: The value is in meeting the people and being around industry professionals and getting out of the bubble of our project, seeing the latest and greatest technology, and talking with people who are doing cool things in the industry. It’s all about getting out best practices, best ideas and the sharing piece. There are so many presentations, you can find an interesting topic regardless of your job, and gain from it, and see what other people are doing.

Others allied to hydro

Bianca Viggiano is a PhD candidate studying fluid dynamics, with applications to renewable energy and atmospheric flows, at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Viggiano said: I attended in 2016 too, and you get to see a lot of familiar faces. The Hydro Research Foundation does a great job of connecting you with really whoever you want to talk to. I’m interested in working in national labs. There’s great people here to connect with, and at lunch I was sitting next to somebody from NREL and talking to them about my research. It’s just so easy to be exposed with what you’re doing, and gain connections with people.

Shelaine Curd is water power research operations manager and principal investigator in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. She has been in the hydro industry just under 10 years.

Curd said: HydroVision International is the main place to meet leaders from throughout the world, and leaders throughout all of the U.S., associated with hydropower. This is my seventh year at HydroVision. The first few years it was more gathering information through a fire hose. Now it’s much more about making sure we’re making the right connections with the different research in which we are engaged.

Product and service providers

Brandi Reilly, senior marketing manager for power at U.S.-based HDR, has more than 22 years of experience in the industry.

Reilly said: This has been so valuable just to cultivate our relationships that we have with our clients and have a forum where we can talk collectively and cohesively about all of the issues we see in hydro. I think it’s just valuable for anyone in our industry to be here.

Duc Duy Tran, P.E., is an account manager in the industrial automation — power generation business unit of ABB. He has worked in hydro for only two years.

Tran said: You should be here and participate in the discussions. Bring some of your concerns as well, so that others are aware of what’s happening. We’re all busy with our everyday work, but you’ll be able to put that away and really dive in with some of the real-time dynamics in the field.

HydroVison International 2018 is being held in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., June 26 to 28. The event allows face to face interaction via more than 60 sessions across 13 conference tracks. Presenters deliver information on the industry’s most important and trending topics. About 3,000 industry professionals from more than 50 countries attended the world’s largest hydro industry event in 2017.

Gregory Poindexter is associate editor for Hydro Review.