If you weren't there, you can read it here: The 2021 Danube Water Conference on “Building a Resilient and Secure Danube Region” was held on October 18-20, 2021. It was a virtual, two-track conference, and if you missed it all, missed some of it or want to reread the most interesting of many interesting parts, turn to the Event's page on Voice of the Danube at the end of this article and download your comprehensive conference report.

The 2021 Danube Water Conference attracted some 250 participants from more than 30 nations on all continents. Half of the audience were professionals from utilities, 18% worked in ministries, national and regional governments, and 17% represented international organizations, with the remaining 12% a mix of academia, consultants and communal authorities.

The conference theme was “Building a Resilient and Water Secure Danube Region”, and according to surveys among the participants, that hit a nerve: 83% feel that the Danube Reason is not absolutely, only somewhat “water secure”, with climate change seen as the by far biggest threat, lack of institutional capacity the runner-up, and both lack of infrastructure and cooperation/coordination winding up third.

Deciding that safe is better than sorry, the organizers had early on decided to meet in the virtual space, going to great lengths to provide an “as good as live” conference experience. Participants were treated to one keynote, one “Ask me Anything”, 30 presentations, four panel, five roundtable, and six plenary discussions in altogether 16 sessions.

All were great, and some really shone: Four our of ten survey participants loved the session on communication “Do You Speak Danubian?”, the “Smart Utility Management” theme reached the same level of approval, with “Droughts and Climate Change” a close runner-up.

The event was rich in memorable highlights: Kala Vairavamoorthy, CEO of the International Water Association, who called on political bodies to switch from post-disaster rescue and recovery thinking to proactive prevention and cure, reminding leaders that “good water is good politics”.

“Do you Speak Danubian?” explored communication and coordination across the impossible number of language, cultural and political barriers and borders in the Danube region, concluding unanimously that the water sector needs to stop talking to itself and start driving the political agenda.

During a plenum on exemplary utility management, Piers Clark, Chairman of the Isle Group Ltd. held a ten-minute world premiere, for the very first time publicly revealing The Trial Reservoir, a highly innovative approach to financing innovative technology.

Impressive, inspiring and, more than once, entertaining words came from water world veteran Gustavo Saltiel in a lively “Ask me Anything”-session that provided insights into a career that took him from engineering jobs in the Argentinian outback to the General Manager seat of a huge state-owned utility and on to development projects on three continents.

Summing up the rich content of three intense days during the closing session, World Bank's Winston Yu, also expressed optimism: “I feel that this crisis has brought a huge opportunity to change. Can we build back better? I think we can.”

The audience enjoyed all this on the most advanced conference management platform available: Swapcard with its smart mix of advanced conference management and social media elements won the hearts of the crowd. Nine out of ten respondents in a poll during the conference loved it, mostly for its wide variety of possible session formats, as-good-as-live networking opportunities and social media gimmicks like the Photo Booth.

IAWD President Walter Kling perfectly caught the mood of the audience when he said during his closing address that those who attended had seen the future of conferencing: Nearly 80% of the respondents in the conference feedback survey would appreciate a virtual component as an add-on feature to future physical events, and 22% would value an online live stream.

For an in-depth look back at this memorable event, please follow the link below to the Event's page on Voice of the Danube for the full 50 pages Conference Report as well as the presentations and video streams of all sessions.