The COVID-19 experience taught us many things but certainly one key takeaway is that nothing can replace in-person meetings with our colleagues, customers, and friends. In October, Spiral Water attended two major events in the filtration and water/wastewater treatment space: World Filtration Congress 13 (WFC 13) in San Diego, where we exhibited our advanced automatic self-cleaning filters, and WEFTEC, held this year in New Orleans, where we met with many old friends and made many new ones.
WFC 13 was well attended by lots of bright and technically leading-edge folks from around the world, all coming together and sharing ideas and approaches to solve separation challenges. While WFC 13 is smaller than the mega-shows, it’s a highly focused conference and well worth attending.
The program was highly informative. It provided a good commercial base for exhibitors to showcase their solutions and to interact with our technical colleagues to garner new insights. It featured four primary tracks in Solid/Liquid Separation, Air/Gas, Filter Media and Membranes. Unique to WFC 13, three symposia tracks were featured to address filtration and separation challenges in Energy, Environment and Health.
So not only did we exhibit there; Mike Collins, P.E., Spiral Water’s Engineering Manage, also presented a well-attended session focused on “Advanced Filtration & Concentration for High-Solids Water Systems.” Mike did a bang-up job, with lots of good feedback and interest in our unique solutions.
In short, we engaged, learned and uncovered new ideas and opportunities – and we look ahead to WFC 14, which will take place in 2025 in Bordeaux, France.
WEFTEC is always a highlight event on trade show calendars for those of us engaged in the water industry. While we didn’t exhibit at the show, it provided a super opportunity to meet with existing and potential new partners and to look at complimentary products and systems as resources to forge alliances that will help both parties serve our customers more fully.
There was also a great deal of interest in our filters from companies involved in renewables, with several in-depth conversations about renewable natural gas – specifically, how our separation processes can work as pre-digester conditioners to help improve the yield in methane gas. This is an exciting development, and we look forward to continuing these conversations.
Events like WFC and WEFTEC are important not only for business development, but also to spark ideas about ways to continually refine our products for use as standalone solutions or integration into larger systems. I like to call this “The Art of Discovery,” and I believe it’s essential for all parties involved.
All the best,
Jerry
