The water industry, as it is known for, works incredibly hard to keep its critical services running, to get them back in action as soon as possible, and to improve their resilience for the future. This session will share the stories and hard-learned lessons by those who have worked tirelessly to improve the resilience of our communities in the water sector.

Kindly hosted by AECOM, the panel discussion will be followed by networking with drinks and canapés provided. The session will be livestreamed to a number of Regional Hub locations, at the AECOM offices in Townsville, Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton.

Panellists
Resilience in Action: How the Post-2011 Flood Resilient Projects Worked This Time Around
Vanessa Thompson, Urban Utilities
Vanessa is the Head of Asset Knowledge and Performance at Urban Utilities and also an Incident Manager in Urban Utilities Emergency Management Response. Vanessa is the Program Manager for the 2022 Flood Recovery team – bringing together customer, community and stakeholder communications with the response and recovery teams, to deliver co-ordinated restoration activities aimed at minimising the impact on our customers and communities.

The February 2022 Flood for the Gympie Region – The Second Highest Flood on Record
Peter Manning, Gympie Regional Council
Peter is a civil engineer with 32 years experience in the water industry in local government and consulting. Peter has been working in regional Queensland for the last seven years, most recently at Gympie Regional Council.

Operational Resilience – Backing Yourself When Sewage Hits the Fan
Cody Bemis, Unitywater
Cody has been working in the water industry for 14 years, including 5 years in operations. He currently leads the Network Engineering section, who’s teams are responsible for optimising performance of, and investigating and preventing faults within Unitywater’s water and sewer networks.