introducing the nexus sustainability leaders summit
By Dean Amhaus, President & CEO
We held our first Water Leaders Summit, at the time just the “Water Summit,” in 2007 — two years before the incorporation of The Water Council. Since then, we have been proud to bring our audience vital discussions of up-to-the-minute water topics.
Today, we are announcing some big changes to that summit, but what won’t change is our commitment to compelling water-related content. We are proud to announce that we are teaming up with Marquette University’s Sustainability Lab to bring you the Nexus Sustainability Leaders Summit on Oct. 29 and 30 in Milwaukee.
Nexus combines and builds off our Water Leaders Summit and Marquette’s annual Sustainability 2.0 Conference. The 2024 summit will explore a range of sustainability-related topics in the areas of water, energy, finance, diversity and inclusion, and the ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting movement.
As we move into this new era for our summit, I see this as an opportunity to more fully examine water topics in the wider context of the sustainability movement. It also is a chance to address the critical topics and stakeholders involved in our National Science Foundation Resiliency Innovation Engine, of which Marquette is a core partner.
Besides a strong water component, it was important to me that we keep a few elements from the Water Leaders Summit:
1. The format. We will still be holding panel discussions and one-on-ones with thought leaders on urgent topics — no PowerPoint presentations allowed.
2. The moderator. Yes, Charles Fishman, our moderator since 2015, is returning to moderate the new event. As one attendee last year said, “Make sure you keep bringing back Charles Fishman. He does a great job getting ideas, stories and insights out of people, and getting people to interact with each other. Fishman is key to the chemistry and the value.” I agree.
3. The venue. We’ve gotten so many compliments on the Garage at the Harley-Davidson Museum, we had to make sure to hold the new event there.
There are a lot of details still to be worked out, but we are excited to move forward and to be working with the Marquette University team! Watch our newsletters and social media for more information and a registration link. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions. See you in October!