Canada Serves Danish Poutine in Copenhagen!
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IWA’s World Water Congress & Exhibition was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in September and Canada was there to make a big splash (in more ways than one)! As I’ve been telling you for years already, Canada will host this great global event in 2024. So we were there to launch our TORONTO 2024 campaign.
CWWA and our partners at CAWQ (Canadian Association for Water Quality) are your Canadian National Committee to the IWA. In Copenhagen, we took the opportunity to kick off our effort to attract the world’s water professionals to the next event in Toronto, August 11-15, 2024.
First, we placed our Canada Pavilion right in the centre of the Exhibition floor where, with our partners from Water Canada magazine, Canada’s Trade Commission in Denmark and a Canadian Research Coalition we greeted several thousand delegates all week. Then on the Tuesday evening, we hosted a Canadian Celebration where our Canadian Ambassador, His Excellency Denis Robert, addressed the crowd – all of them topped with red Canada ball caps. We all shared beer and wine and even poutine. Yes, poutine in Denmark! We weren’t sure what the Danish chefs were going to deliver us, but it was apparently very good. Everyone knew that Canada was there in Copenhagen, but that was just our first big splash.
Then we were proud to cheer on our Canadian Operators Challenge team, the Sludgehammers from Durham Region - Kevin Round, Matt Moffat and Kirk Gonsalves. We were excited to see them pull off a second place overall finish in their first international appearance.
Then was a genuine splash as several of us jumped into the Baltic Sea. As part of a celebration of how clean the Copenhagen Harbour is, representatives of each country took the plunge together. I was part of that Canada swimming team along with Corinne Lynds of Water Canada magazine, Michele Grenier of the OWWA, all three members of our Ops Challenge Team, and our Canadian team leader, Peter Vanrolleghem of Laval University. Was it fun? I suppose. Was it cold? Oh yeah!
Finally, we wrapped up the Closing Plenary with a terrific video from Toronto Mayor John Tory and Toronto Water GM Lou DiGironimo. As a last duty (or perhaps our first real duty) we accepted the official Talking Stick from the Danish Congress President to our Canadian Congress President, Dr. Vanrolleghem.
Thanks to our awesome Team Canada of Mike Lywood, Corinne Lynds, Ben Lynds, Audrey Beganton, Peter Vanrolleghem, William Fernandes, Elsayed Elbeshbishy, Michele Grenier, and Adam Lawrence and our partners from the Trade Commission, especially Richard Higginson.
Team Canada in the Canada Pavilion – Audrey Beganton, Robert Haller, Adam Lawrence, Michele Grenier, Corinne Lynds, Mike Lywood and William Fernandes.
The Durham Sludgehammers – Kirk Gonsalves, Matt Moffat, Kevin Round – flanked by Steve Harrison (WEF) and Robert Haller (CWWA).
The Water Haller taking the cold plunge into the Baltic Sea!
Dr. Peter Vanrolleghem receives the Talking Stick from Congress President Anders Baekgaard to pass on the leadership for the next congress to be hosted in Canada in 2024.
