If you were not in St. John’s last week for the National Water & Wastewater Conference, you really did miss a great one...I even heard the word ‘legendary’ mentioned a few times. Of course we had top quality speakers in top quality panels. The Delta St. John’s and the St. John’s Convention Centre offered the best venue. But of course it was the spirit of Newfoundland that made this event so memorable. We sure had some great food, great music and a lot of fun!

While our attendance might have dipped a bit from Toronto last year, it was clearly a more intimate, and certainly a more fun, event. Maybe there are just too many other distractions in Toronto so everyone goes their own way at night. But in St. John’s we became a tight group of water professionals and friends. We have a true challenge to make Montreal 2018 such an event to remember...but it IS Montreal and that place has genuine magic.

We’re barely back in the office, unpacking boxes and tallying receipts, so we need a couple weeks to prepare a full conference report, but it is coming soon – complete with crazy pictures from our conference celebration.

Start planning for Montreal in November 2018 and start thinking of topics and themes we should be addressing. I am always open for ideas. You can submit your own proposal or tell us what YOU want to learn about. We want to start forming the themes earlier so getting your thinking caps on and send ideas.

St. John’s also saw the launch of the new CWWA 2017 toque. Pictures are already coming in of CWWA members wearing their toques in great places, so watch for great pics in the months to come. If you got a CWWA toque, start sending me pictures from unique locations.

December is going to be a bit funky here in Ottawa as we tackle some major renovations here at CWWA Headquarters. Staff will be taking extended vacations or working from home, so please be patient with us.

Robert