Innovation, introductions, and some legit Italians
By Stephanie Zavala, CEO and co-founder of Rogue Water
I’m in a room with the world’s top water innovators and we’re all about to die……
Ok, not really but that mirrored the opening line of William’s article in the movie Almost Famous — one of my all time favorites —that made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. I went for it. In all fairness, our two days with Imagine H2O was of the water rock star caliber.
While we were in a room with the world’s top water innovators, if we were going to die of anything it would have been from a combination of pure enthusiasm and passion for this industry that outsiders dare call boring. Honey, we are anything but.
Day One.
This story begins in February while we were attending the Utilities Management Conference in San Antonio. We received a direct message from one Tom Ferguson.
We had no idea who Tom Ferguson was or what Imagine H2O was but when someone related to water drops a “yo”, the Hawk, and an invite to California in one tweet — you jump. We did some recon, had a spirited phonecall with Tom and decided that if anyone needed to be at Imagine H2O it was us.
We scoured Air BnB for a room we could afford and scored a spot just a few miles from the venue. We shared a room and a bed because we’re entrepreneurs that just went full time in November — every penny counts. Just another bonus to starting a company with your best friend. #GottaShareDontCare. On Wednesday morning, March 14, we hopped on a plane and headed to San Francisco.
The sun came out just before we landed and gave us an incredible San Francisco welcome. We ate, got gala appropriate, and caught an Uber to the Mezzanine where the Imagine H2O Gala was going down. The Mezzanine is actually a nightclub when it’s not hosting a gala of water enthusiasts. Again — not boring! We still want to know how event jedi Tia Lebherz of Madrona Solutions scored a DJ that plays a trumpet while dj-ing.
We arrived a little early and hadn’t dropped the $$ for VIP so we went around the corner and found the most legit Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to, 54 Mint. In Texas it’s hard to find an Italian restaurant where every employee is actually Italian and speaking it to one another. A fellow non-VIP girl had walked up the same time we did and we invited her to come along. Her name was Anya from a company called Storm Sensor which develops sensors that measure storm water quality to help cities tackle CSO problems. (For the non water nerds in the audience, most cities have separate sanitary sewer and storm sewer systems. In older cities, many times these are combined. When those lines get overwhelmed, usually from heavy rainfall, they discharge to rivers before they make it to the treatment plant. No bueno.)
We sipped some fantastic Italian red as Anya discussed their first pilot and the robustness of their telemetry. Arianne and I studied the list of folks she’d been tasked with making contact with at the gala and we plotted how to make introductions. We may not use words like telemetry everyday but we make excellent wing women.
Once at the gala, we were giddy. There was a feeling of excitement in the air. The gala is where Imagine H2O showcases its 2018 Accelerator companies. All around the room were stations where you could chat with the 12 companies that made the cut out of 200 applicants from around the world.
We finally got to meet Tom Ferguson #IRL, the person responsible for us being there. He was every bit of the excitement and enthusiasm we had experienced in our phonecall. If we are the hype women of water, Tom has a spot secured in the ranks of the hype men of water.
At the top of the ranks of water hype extraordinaries is our oracle Mr. George S. Hawkins — the man, the myth, the legend, the former general manager at DC Water. We call him “the Hawk”. The Hawk was the co-host of the gala and innovation forum, which he was scheduled to facilitate the next day.
We met a whirlwind of folks that evening — the kings and queens of water innovation badassery. One of these water queens was Christine Boyle, founder and president of Valor Water Analytics. They were recently purchased by Xylem, a “$13 billion water technology company that services utility and commercial clients across 150 countries,” according to the press release detailing the acquisition. This is the caliber of water professionals we were rubbing elbows with.
As communicators, our heads were spinning. There were so many stories to tell. We met John Azevedo from Tule Technologies,which is a San Francisco based company that developed technology for the agricultural world. Its sensors measure how much water the plants in crops actually use, allowing farmers to irrigate more efficiently. For all the non water nerds wondering what this has to do with you, some of Tule’s biggest clients are vineyards. Their product has allowed these clients to yield higher-quality grapes while reducing water use by 20 percent.
If that’s not a win-win, I don’t know what is.
The 2018 Accelerator companies were announced and in his closing remarks Imagine H2O president, Scott Bryan reminded us that #WorldWaterDay is coming up on March 22. Instead of the normal doom and gloom, he suggested we take a different approach. He encouraged us to tell the stories around the room — stories of how the entrepreneurial spirit is creating sustainable solutions for water challenges across the world. #preach
We wrapped up the evening with dinner at the same legit Italian restaurant as earlier. We had just been too excited to capitalize on the trays of passed hors d’oeuvres at the gala. Need yet another water tie-in? #ChallengeAccepted. Our legit Italian bartender, Gianni, taught us the art of making the perfect ice cube for whiskey and bourbon hand carved from a giant block of ice. #NoWaterNoRocks
Mid ice sculpting lesson we bumped into an impromptu post party by the Utilis team — the winner of last year’s Accelerator contest — whose company detects water leaks from space. Yep — outer space. They use technology that was designed to find water on other planets to find underground leaks on Earth.
With our bellies full, our hearts content, and our minds blown, we decided to call it a night. We could only imagine — after the evening we’d had — what lay ahead of us at the Imagine H2O Innovation Forum the next day. When your day is set to begin with coffee and the Hawk, you know you better bring your A-game.
