 Thank you very much. Very much, Rebecca. I can't wait for 2028 to show you my personal robot assistance. I'm sure that it may help me to make better decisions at the boardroom. But of course, I'm not here to debate on that. For that, we have a wonderful panel this afternoon. And I'm just going to introduce the moderator of that panel. Will Cerny is an international recognized thought leader on water strategy and innovation. He has authored numerous books and articles and is the founder and CEO of WaterFoundry, a disruptive collaborative and responsive company promoting 20th century water solutions. But above all, and I'm quoting his own words, Will is young at heart, and I think that this will be a wonderful talent in order to get the most out of our panel. Will, if you wish. Well, that's a great way to start. Your key takeaway is young at heart. So I might be young at heart, but I do remember measuring water levels with a steel tape and chalk. So I just dated myself pretty significantly and you caught that. So I'm really excited about the panel. I'm excited about the experts that you'll be hearing from today. And I've been thinking about digital water, obviously, and the panel and decided I would start with a quote from a science fiction writer, which surprised me a little bit, but it's appropriate. So some of you may know William Gibson. He coined the term cyberpunk cyberspace. And this great quote is the future has arrived. It's just not evenly distributed yet. And when we think about digital, this really, really fits in that there are stakeholders out there that have adopted digital technologies, embraced it and creating a lot of value. Others that are getting acquainted with it and others that know nothing about it. So we're really essentially on this journey in understanding what digital means and how it will change our relationship with water, not the water sector, all of our relationships with water. Key word in that quote for me is yet. So we will get there. I think Rebecca framed it very nicely where digital technologies will become a commonplace, create enormous value for society, and maybe we'll even achieve SDG6 in all of this, which obviously is critical and why I believe we're all here. So panelists, if you don't mind coming up. We've got about 20 minutes. We're going to keep this lively, engaging, hopefully entertaining. Answer key questions related to digital water. So the panelists are Avachek Shaduri, Water Industry Advisor for Tata Consultancy Services, Patrick Decker, CEO and President of Xylem, Arlinda, Ibrahim Lauri. I did okay, right? Better. Aveline Volke, Associate Professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering of Ghent University, and Rebecca if you don't mind joining us. We don't have an extra chair, but come on up and I'll walk around and ask questions. So I'm going to go off script because it's going to be a lot more entertaining for the next 20 minutes. We had a couple of conversations when we were preparing. One of which was what is digital water? What is the digitization of water? And Rebecca, I think you gave us a nice landscape, but I'm willing to bet everyone has a different view of really what this is and what it means. So if you can briefly, in your own words, just frame what is... Oh, thank you. What is this? What is digital water? Who wants to dive in, so to speak? So yes, you're right. Well, it means completely different things to different people. To one CIO, it means giving an improved handle device to all the field stuff. It's going digital. To another CIO, it means taking all the applications to the cloud. That's going digital. Both of them are right in their own way. But how do we come... How do we converge, if you like, and come to a single definition of what we want to do? There will always be different priorities for different companies due to regulation, due to the way they operate. But that's what I think we would... Looking at the experts around the room and here on the podium, we need to get to somewhere where we can say, okay, if you are talking of digital water, step one to three is this. You might want to do one D before one C, or one D before one C. That's down to here. But that's what we should get to. Patrick, I'm interested in your take. Xylem has a digital water strategy that you are executing. So what does that mean to you and your customers? So first I would say I would love to scrap all the buzzwords. They're intimidating. I think it invokes fear. I think when you are a solutions provider to the industry, you have to build trust with an industry that is understandably conservative in its nature. There's not a lot of upside for taking risk and a whole lot of downside if you fail. So to me, what digital means is any utility understands, they're getting loads of data off of various types of sensors, meters or sensors. It's how do you turn that information into actionable insights? I know I have a problem as a utility. How can I turn that data into something I can work with to solve a very simple problem? And the challenge is differed by utility. So I'd rather get away from the whole digital, AI, machine learning, IoT, those things intimidate. As opposed to we all know that if you get the right data to solve a problem and you actually have people can actually turn that into actionable information, people can then become disarmed. But it is an issue of trust. May I react to that? Go ahead, then I'll tell you about that. Well, it's a container item or container terminology, as we say, so we always need to define it. But then for me, it would be like having lots of data. And yeah, you said trust. I think trust is very good. But for me, understanding is better. You could also say control is better, you know. But in this world where we gather more and more information, I think it's very important that we have education, that we train people not only to manage the data, to find the right information, to also train them in fundamental things so that they keep their critical sense. That's essential. And it also has another dimension. Understanding also we need to get the people in the utilities understand what we're doing. Because we want to have them implemented. We want to get their trust. And then back there. As far as you mentioned utilities, as I'm representing utilities, I think, on a panel. Well, not in Albania, digital water is not even mentioned. We're still in between new innovative technologies rather than talking about digital water utilities. So not trying to represent middle-income countries or low-income countries in a panel or in the room, but still concerned of finding a way on how to finance new technologies, innovation in the water utilities, and how to bring those, all the stakeholders needed to understand that maximizing efficiency in utilities and being effective, being customer-centric, what did it mean? So just trying to give an example. A few years ago, in my utility, we still continue to have this manual water billing system in place. And we really wanted to try something new. So we implement the smart, innovative water meters, and it took us years to make the regulators, together with the local government, together with the supplier manufacturers as well, in a table, trying to make them understand why we need to change the behavior, the mindsets, and to change the technology. So different meaning of digital water in different contents. Yeah, that's my perspective. Would we benefit collectively if we dropped the jargon and the terms? And just we have new tools in the toolbox, basically. They happen to be digital, as opposed to, you know, it's like one more big trend, you know, IOT AI fill in the blank. I'm getting some nods. Well, I think so, because first of all, at least for me, when I hear digital, I think expensive. That's not necessarily the case. I also, it raises questions in my mind around the sustainability of the technology. How quickly is it going to change on me when I put it in place? Whereas what I find, I'm an optimist towards this industry and the whole water management, because working around the world, we see a number of utilities, large, medium, small, developing countries, developed countries, that when they get to the point where there's such an important need, whether it be scarcity, affordability, resilience of the infrastructure against climate change, they move. But I think we could serve the sector quite well by creating a conversation where the utilities themselves are sharing their own case studies of learnings along the way. That goes back to my comment of trust. If it's always me going in trying to sell a technology, they assume I'm trying to sell something, as opposed to creating a conversation within the sector itself. Sure. And yes, you can jump in. I'll just, I'll contribute quickly. I think it's almost a clash of cultures, if you will. From a technology standpoint, we're used to trying new things. That's what we do. From an engineering, a water perspective, we can't, there's no room for error. It has to work. It must work. So, for me, call it what you will. But digitization creates this space for creativity that's badly needed. By creating a representation of the physical system, you have a place where you can do scenario planning and you can try different things. But the trust is a big thing, right, to get over and to start, you know, exploring that. I can go back to a couple other things, again, going off script here. And that, you know, I know we're primarily talking about the water utility sector. But there's a broader value proposition with these new tools, if you will, that we're talking about, where the public sector, industrial clients, civil society, you know, everybody, basically, suddenly has tools to collect data, aggregate the data, and turn it into actionable information. So to me, it's this relationship with water that is being transformed through AI, fill-in-the-blank, and so on. And one thing that we touched on was the issue of technology doesn't sell itself. So Patrick, you're talking about building trust. I mean, this is basically, you know, what's the human dimension here in terms of workforce and so on? So can you all sort of jump in a little bit on the soft side of deploying these new tools across all sectors? And Arlene, to talk about the generational push in all of this, because you are the youngest one on the panel. I think, yeah, the young generation, they are very, I think, active. They're born with their mobile and the speed internet being always proactive, always supplying time. So I think they are very going in parallel with the new technologies, although we'll embrace the technology. I think it will be the key factor that will help all the companies, not only utilities, but also other companies, to bring the specialty millennials into and jumping in the millennials into their workforce in order to prepare this skill set which is needed. And this, I think the generation will be embraced by the technology area. So I think it's good opportunity for all the companies to start thinking in advance about that. Thank you. I think the human element that you touched upon is probably the most important one. Technology is the easier part if you ask me. A couple of weeks ago we had a very difficult discussion with one of the treatment plant owners in UK. He owns a treatment plant around set for the last about 15 years and his question was, I have a budget. I have to produce X volume of water every day of certain quality. If I do that, I go home happy. Why do I go digital? What's what's in there for me? And we didn't have an answer because he was doing his job. What he's supposed to do in the right way using whatever tools and equipment he has. So taking him on the journey for digitization or going digital, whether it's new new equipment for treatment, whether it's new handhelds for his people, it's that's extremely important. I would only add though that we're always going to have those examples. You know, there's always going to be the utility who's reasonably slow to adopt for all the reasons that we've articulated here. But I think I look at the convergence in two ways. I think about it from the inside out in terms of the human element. What we find is if we go in and we're meeting with the CEO of the utility or the CTO or CO or whatever and we come in over the top with our moonshot on what they ought to be able to do and we're not working it through the middle management, the operating layer. It's like anybody in human nature. You don't want to have your boss coming in and say I just met with so and so and they think there's a whole better way to do it. You've got to work the relationship at multiple levels of the utility. The good news is generationally that's changing and they are expecting to have things faster, cheaper, smarter. But then I think about what's happening in the greater society. We're seeing more and more of the utilities that are progressive because they need to be focusing much more on the consumer engagement, helping people empower themselves on their own footprint, but to be more transparent around how they're operating as a utility. That's a whole brave new world that is going to require them to make moves in the so-called digital space that there wouldn't otherwise be thinking about. So I think it's a positive convergence that we're seeing, but it takes time. It's not evenly spread. Right. So that's an interesting thread and Evelyn, I'll jump in a minute, but the two-way relationship between the water provider, water user, and the customer, consumer, citizen, scientist, whatever we want to call it, is now enabled by these new tools. So Evelyn, I'm interested in your take on all this. You were nodding. I was going to have a take on the previous question, but I'll try to have a take on this one as well. It's about the generation of data and how the consumer is there. I would think then immediately about smart censoring and all these things we have in our houses to control water consumption and so on. And some people think it's great and some people are a bit concerned because they're concerned about their security, about their privacy. Maybe I don't want to have... They want to come and install a smart meter, but maybe I don't want a smart meter because... So what is the added value, I think? If we want to install these smart meters, it will take a lot of human dimension to show the customer what is the added value of that. I would just real quickly add, I think, that that's incredibly on point because it's not digitization for the purpose of digitization. It's to what end? So what is the goal that you're trying to achieve and then work backwards? Maybe there's a new way with these new technologies and tools that we have to get to that end point, but we just haven't figured it out because what we've done in the past was move from A to B to C. And so these... If we can use these technologies to blow up... Not to blow up, I shouldn't use a gas industry analogy, but if we can use these new tools to rethink how we're actually working and do it more efficiently than... And do so by bringing the people along who have to actually make the change, I think that's where you start to see everyone collaborating and working together. My take is that this is really not optional in a way. I mean, we're having this intellectual conversation about a set of tools that have emerged, but fundamentally, we're facing increasing water scarcity, declining water quality, and when supply exceeds demand, you could be really sloppy. I don't think we can be sloppy with the gallon or a liter anymore. So we're going to have to get over these human hurdles and value proposition, perceived cost issues, and so on. There's really no choice. I mean, is that how you see it? Or am I pushing an agenda here? No, I mean, you know, I pick said country, pick said utility, pick said watershed. You know, they're each facing different issues, but I go back to the notion of when there is necessity, okay, when there is no other option. Whatever that may be, it may be scarcity for industrial expansion. It may be a resilience of the water infrastructure to climate change. It may be the affordability issue, which is pretty much commonplace around the world. I find the affordability. If the regulator pushes you. If the regulator pushes you. You know, I was in India three weeks ago, and I met with three of the different state ministers. And the very first thing they started the conversation with was the key block for me to build out my smart cities initiatives in India is water. It's water scarcity. But then it quickly goes to water affordability. And then you begin the conversation around, you know, how are you dealing with your non-revenue water issue? And you start digging deeper into it. That's when the eyes let up. And then you begin to have the technology conversation around what solutions actually exist. But if you go in there starting with our pitch on all the great technology we have, it's a non-starter in that conversation. Arlanda, can you jump in on this because you're nodding. I mean, you're living in this world where. I think, yeah, because I'm practitioner, so that's the reason why I'm always a bit concerned of, like, jumping in new technologies. I'm just trying to figure out how to adjust tariffs in the end and think about affordability issues. So, yeah, it's, it's, it will not happen during the night. I mean, it's a process. It has to start. You can start with new technologies and then talk more about digital technologies, but it's a process. So I don't think it will happen everywhere the same and everywhere in the same time. It's lumpy, as it should be. I mean, any transformation looks like that. So, you know, I think for us to assume that this is a linear path, a road map, you know, plan A is not realistic in the scheme of things. Eveline. But digitalization is, and I agree with it, but to add to that, digitalization will never be a goal as such. We will also always have to keep in mind what specific goals we have for specific cases and which part of the digitalization we need for that. It's a bit like modeling, I feel. You can be a very extensive model with all levels of detail, but in the end you only need to answer your first question. Right. You know, one thing that we're talking about, and Kala brought this up earlier, you know, we're essentially water practitioners and we're talking about the information communication technology sector having a role in how we find, use, move water. How much are you seeing in terms of, in quotes, outsiders transforming not the water sector but our relationship with water? And you know, you're obviously living proof of this, but I'm interested in your take in terms of how do you bring outsiders in? You know, is that really transforming the sector? You know, some examples. Who wants to go first? Eveline. A simple first example I'm thinking of is interdisciplinarity is very important and if we see in other sectors that they have good solutions for certain problems, we should not reinvent the wheel. For instance, specifically for data management and data accuracy assurance, there are very good and proven technologies in the chemical engineering sector, but we will have to apply them to our specific cases with specific variables and boundary conditions. I would say generally speaking that if I think about it in the world of utility, I think that the role that the so-called outsiders, because I don't, you know, our tag line is let's solve water. Get rid of the apostrophe, it's let us solve water. We don't care who, whoever wants to jump in, come right at it, but I do think that there with the utility, typically speaking, just getting access to the data, so having an off-the-shelf platform tool that they can gather data is not necessarily particularly helpful. They're overwhelmed by data. It's who can actually turn that into actionable insight around the very network, hardware, physical network they're trying to improve, whether it be the pipeline, the pumps, the treatment plant, so you're still going to need the level of domain expertise that people with longevity in the water sector bring to them. Where I think there's even more of a positive disruption for the more advanced utilities is whether it be the IBMs, the Googles, the Microsofts, and others, you know, Amazon is getting involved, they're thinking about it as much in terms of the user of water's empowerment. How do we build the social interface at that individual level in terms of the water piece of the equation? And we talked before we came out getting rid of the word water sector, which is a silo as opposed to water simply being one important aspect of people's lives. How does it contribute to Smarter City? How does the electric utility, how does the gas utility, how does it all come together? And in the end, what is it that the end consumer wants? Because you have these end customers that have paid for these smart meter networks, right, for electric and gas, but we don't have water yet. Well, maybe we should. Maybe we should piggyback. Maybe we should find a way to leverage, you know, we're such a fragmented industry. So how do we look at the bigger picture? Yeah, in one of the innovation sessions in Northumbria and water recently, we had representations from the customer and retailers. And the top three things they wanted was a single bill for all their utilities, so which underpins data sharing, which underpins, you know, processes has to be common and stuff like that. And then they were saying when a power company can do a smart meter in my home, why not a water company? So there are opportunities to learn from other sectors. Yeah, again, it will take time. One size fits all doesn't help. In this case, it will take some time. So I'd like to stay on schedule and we're over, unfortunately. But let's be bold, you know, what does this look like in what are two sentences going forward? I mean, what's your vision of what water will look like with a whole new set of tools? So just real quick before we wrap it up, Eveline. Not just big amounts of data, but big quality data that we measure the things, not everything we can possibly measure, but exactly to give us the information we want. Great, Marlinda. Toby with more young people that will embrace the technology and will be speedily implementing, I think. Wonderful. Where the utility is able to use a common set of data and they can use insights and machine learning other tools to be able to determine where the next best dollar of capital could be spent addressing the whole issue of water affordability and to a world in which the young people are demanding that they have a chance to be empowered in terms of what their own water footprint is. I think the whole situation is around intelligence operations. So it fits into good quality of data, as you mentioned. What intelligence do we derive from them? And that's where I see a big change of the water companies with all these new technologies coming in. They would be in a better place with the data, with intelligence, which would help them to become more proactive rather than reactive. That's where it's going. For me, it's just the smarter communities. It's the ability to, again, break down the silos to collaborate across all participants and really solve for the most enduring problems that we have in this world. So I want to thank you. I will just add one thing. I think that really what we're talking about is equity and abundance. So how do we take all these tools that are wonderful and magical and achieve SDG6 and not wastewater but create abundance for all of us in an equitable manner? So thank you for being part of the panel. Thank you for being part of the solution. So a round of applause for the panelists, please.