A huge THANK YOU to all who participated in the Spring Conference at the beautiful French Lick Resort in mid-March! We had record numbers again this year, and we couldn’t be more grateful to all of our exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, volunteers, staff & board for their efforts to help make the event a success! To our attendees, we couldn't be more appreciative of you taking the time out of your busy schedules to take part in this event and to continue to grow & strengthen our essential industry!
New this year, we opened the conference Tuesday afternoon, offering a Cybersecurity Workshop in partnership with AWWA, which provided an additional 4 contact hours for attendees. That evening, our Pre-Conference Hospitality Kick-Off Event, sponsored by National Water Services and Advanced Rehabilitation Technology, gave us the chance to mingle over food & drinks, and a couple of Alliance staff members even grabbed the mic to sing some tunes with the band! Wednesday morning, we hit the ground running and participants started off to their chosen track of classes - administrative, water, or wastewater. After receiving positive feedback from last year’s staggered class sessions, we had a similar schedule planned for this year. Wednesday afternoon, we celebrated the best of the best in the industry during our Awards of Excellence Luncheon. We also honored four Indiana high school students, who each received a $2,000 scholarship.
Wednesday evening, we hosted a Hospitality Trivia Event onsite at the Valley Bar with a competitive game of trivia, as well as some late night snacks and drinks. It was a great time to wind down from a full day of classes while mingling with peers and friends, both new and old.
Thursday morning, everyone woke up to a delicious hot breakfast buffet before starting in on another day of classes. We also held the first round of our Regional Water Taste Test Competitions. The Town of Tennyson won the competition and will advance to the Best Tasting Water in Indiana Contest to be held at the Grand Wayne Convention Center during our Fall Conference. We wrapped up the conference by announcing all of the Sportsman's Raffle prize winners. Over $5,300 in tickets were sold for the Sportsman's Raffle, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Water PAC Fund, which ensures rural water & wastewater has a voice in Washington DC! This year's winner was Brent Kirby from ECO Infrastructure Solutions, who walked away with our “Happy Camper” package, worth over $2,000! Todd Watts from the City of Austin won the shotgun raffle. Melissa Burton from the City of Salem won the all-inclusive trip for two to the NRWA conference this fall in Aurora, Colorado, sponsored by Covalen & Midwestern Engineers, Inc. Thank you all for helping make this another fantastic Alliance event!