When Peter Yolles, founder and managing partner of Echo River Capital, speaks to founders of water tech companies, there is one thing he wants to know: What is their personal “North Star?” 

After a career delivering heavy trucks to utilities and using short training videos to educated operators and supervisors, Joseph Blackman, Founder of Vitendo Training Solutions, finally took the plunge to creating that content full-time. Now, he is an educator and advocate utilizing multiple media spaces: newsletters, podcasts, and videos. 

After becoming burned out working TV news, Kelley Dearing Smith took on a new challenge with Louisville Water. Now, the VP of Communications and Marketing helps Louisville Water tell stories -- and it all starts with listening. 

One of the best ways Joe Zuback, Principal at Global Water Advisors, has found to connect with an audience is to establish commonality with them, and he does so by researching each audience in detail before presenting or speaking.

As a lover of both science and art, Aoife Kelleher, Business Development Manager at BlueTech Research, started her career using art to promote a science gallery, to make it more accessible for more people. Aoife has carried that approach with her in the water industry, including while working on the Netflix documentary “Brave Blue World”. 

As an early adopter of the podcasting medium in the water industry, Travis Loop, Founder & Producer of waterloop, uses his platform to focus on and sharing solutions, as well as sharing success stories, and inspiring people to not give up. 

After breaking into the water industry with PennWell, Angela Godwin became the face and voice of the industry through her work with Endeavor Business Media, and now as Principal Partner with Rogue Monkey Media. 

What does the design aesthetic of a logo tell us about a business? Lorenzo Falzarano, founder of Orb, shares his unique perspective on design and talks about how we validate that our water is safe for use and reuse. 

After spending a decade working on the utility side of the industry, Hugh Sinclair, Vice President – National Practice Lead For Asset Management at Arcadis, now spends his time focusing on the people who do the work – the heroes of the industry – and finds that understanding someone’s story is the most effective vehicle to create empathy and context around their collaborative partnerships. 

For Mike Wade, Executive Director for the California Farm Water Coalition, spending north of $140,000 in crowdsourced funds for an ad and campaign to get the word out to policymakers and the entire country on the devastating effects of the droughts in the west was worth the cost.