Water & Wastewater Treatment

14 | APRIL 2016 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Industry leader Alastair Moseley, Future Water Association "When you've got a senior director sitting in front of you, who can see that something could transform their operation, then the whole picture changes." Interview by James Brockett I t's not difficult to see why the television programme 'Dragon's Den' is a popular format: when those with innovative ideas and products get the chance to make their pitch to the people that matter, it can lead to some great business deals as well as being compelling viewing. In the water sector, it has spawned an established imitator in the form of Future Water Association's 'Water Dragons' competition, the latest edition of which will be held at Utility Week Live in Birmingham on May 17-18. Among the water company directors and experienced industry hands who will be acting as dragons on the day will be Alastair Moseley, consultant and past president of CIWEM who chairs the Innovation and Development Group for the Future Water Association. The value of such a competition, says Moseley, is that despite the priority that innovation now has in the sector, it is still relatively rare for innovators to get the chance to pitch their potentially game-changing technologies to figures who are senior enough to make a difference. "The trouble is when pitching into a business, you are very oŒen not pitching at the senior directors, you are talking to middle managers and people who have got day jobs to do," Moseley explains. "OŒen they just don't have the time to notice what it is you are bringing to them or to put it into place. Bringing new technology online is very hard work, and in the water company's world, time is limited; they are doing more work and have more targets than they've had before. But when you've got a senior director sitting in front of you, who can see that something could transform the operation and could instruct his team to bring it online, then the whole picture changes, doesn't it?" Unlike Duncan Bannatyne and his television colleagues, the Water Dragons do not put their hand in their pockets to personally invest in any of the technologies pitched, but they are individuals who can wield significant purchasing power for their water company and act as advocates for an innovation in the

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