Agenda Overview

The agenda has been deliberately structured with a strategic emphasis on Day One and a more technical and operational emphasis on Day Two.

However, both days are designed for the entire audience.

While Day One focuses on planning, infrastructure, utility coordination, investment models, permitting, community engagement, and long-term resilience, 

Day Two explores the operational realities that ultimately determine what is achievable in practice. 

Understanding treatment technologies, water reuse options, cooling approaches, wastewater infrastructure, and alternative water sources is not just relevant for engineers. It is increasingly important for developers, data centre operators, utilities, planners, investors, regulators, and community stakeholders who are helping shape the next generation of AI infrastructure.

The objective is not to provide a deep technical masterclass on treatment chemistry or cooling technology. Rather, it is to help attendees understand which approaches may be suitable for different site conditions, what infrastructure they require, what trade-offs they introduce, and where they are proving successful in the real world.

For that reason, the agenda has been designed as a journey.

Day One focuses on the strategic questions that increasingly shape where and how AI infrastructure can be developed. We begin by examining which regions are most exposed to water-related constraints, which are demonstrating greater resilience, and how water risk should be evaluated alongside power, land, and broader infrastructure considerations.

As many organisations told us during our research, there is no single solution. What works in one region may be completely unsuitable in another. Local infrastructure, regulatory requirements, water availability, growth plans, community expectations, and environmental conditions all influence the decisions that can realistically be made.

From there, discussions move into utility coordination, regional planning, infrastructure investment, wastewater and reclaimed water networks, stakeholder alignment, and community engagement. Rather than discussing these subjects in theory, sessions focus on real implementation experiences, lessons learned, delivery challenges, and the decisions that have helped projects move forward successfully.

Day Two then builds on that foundation by examining the operational and technical considerations that support long-term resilience. Sessions explore treatment and reuse options, cooling strategies, reclaimed water integration, monitoring systems, automated reporting, and the trade-offs between water consumption, power demand, reliability, operational performance, and future scalability.

The emphasis is on understanding where different approaches may be appropriate, what conditions are required for success, and what can realistically be achieved in different regions and site environments.

By the end of the programme, attendees should have a clearer understanding not only of the challenges involved, but also of the options available, the trade-offs they create, and the decisions required to support sustainable AI infrastructure growth over the coming decade.

The detailed conference agenda is now available to download, offering a comprehensive overview of every session, discussion topic, and learning objective.