The Hawaii State Department of Transportation (HDOT), Highways, Harbors and Airports Divisions’ Storm Water Management Programs collaborated to host the 2020 Protect Our Water Conference on Wednesday, November 18, 2020. The Protect Our Water Conference is held annually to provide instruction on best management practices and how to minimize pollution from storm water runoff from construction related activities. In consideration of current restrictions due to COVID-19, this year the conference moved online, virtually bringing together the construction industry for a full day of storm water training.
The conference welcomed approximately 500 attendees, including state and federal employees, contractors, subcontractors, consultants, and other municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permittees. In addition to the 14 offered training sessions, attendees were also able to engage with 20 vendors to learn more about their products and service offerings.
Finally, to encourage engaging with speakers and vendors on the virtual platform, HDOT gamified the experience by allocating points to certain actions including attending sessions, chatting with vendors, and downloading vendor documents. Prizes were awarded to top point earnings.
Mahalo to all of the speakers, vendors, and participants who made this virtual conference a success. If you missed the conference or would like to revisit any of the sessions, recordings can be found at www.stormwaterhawaii.com.
For more information on the 2020 Protect Our Water Conference, please visit https://protectourwater2020.vfairs.com/. We look forward to hosting everyone again next year!