Clean Currents 2021 is designed with your information needs and varying learning styles in mind. On-topic sessions, workshops, hands-on learning, and plenty of post-conference follow-up make Clean Currents 2021 the place to be in October 2021.

Making Your Decision to Attend a Conference

When you think about registering to attend an industry conference, what are the key things you want to take from it?

For many of us, the answers fall into three categories:

• New, actionable skills
• Helpful connections
• A first look at industry innovations to be “in the know”

The new industry-wide Clean Currents conference and trade show is designed for you, based on what you told us you wanted from a national conference and trade show in the waterpower industry.

The Clean Currents event is owned by the National Hydropower Association (NHA). All proceeds from this industry-wide event go right back into the association to do the work for the industry. NHA is the nonprofit national association dedicated exclusively to preserving and expanding clean, renewable, affordable hydropower and marine energy. The mission of the organization is to champion waterpower as America’s premier carbon-free renewable energy resource.

NOTE: Clean Currents and NHA are not affiliated with Hydrovision International, which is owned by the for-profit United Kingdom-based company Clarion Events Ltd.

Do you know where the money you spend goes?

Each year, we spend thousands of dollars to attend conferences, but we may be left wondering where the proceeds go.

At NHA, we offer unparalleled transparency. Revenue raised at Clean Currents is invested directly back into advancing waterpower.

Proceeds from Clean Currents will fund NHA’s work to secure hydropower’s place as a climate-friendly, renewable, and reliable energy source that serves national environmental, energy, and economic policy objectives.

Clean Currents is not just by the Industry. It’s for the industry.

What Makes the Programming at Clean Currents Special?

The topic selection at Clean Currents is based on conversations with members of the industry. You told us your needs, and we developed conference content around those needs.

As we developed the conference content, we knew we had to do three things to stand out:

1) Offer sessions germane to meeting your daily challenges and helping to instill best practices and adaption of new technologies;

2) Ensure a balanced program that offers content for all attendees; and

3) Present information in various formats so that attendees could learn in a variety of ways.

Not only are the topics you’ll find at Clean Currents 2021 spot on with what you need, we are presenting them to create an atmosphere of collaboration and free exchange.

Clean Currents will offer 16.5 hours of PDH-eligible educational content. And every minute of it makes you a stronger waterpower player.

Taking a Deep Dive into Relevant Waterpower Topics

When we went out into the field and asked you, it became clear that you want relevant content that helps answer the challenges of our ever-changing industry. Content that helps attendees improve safety, operations, and management and apply innovation that will reduce costs and support additional clean, renewable power generation through improved waterpower.

Clean Currents 2021 programming is relevant to both technical- and business-focused professionals involved with waterpower. Attendees from conventional hydropower, pumped storage, small hydro, marine energy, government agencies, regulators, NGOs, and consultants will all find content for all interests, in a wide range of topics including:

• Dam safety
• Innovation
• Developing new projects
• Engineering
• Environmental protection
• Licensing
• Management
• Marine energy
• Pumped storage

Knowledge in the Round: Leveraging the Best Waterpower Minds in the Business

Learning is a give-and-take process, and this is exemplified in a roundtable environment. Our 12 Roundtable Dialogue sessions take full advantage of the fact that the participants have come from many different regions, with different skills, challenges, and opportunities. Everyone in the room is a teacher and a learner.

The beauty of this style of learning environment is that it’s completely organic. The learning is driven by the needs and knowledge of those in the room.

Roundtable Dialogue topics include:

• Maintenance Best Practices
• Life After COVID-19
• Engineering Exchanges
• Hydro Hot Topics exclusively for Asset Owners

See the full schedule here.

Learning from The Best

We’re also offering you plenty of sessions to hear from some of the brightest minds in the industry.

Our 18 Classroom Presentations and Panel Discussions will provide you with a wealth of information on topics from improving environmental performance through technology to landing investors.

The Classroom Presentations will involve formal presentations followed by an emcee-led Q&A. The Panel Discussions are “fireside chat” style, where a moderator and a group of panelists with differing viewpoints exchange insights and perspectives. Look forward to engaging discussions in which participants explore hot industry topics, share their points of view, and challenge one another—along with the audience—all for the good of the industry.

Here are just some of the Classroom Presentation and Panel Discussion topics you can choose from:

• Cybersecurity
• How technology is used in the field
• Co-location opportunities for waterpower
• Regulatory reform results

See the full schedule here.

Take a Hands-on Approach

Throughout the waterpower industry, the need for training is prevalent. As part of their Clean Currents registration, attendees get access to “deep-dive” workshop offerings. For no extra charge, attendees will find themselves immersed in two hours of interactive training on industry-critical topics. You’ll experience hands-on training led by knowledgeable instructors and you’ll leave with insights, tools, and techniques that you can immediately put to work when you’re back on the job. Take deep dives into topics such as:

• Public safety around dams
• Resource agencies and their responsibilities
• Flexibility of hydro operations
• Diversity, equality, and inclusion

See the full schedule here.

Get Recharged in the Power House

The Innovation Power House is the hub at the center of the conference—and it’s the biggest “classroom” at the event. It’s also the dynamic and engaging epicenter of innovation that will make your head swim with new thoughts as you see hands-on demonstrations of “what’s next” for the industry.

NHA will bring in demonstrations from experts outside the hydropower industry—robotics, technology, data management—to show how their innovations could be applied to our industry.

These demonstrations are set up for organic Q&As where you can interact with the demonstrator.

What’s more: The Powerhouse is your one-stop shop to meet those who are investing and shaping the waterpower industry over the next ten years.

Clean Currents will showcase innovative solutions, thought leadership, and exclusive educational opportunities to ensure that the advantages of waterpower remain relevant long into the future.

Learning Happens Everywhere: Even Midstream to the Next Session or Workshop

Clean Currents was designed with mingling — and meaningful contact — in mind. All sessions and workshops are part of CC: Central, which encompasses exhibits, food and beverage services, Intelligence Theater presentations, the Innovation Power House, lounges, and Relaxation Stations. This approach will allow attendees to meet and continue interaction after a session or workshop that deserves a bit more thought.

Follow-up is Fundamental

A conference is only as good as what you retain. Forgotten brilliant ideas don’t get the job done.

But Clean Currents will keep the conversation going on the hot topics that will change the way you conduct day-to-day business to help you work smarter and more efficiently.

Long after you’re back doing your day-to-day routine, you’ll still be learning and implementing new skills with NHA there to help guide you.

NHA brings industry professionals together throughout the year, through its regional meeting series (registration for these is open to anyone working in or with the waterpower industry), its policy- and legislative-focused Waterpower Week in Washington conference in Washington, D.C., and educational webinar offerings.

In addition, NHA serves as the “voice of the industry,” through its POWERHOUSE media platform. Every week, NHA publishes articles on the platform, and provides a weekly email communication to the industry, to provide insights, lessons learned, and knowledge transfer. Many of the topics discussed during Clean Currents will be further explored in POWERHOUSE articles.

For organizations that are members of NHA, the learning and connecting also continues through the association’s extensive committee/council structure, in which people meet regularly throughout the year to exchange knowledge and work to solve challenges of the industry.

Attend 2021’s Best Learning Opportunity

Prior to the formation of Clean Currents, there wasn’t one event that would offer the opportunity for all sectors of the waterpower industry to convene, communicate, and collaborate. And the industry is responding—employees of more than two dozen companies and organizations who own and operate hydro projects plan to participate in Clean Currents.

This is a game-changer.

Add your name to the list of attendees at this first-of-its-kind event.

See you in Atlanta the week of October 18, 2021.

Register now.