Next month, I’ll be attending my first Sensus users conference, REACH, where I’ll have the chance to engage with our customers face to face.  To me, there is nothing more impactful than being able to hear first-hand from users about the successes and challenges they’ve experienced. These insights are key to ensuring that the product innovations and process improvements we deliver are focused on helping our customers overcome their biggest challenges. 

In addition to networking with customers, I’m really looking forward to the educational sessions. I’m eager to learn how our technology gives customers a competitive edge in managing water quality, improving disaster response, and developing sustainability plans for one of the world’s most important resources – water.

With hundreds of sessions overall, many of which are focused on water applications, it‘s going to be hard to choose.  In case you’re facing the same challenge, here are my top choices.

Since it’s my first time at REACH, I will definitely be attending “Guide to Water Sessions.” Dan Pinney, Senior Director of Global Water at Sensus, will provide a detailed overview of each water session at this year’s conference.  It’s not limited to first time attendees – with sessions changing each year, this is a great opportunity for REACH pros as well. The session will be Monday, November 4th at 10:00am.

Next on my list is learning how the town of Santa Rosa was implementing advanced metering infrastructure when they experienced a devastating fire. Their metering infrastructure helped during the disaster and inspired new ideas for future applications to enhance the safety of their community. “Disaster Management: Using Advanced Metering Infrastructure during the Tubbs Fire” will take place Tuesday, November 5th 2:30pm.

Another great session will be “More Than Meters: MAWSS AMI Journey” on Tuesday at 3:30pm.  It highlights their journey in moving from AMR to AMI. Starting with the selection process, they will walk us through the infrastructure layout, implementation, contractor management, customer information initiatives, and customer portal. They’ll even show how they are going beyond AMI and building a smart utility network with the same investment.

Any session by Chris Thomson, Manager of Smart Water at Sensus, is on my must-see list. He is an expert story teller, using humor and analogies to better explain his message. Chris used to be a high school teacher, so he has an amazing way of educating people regardless of their skill or knowledge level. Each time I hear Chris speak, I always walk away having learned something new.  His talk at REACH, “Leveraging a Smart Utility Network to Reduce Non-Revenue Water” is sure to give you new best practices for optimizing operations, increasing efficiency, and creating ideas for sustaining water in the future. Don’t leave REACH before his session at 3:30pm on Wednesday, November 6th.

While water sessions at the event are abundant, we also have sessions for gas and electric, too. My colleague and seasoned REACH attendee, Matt Besch, has his tips on those electric sessions you shouldn’t miss.

For your grand slam list, plan ahead to make sure you don’t miss out on what you want to see. If you haven’t registered yet, there is still time.  

I’ll see you in Anaheim!