Israel Water Delegation to the UK, July 2011

Last week, the Commercial Office was delighted to host a delegation of water innovation companies from Israel to the UK. Arriving the evening of July 4th, the goals of the two day trip were largely to facilitate an exchange of ideas and experience with their UK counterparts and hopefully plants seeds for mutual business development in the future.

The morning on the first day of the trip was spent at Anglian Water, one of the UK’s leading Water Utility companies. After a comprehensive site tour, Head of Innovation, Steve Kaye spoke about the company’s challenges with sewerage.

The group moved on to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for a briefing on the opportunities in Eastern Europe and how the water market works. Ian Bernard, the Technical Manager for British Water generously gave up his time to provide for the delegation an objective overview of the entire UK Water industry. The evening finished with a fantastic buffet dinner hosted by UK Israel Business at the offices of Nabarro LLP.

On day two, the Commercial office had pre-arranged an ‘Israel Water Innovation Day’ at the offices of BDO in Baker Street. The keynote speakers were Tom Stephenson, Chairman of British Water, Simon Barnes, Head of Innovation at Yorkshire Water and Shai Weiss, the Founding Partner of Virgin Green Fund.

The attendees comprised of stakeholders throughout the water industry, with representatives from the majority of the UK Utility companies, venture capitalists and related trade associations.

Overall the Commercial Office facilitated in excess of 120 meetings in a relaxed atmosphere where the visiting Israeli companies were able to showcase their innovations and solutions to the UK market.

We have been very happy with the feedback we have received so far and are very optimistic the event will act as a catalyst to fuel the UK’s interest in Israel’s premier water event, ‘Watec’ being held in November this year.