Shaping the Vision For A Strategic Pivot For The 2026 Conference

The 2026 pivot's inspiration began not with a whiteboard but in the conversations we had with utility leaders, leakage specialists, and asset managers at this year’s event. While the formal industry consultation phase is set to begin later this month, these early discussions offered a clear signal. There’s a strong appetite for deeper thinking on renewal, resilience, and predictive strategy.

A rough “back-of-the-envelope” blueprint emerged—an early sketch of a new kind of event, shaped by real-world priorities and grounded in operational experience. That framework needs to be tested and validated through a more structured research effort, but the direction is already taking form.

The event aims to address a clear and often overlooked gap: the intersection between pipeline renewal, rehabilitation, and predictive maintenance. These themes are technically interdependent but have rarely been explored in a unified way. Attendees repeatedly highlighted that the shift toward asset health and long-term resilience planning is no longer optional—it’s beginning to take shape inside utilities, particularly among those moving beyond reactive detection models to tackle underlying causes of leakage.

This shift has strategic consequences. It calls for a much closer integration between leakage engineering and asset integrity planning, supported by new capabilities in predictive maintenance. The idea of leakage as a standalone function gradually gives way to a broader, systems-based view, where leak performance becomes a proxy for infrastructure condition and forward investment risk.

The 2026 event will reflect this evolution. While we absolutely want traditional leakage professionals in the room, particularly those with field experience, the agenda will speak more directly to strategic asset owners, infrastructure planners, and innovation leads. This is a natural next step from the 2025 event, which focused heavily on AMP8 implementation. In 2026, the emphasis will shift toward benchmarking future readiness, aligning CapEx and OpEx decision-making, and building long-term confidence in resilience delivery.