Dear all,

As one of the organisers of the FSM2 conference in Durban last October, I have good news for you today: 45 presentations from the FSM2 conference are now available on Youtube in the SuSanA Youtube channel (we do apologise for the time delay of 5 months, which was due to contractual problems with the filming company):

You can find all the video clips (one clip per presentation) here under “uploaded videos”:
www.youtube.com/user/susanavideos
(they will also be linked one by one from the SuSanA FSM2 Conference page here:
www.susana.org/lang-en/conference-and-tr...conferences/781-fsm2)

Here is a direct link just to give you one example (for Laura Talsma’s video):


In the first batch, only those presentations got done which deal with projects funded by the BMGF because they are being discussed in the forum here, and the video clips will help in the discussions: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/96-inn...ience-and-technology

If the click rates get quite high for these videos, and if there is further demand from you, it could perhaps be possible to get more of the remaining 50 videos done, but let’s first see how these are received, before finding another funding source and spending more money and time on this.
Thanks to Carl Hensman from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who made additional money available to pay for the cutting of the raw footage; the DVDs with the raw footage had kindly been sent to the SuSanA secretariat by Jay Bhagwan from WRC.

I should point out that the filming company decided to only film the presenters at the start and end, and for most of the presentation, they focused the camera onto the screen with the powerpoint files. Ideally the presenter and slides should have been filmed simultaneously and then later mixed and edited, but this would have cost more than had been allowed for - something to bear in mind for the next time.

A big thankyou to SuSanA for their assistance with getting the filmed material edited and on the website, especially to Elisabeth who has championed the cause.

Dave Still
PID

It was very interesting to read the posting by Max and Ruth about comparing the FSM conference with the EcosanLAC conference in Brazil which was almost back to back (see their posting here on the forum:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/21-eve...w-with-feedback#2674).

It shows that in the South-South sphere the countries are sometimes dealing with very different issues. I am very happy to see that those presentations from the EcosanLAC conference are already online as well! Wonderful. Now I just need to find the time to browse through all of them, but what a great opportunity for self study.

Then there is a third sanitation conference on this week in the South (the IWA Nagpur conference, see other posting on this forum). Unfortunately, that one being an IWA conference, I have been informed that their policy is not to make the presentations available afterwards. In my opinion not a good policy as we are dealing with developing countries issues where people simply cannot afford to travel all over the planet to attend conferences. But IWA will have their reasons.

Finally, some more thoughts of mine about the FSM-2 conference as a way of feedback to those who couldn't attend:

• Incredibly well organised (thanks to the team at PID), with very good pre-conference and post-conference follow-up.
• I have never been to a conference with so many participants from the US when it comes to low-cost sanitation issues (or even wastewater treatment conferences in general). Usually, the US and European/Africa/Asian crowds were quite separated in the past. Great that due to the sponsorships from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this fruitful exchange was now made possible.
• There were quite some presentations dealing with quite fundamental science stuff (in the lab), where it was difficult to see how this could be implemented in practice. But I still think it is important to do this fundamental research and to get new professors interested in this topic.
• As Doulaye Koné said: We are challenging scientist with what users want, and we want the scientists and engineers to come up with a whole range of solutions.
• Achieve equity in sanitation: one service for everybody (but not one technology for everybody), said Neal MacLeod.
• Check out the presentation by Jay Bagwhan on introducing pour-flush toilets of the sitting kind to South Africa (see in Session C1): www.susana.org/lang-en/conference-and-tr...conferences/781-fsm2. We also saw this toilet during the field trip, see field trip photos.
• The large VUNA project is very interesting and had a number of presentations. It is about collecting urine from the UDDTs in eThekwini and making struvite but also ammonium nitrate after distillation (with a heat recovery process). Very interesting research, although it seemed to me that the distances they need to travel to collect the urine would be prohibitive (and under the incentive scheme, 2 Eur was given per 20 L jerrican, which is too much in my view; it is however seen as a promotional activity to use the toilets). But stay tuned for more results and discussions from this large project.
• In general in South Africa it seemed that there was little need for additional fertiliser as people have access to sludge and manure, and are not so familar with urban gardening. This could change though. We saw a gardening training centre and were told that eThekwini is promoting urban gardening because: vacant inner-city land can attract squatters and overnight you have another illegal settlement springing up... An urban garden on the other hand does not attract squatters and has multiple other benefits.
• There was quite some talk about franchising for pit emptying and franchising for school toilet maintenance.
• South Africa seems miles ahead of other countries in the region with a real political will to tackle their sanitation problems. And eThekwini Water and Sanitation Services is miles ahead of any other municipality in South Africa. No wonder they are getting so much international recognition! Must be pretty satisfying working there.
• In the audience, I saw that there were quite a few local government employees as well as councillors (these are elected). But I felt they were not given enough of a voice, e.g. the final discussion panel was dominated mainly be the science and research crowd. But not policy makers, that was missing. Also the discussion on how to take the research to scale was thin and generally lacking (as Max and Ruth also remarked in their posting).

I hope that some people found this conference feedback useful. Please react by adding a reply posting or at least by clicking the thank you button below this post so that I know that someone read it and I didn't write it in vain.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear all,

Good news: the presentations from the recent FSM-2 Conference in Durban are now available online! See here:
www.susana.org/lang-en/conference-and-tr...anagement-conference

The page looks super nice, well done Trevor, Cecilia and Bobbie!

I think this should be the new standard for all conferences that deal with sanitation in developing countries (i.e. where lots of interested people cannot afford to travel to the conference venue). The ppt, paper and video should all be available online afterwards.

In this case, the papers (for those authors who had submitted full papers) and the filmed presentations are still coming (soon).

I am inviting all of the 320 participants of the conference to write their take-home messages here. What were the key points that were discussed? What were your main learnings?

One thing that stuck with me is this: We were discussing in one of the sessions the value of excreta, and that we may even pay people to bring their urine to a collection point (presentation of Liz Tilley). One person in the audience remarked (I can't remember his name): in the future, we will no longer say "sorry, the pit is full" (see cartoon below) but we will say "well done and thank you, you have collected all the valuable excreta cum fertiliser!". Very true.



If you have questions about any of the presentations, you can also ask them here.

Regards,
Elisabeth

CarlHensman wrote:

christoph wrote: Thanks Carl,
very nice to know and also to have a "face"/name to speak to...
As Elisabeth mentioned before... It would be great to video the presentations for the people who are not able to go to Durban.

Cheers
Christoph

I will ask my coordinator on the BMGF side about the ability to not only video these presentations, but also how we would disseminate all the footage. I can't promise anything as we are not the conference leads.

Carl

Thanks to the organizers of the FSM2 conference in Durban last week, all presentations were recorded (key notes and 3 trains). It was also agreed that SuSanA.org would be hosting the videos once edited.

It is my understanding that, once the videos are recieved:

They will upload to SuSanA’s Youtube channel here: www.youtube.com/user/susanavideos

Then they will also be linked from the SuSanA website’s video library here:
susana.org/lang-en/videos-and-photos/resource-material-video
(this is just a different way of displaying them, but they are the same Youtube videos).

In addition, depending on decisions to still be made by SuSanA staff, a page for FSM-2 under conferences may be made on SuSanA.org and all the ppts and papers would be in the SuSanA library, as well: www.susana.org/library

I would just like to thank all the SuSanA staff and Jay Bhagwan (WRC) for making this happen.

Carl

With regard to the request for videoing the presentations from the 2012 Fecal Sludge Management conference in Durban, SA next week. I've been told that Jay Bhagwan of WRC is arranging this.

The video will not be live, but will be uploaded to a public site after the event.

I'll keep you informed when I know more.

Carl

Dear SuSanA members taking part in the FSM 2

In 1 week we will all be sitting in Durban, that is really exciting. The SuSanA secretariat has taken the initiative to organise a casual working group meeting, here are the details:

Date: 29 October 2012 (Monday)
Time: 17h30 to 19h00
Venue: ICC (same as FSM2)
Room: one of the breakaway rooms used for the FSM2
Catering: light refreshments will be provided

Proposed Agenda for the casual meeting (there will be no powerpoint presentations!)

1. Opening / welcoming word
2. Quick introduction of each person attending (this facilitates networking and mingling and helps start some great conversations)
3. Brainstorm on how the SuSanA Working Groups (in particular 4, 5 and 9) can be used to help upscale FSM activities
4. Networking and mingling
5. Move to a restaurant for dinner (pay yourself basis)

We would like to capture some ideas to take forward and start some great conversations during this meeting. Further suggestions for the agenda are welcome.
The precise room name will be communicated in due course. Please note that this meeting is open to all interested FSM2 participants, even if they are not SuSanA members yet, so feel free to share with others that you know will be at the FSM2.

We look forward to seeing you in Durban.

Kind regards
Trevor

Dear FSM2 delegates

FSM2 is nearly here!

Registration is almost at capacity. If you have colleagues who still intend to register please have them do so without delay. Note that available spaces are given to delegates as they pay and if we reach capacity before a delegate’s registration is paid for their registration will be cancelled.

Please note the following important information:


1) BIOGRAPHIES, PROFILES AND PHOTOS

You are invited to send us a brief biography and photo of yourself and an organisational profile for us to post on the website to aid networking between delegates. You can view what others have posted under Delegates and Presenters at www.pid.co.za.

2) PROGRAMME

The current programme can be found at www.pid.co.za/images/stories/docs/programme_for_fsm2.pdf. You can click on each presentation title to view the abstract and click on the name and organisation name to view profiles. Abstracts and presenter profiles can also be viewed on their separate pages.


3) TECHNICAL TOURS

Detailed information on the technical tour scheduled for Thursday, November 1, is available at www.pid.co.za/images/stories/docs/techni...cription_v12_rev.pdf. The buses will
depart from the ICC Conference Centre on Thursday morning at 08:30 and will return to the Centre at 17:00. If you plan to attend the technical tour on the final day of the conference, please let me know by email. Your last opportunity to sign up will be at the start of the conference, but space is limited and the list is filling quickly.

4) OTHER INFORMATION

• ACCOMMODATION: We have negotiated rates at the hotels identified on the website. If you book, please reference the group booking code provided at www.pid.co.za/index.php/fsm2-conference/accommodation.

• TRANSPORTATION: We are not organising transportation for delegates from the airport or from your hotel to the conference centre. Information on transport services from the airport to hotels can be found at www.pid.co.za/images/stories/docs/fsm2_transfer_options.pdf so that you can make your own arrangements.

• DRESS: Spring can be rainy or sunny, cool or hot, in Durban. Ordinary clothing is suitable for the fieldtrip; shoes appropriate for muddy conditions are advisable.

• CONTACT: A cell phone number will be made available shortly before the conference which you will be able to use to contact conference organisers if needed during the period of the conference.


We are looking forward to your participation at FSM2!


Bobbie Louton
Presenter Liaison
FSM2 Conference Team
+27 33 342 3012

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Note by moderators: This post was made by a former user with the login name RobertInglis who is no longer a member of this discussion forum.

christoph wrote: Thanks Carl,
very nice to know and also to have a "face"/name to speak to...
As Elisabeth mentioned before... It would be great to video the presentations for the people who are not able to go to Durban.

Cheers
Christoph

I will ask my coordinator on the BMGF side about the ability to not only video these presentations, but also how we would disseminate all the footage. I can't promise anything as we are not the conference leads.

Carl

Thanks Carl,
very nice to know and also to have a "face"/name to speak to...
As Elisabeth mentioned before... It would be great to video the presentations for the people who are not able to go to Durban.

Cheers
Christoph

Hello All and thanks SuSanA for highlighting this event,

I'll be attending the FSM2 forum and I'd be interested to attend a WG meeting. Also more generally I am keen to learn and share with colleagues any interesting recent developments / technologies in urban FSM around the world - be it regarding collection, emptying, transport, treatment and / or re-use.

If you have any experiences / thoughts / developments to share, I am interested to hear from you. Please share via the forum or contact me via email pippa.scott {at} gmail.com

Looking forward to seeing some of you at FSM2
Cheers,
Pippa

Their website about this conference is really very informative. See for example here the list of abstracts for the presentations which will be made:
www.pid.co.za/index.php/fsm2-conference/abstracts

I am very glad that I will be able to attend. Now we just need options for those who can't attend like streaming video or audio of the sessions, filmed presentations for afterwards, asking questions to presenters live via twitter, ...
My question to the organisers: is any of this planned? Would it be feasible? With the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a co-organiser/sponsor, there should be no limit to what modern IT and communication technology can do for this conference.

Regards,
Elisabeth

For those just seeing this - please find out more about FSM2 at www.pid.co.za

FSM2 is bringing together an incredible team from around the world. Don't miss this opportunity to catch up on developments in all aspects of Faecal Sludge Management and on-site sanitation.

The latest programme can be found attached to this post



For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or reply to this post.

Regardsa
FSM2 Organising Team

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Note by moderators: This post was made by a former user with the login name RobertInglis who is no longer a member of this discussion forum.