Background/Objectives
Background: Practitioners working in PFAS (and other CECs) have a constant struggle of trying to make sense from uncertainty. Policies, regulations, technologies and the science are continually changing and evolving. Many Chlorinated Conference attendees are near the peak of their career but only a few are able to have a voice and gain some satisfaction from influencing change.
Objective: To provide a voice to session attendees through an interactive panel session where the audience will write and vote on the questions asked of the panel.
Past experience: This excerise was undertaken in Sydney in April 2023 at an ITRC/ALGA/NICOLE with very positive feedback. Lessons from that have been applied to improve the approach in this abstract.
Approach/Activities
Session overview:- Provide an explanation of how the session will run - a version of this abstract. 2 minutes
- Explain the notion of a pre-mortem (Performing a Project Premortem (hbr.org). 3 minutes
- Undertake a pre-mortem of PFAS management in 2029 (ie why is PFAS management a complete disaster in 2029?). The audience is to use an interactive online system to make as many submissions as they would like, each limited to a sentence or two. Allow 6 minutes.
- A team will process all of the submissions through an AI system to extract and summarize the submissions into themes expressed as a question to the panel. Allow 10 minutes. During this time a presentation will be made on "Lessons from Envolving International Approaches to PFAS Management".
- The audience will be presented with output from the AI and asked to vote on which are the most important to address. Allow 4 minutes.
- The questions, with some modifications where appropriate, will then be put to the panel by the Moderator for discussion. Up to 70 minutes.
- With 7 minutes remaining the audience will be asked to submit the single most important change that is needed to bring about success for PFAS management in 2029.