Frequently Asked Questions

The 9th World Waste to Energy & Resources Summit will now be held as a Virtual Summit on October 6-7, 2020, so the industry can meet, network, and get up to date on the latest projects and new market opportunities. 

Waste management operators, project developers, financiers and technology providers will present live, before hosting virtual discussion groups on the issues most critical to today’s waste to energy and resources sector: 

• The commercial and policy landscape: New developments in the UK, Europe and globally 
• Partnership and risk sharing models: Exploring a collaborative approach to project success 
• Project finance and investment: Innovative approaches to funding downstream products  
• Technology innovation: Gasification, plastics to hydrogen and commercial BioSNG 
• Decarbonising the transport sector: The long-term future for waste as transport fuel 
• Tackling the plastics crisis: The economics of energy, materials, fuels and chemicals from plastic 
• International opportunities: Waste to energy projects in Australia, Singapore, India and Serbia 
• The climate change agenda: The role of waste conversion in the circular economy 

All participants can schedule video 1-1 meetings with potential partners and clients throughout the summit, and for an extended period before and after the sessions. 

By sharing best practice from around the globe, showcasing new technologies, and facilitating new partnerships and collaborations, the summit offers an invaluable platform to develop new business and accelerate industry projects in both the UK and international markets. 

The World Waste to Energy and Resources Summit will be live online on October 6 and October 7, 2020 between 9.55am – 2pm British Summer Time (BST).

The agenda shown on this website has session timings in British Summer Time (BST). The virtual summit platform shows times adjusted to your local timezone for all sessions and meetings.

You are not able to share your pass with a colleague at our virtual summits. If for some reason you can’t attend and want to transfer your pass to a colleague, we can arrange that. Please contact our logistics team if you need help.

For more information on marketing partnerships and media registration, please email Laura Hodgkiss or call +44 (0)1273 789989.

Roundtable discussions are one of the most interactive sessions of the program! Each small discussion group is hosted by an industry expert on a specific theme offering you a valuable opportunity to network, brainstorm solutions and share ideas with your peers on shared areas of interest.

There roundtable sessions take place on the first day of the summit – see agenda.

Roundtables work like a video call, are limited to 12 people to maximise everyone’s participation. As as result, places are limited and you need to pre-book your seat in advance through our virtual platform.

Note: unlike the other panel sessions and keynotes, the roundtables are not recorded so are not available to watch later.

The virtual event platform for the Waste to Energy and Resources Summit is live, so you can then start booking 1-1 meetings straight away.

You will receive a dedicated email within 24 hours of registering to explain how you can gain access to our virtual platform.

All summit content and networking will be available on our virtual platform until November 7, 2020.

We always welcome interest from senior leaders who would like to speak or recommendations of speakers. Please email Rachel Myall to discuss further.

Up to 30 days before the event date you can cancel and request a refund (we will deduct a 15% cancellation fee). We regret that no cancellations can be accepted after this date and full payment is due.

You can transfer your pass to a colleague at any time. Please email our logistics team with the following details of your colleague to receive your pass:

First Name:
Last Name:
Job Title:
Company:
Email Address:
Phone Number:
Company Address:

Sign up to our newsletters here – you’ll receive the latest summit developments, along with industry news and insights from leading senior executives.

The summit is open and inclusive of any delegate regardless of gender identity, race, ethnicity, political belief, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, ability, religion, or any other identity.

Respect, tolerance and understanding of others’ backgrounds and beliefs must be exemplified at all times. The summit is a forum to showcase the industry at its best and no form of discrimination, bullying or harassment of any kind will be tolerated.

Delegates must not engage in disruptive speech, behaviour, spamming or in any way which disrupts or interferes with the virtual event or other individual’s participation in the summit. Rethink Events will be monitoring the open forums throughout the summit.

Rethink summits are created by experts in the agri-food, water, and waste-to-energy tech industries to address the issues most crucial to investors and developers in these sectors. Through our global network of industry advisors, we produce highly-focused, topical summits which gather all the right people together in one room to share ideas, find solutions and identify new business opportunities.

We are committed to providing the world-leading platforms for knowledge-sharing, debate and networking for business leaders, featuring the leading experts and gamechangers from across the global ecosystem. Our goal is to promote diversity and inclusion, with particular effort to phase out all-male speaker panels to ensure balanced representation and promotion of women in technology and business. For more information about Rethink, visit www.rethinkevents.com

When you register for the summit, you will receive a dedicated email within 24 hours explaining how you can gain access to our virtual event platform, which is hosted by Swapcard.

The platform is available on desktop, and you can download the ‘Rethink App’ for iPhone and Android from the app stores.

The virtual event platform for the summit is now live, so you can start booking 1-1 meetings straight away.

You will receive a dedicated email within 24 hours of registering explaining how you can gain access to our virtual platform.

Our virtual event platform can be accessed here for desktop. Click the purple ‘login’ button in the top right hand corner and sign in with the details emailed to you from hello@swapcard.com.

You will need to use a recent browser such as Google Chrome (recommended) or Mozilla Firefox.

You can also download our ‘Rethink App’ for iPhone and Android from the app stores.

To access the platform you need to use a recent browser such as Google Chrome (recommended) or Mozilla Firefox.

We’ve prepared a short video tour of the platform to help you get started which you can watch here:

All summit content and networking will be available on our virtual platform until November 7, 2020.

First, update your profile with a photo, a short biography and information about your company and skills.

The more information you include, the better the matchmaking tool can work, to increase profile views and suggested matches with the right people you want to meet.

Have a look at this virtual tour we created, which takes you through the platform step-by step. (Guide to your profile starts 0:20)

You can manage your schedule in ‘My Event’ which can be found in the menu at the top of the page on desktop or on the homepage in the app. You can control your availability and view your meetings by selecting ‘My meetings’ from the left hand menu on desktop or the meetings (2nd) icon in the app. Here you will also find ‘My schedule’ where you will see the sessions you have added.

See tutorial: (guide to your schedule starts 1:35)

Once you’re in the platform, you don’t need to register to watch sessions – but it’s helpful to keep track of the sessions you want to watch live. View the agenda by selecting ‘Agenda’ from the menu at the top of the page on desktop or on the homepage in the app. Simply click the ‘+’ button next to the session you would like to add to your schedule.

You can view the sessions you have added to your agenda by selecting ‘My Event’.

Roundtables work like a video call, limited to 12 people and must be signed up to in advance on our virtual platform. You can secure your spot by selecting ‘Roundtables’ from the menu at the top of the page on desktop or on the homepage in the app and then clicking the ‘+’ button next to the roundtable you would like to join.

You won’t be able to switch between roundtables.

Note also, the roundtables are the only part of the agenda that is not recorded, so you can’t watch back later.

Yes, you will be able to ask questions to the speakers during the live event. In ‘Watch LIVE’, you will be able to engage in a live chat on the right hand side, submit questions in the ‘Questions’ tab and participate in polls.

Click ‘Attendee List’ in the menu at the top of the page on desktop or on the homepage of the app. You can filter the attendee list by company type, country and company name. Select an attendee to view their profile and you will see their list of available times. Simply select a time, add a message and click ‘send meeting request’. You will receive a notification when that meeting is accepted, and can also add to your own calendar.

Note – the virtual summit platform automatically adjusts all times shown (agenda, meetings, available times etc) to your local timezone.

A connection request is the way you can chat to another attendee. On their profile, you will see a ‘Connect with [attendee]’ box on desktop where you will be able to send them a message or click the gray person icon next to ‘Book A Meeting’ in their profile on the app.

You can see all your messages by clicking on the speech bubbles icon at the top of the page on desktop or at the bottom of the app. In order for the recipient to respond to your message, they will need to accept your connection request. If you see an icon of two heads next to a contact, it means that the person has already accepted your request. If you see a clock icon, it means your connection request is still pending.

You can see your pending or confirmed meetings in ‘My Event’ and then by clicking the ‘My meetings’ tab on the left hand side on desktop or the meetings (2nd) icon in the app. You can cancel a confirmed or pending meeting by clicking ‘Cancel Request’ (if it was pending) or ‘Cancel Meeting’ (if it was confirmed). You can also manage your availability by clicking ‘Make unavailable’ for specific meeting slots.

Remember the platform automatically adjusts to your local timezones (for agenda, meetings, available times etc).

It is not possible to reschedule a meeting, whether it is pending or confirmed. If you want to reschedule it, you have to cancel it and book another meeting at a different time. You can cancel meetings in ‘My Event’ under the ‘My meetings’ tab.

The 1-1 meetings are video calls conducted between two delegates only.

The platform uses artificial intelligence which suggests attendees to you based on the details you have entered on your profile. You can improve your automatic suggestions by entering search criteria or keywords into ‘Get better recommendations’ box and this will refine the suggestions of people you should meet. Alternatively, you can filter the attendee list yourself by company type, country and company name.

Each of our partners have their own virtual exhibition booth, where they can share information, links and documents. You can also book meetings with the company in the same way as you would an attendee and send them a message. Each company’s representatives are linked to its’ exhibition booth, and clicking on their names will direct you to their individual profiles. You can also view the agenda sessions in which partners are speaking.

In ‘My Event’, you can export your whole schedule to your own calendar application by clicking the ‘Export’ button on the left hand side. At the end of the event, you can download all of your sessions, meetings and bookmarks as a single PDF by clicking ‘Download PDF’.