Water, Finance, and Sustainability will incorporate GWI's Global Water Awards Ceremony for 2008. This year the Gala Dinner will take place in James I's Banqueting House in Whitehall Palace - one of the United Kingdom's most stunning and historical venues.
Entry to the Awards Dinner is included in the conference registration price. The Banqueting House will provide a magnificent backdrop for celebrating the excellence and innovation of the past year, as well as providing a suitable stage for new and groundbreaking policies in our industry. The Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus will be presenting the Global Water Awards trophies, and speaking on how his Micro-finance movement can help provide water for poor communities. It will be an international media event.
The Banqueting House was designed by the renowned English architect Inigo Jones in 1622 for King James I, and is one of England's earliest classical buildings. The Main Hall, which has hosted innumerable royal banquets, balls and masques over the centuries, is calculated to meet the ancient Roman idea of perfection - it is a perfect double cube. The room is dominated by the magnificent ceiling paintings of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, commissioned by Charles I in 1635 to glorify the achievements of his father. These paintings provide the only Rubens ceiling that survives in situ in the world.
Ironically, this ceiling was one of the last sights seen by Charles I, as he walked to his execution at the Banqueting House on 30th January 1649.
Before entering the Main Hall for the Award Dinner, pre-dinner drinks and canapés will be served in the Banqueting House's Undercroft, where James I had his private drinking den, escaping the pressures of public life amidst its vast wine cellars. The poet Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's contemporary and rival, wrote a dedication to the Undercroft on its opening:
Since Bacchus, thou art father
Of Wines, to thee the rather
We dedicate this cellar
Where now, thou art made Dweller.
Reserve your tickets for Water, Finance, and Sustainability 2008, and don't miss out on the most important and exciting evening in the water industry calendar. For more information on voting for the Awards please visit our awards website: www.globalwaterawards.com.
