As the culmination of 2 years work by staff at the International Water Association (London), the 2004 World Water Congress took place from 19th -24th September. The location selected for this Congress was the Morrocan city of Marrakech, the venue was the Palais de Congres. This fabulous building provided an impressive backdrop to the presentation of over 500 technical papers, in 20 presentation rooms.

Two years previous the "Call for Papers" was launched, resulting in approximately 2,000 techncial papers being submitted for appraisal / selection for the Congress. The entire process was managed through the IWA knowledge network. Papers were matched to and refereed by a select group of Referees. Subsequent scores / recommendations presented to the Conference Programme Committee for appraisal. The Congress was subsequently themed and the daily programme of Sessions built. In parallel to this the selected papers were graded as either "Full Oral Presentations", "Short Oral Presentations", "Posters" or "Rejected". Authors were requested to re-submit papers and PowerPoint presentations where appropriate. The entire process was managed through the IWA knowledge network, powered by webree KN3W.

Finally the IWAkn was "copied" and taken to the Congress, together with a central server, to provide all of the necesary Session presentation requirements and on-site "last minute" adjustments.

Congratulations to all involved. The technology deployed to provide this Congress was undeniably impressive. However, the efforts of all those involved provide the remaining legacy of heroic effort in testing circumstances.