NightOwl at Groundwater Week 2026
Groundwater Week is the National Ground Water Association’s annual gathering for the people who drill, install, and service water wells. This year it runs December 8 to 10 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, co-located with the Irrigation Association, with three days of workshops, an exhibit hall, certification exams, and continuing education.
NightOwl will be on the exhibit floor at booth 683. NightOwl co-founder and CEO Jim Blair is teaching a workshop on Wednesday, December 9, the same week he is recognized as a 2026 NGWA Technology Award recipient.
For most attendees, the week does double duty. It is where contractors see new equipment in person and talk shop with the people who build it, and it is also where they pick up the continuing education hours their licenses require. Attendance at each workshop is tracked through the Groundwater Week app by scanning the QR code on your name badge, and transcripts are emailed the week of December 15. NGWA reports credits directly to licensing agencies in several states, including Texas, so check whether your state is on the list before you go.
What attendees can expect
- A full exhibit hall of drilling, pump, and water system equipment suppliers, including NightOwl at booth 683
- Workshops across drilling, well maintenance and rehabilitation, and water systems, with continuing education credits available
- NGWA General Drilling and General Water System certification exams on Tuesday, December 8
- A keynote from Aaron Golub, the first legally blind Division I athlete to play in a college football game
Who should attend
- Water well drillers and contractors
- Pump installers and pump service companies
- Groundwater professionals, hydrogeologists, and water system operators
- Manufacturers and suppliers serving the groundwater industry
2026 NGWA Technology Award
Jim Blair has been named the recipient of the 2026 NGWA Technology Award, one of the association’s Awards of Excellence. NGWA gives the Technology Award to a person who has made a major contribution to the groundwater industry, whether through new ideas, tools, and equipment, advances in well construction, or sharing those developments with colleagues across the trade.
Jim came to NightOwl from the drilling side of the business, with more than 30 years as a water well driller before he co-founded the company. That background shaped what NightOwl builds: equipment a driller or pump tech would actually put on a well, reporting the readings they already rely on. NGWA will present this year’s awards in December during Groundwater Week in Las Vegas. Read the full story.
Workshop: Diagnosing Water Well Failures Using Remote Monitoring
Wednesday, December 9 · 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM · Rooms N119/N120
Jim walks through how contractors use pressure, flow, power, runtime, start count, and water level data to spot a developing problem before the customer loses water. Using real monitoring examples, the session covers abnormal cycling, voltage issues, and declining production, plus practical alert strategies and service workflows that cut down on emergency calls and unnecessary truck rolls. The workshop falls under the Well Maintenance and Rehabilitation category and is built for contractors and service companies looking to move from answering outage calls to catching problems ahead of them.
Connecting with NightOwl
Sean Trapp, NightOwl Monitoring’s VP of Sales and Marketing, will be joining Jim at booth 683 throughout the show. NightOwl builds remote monitoring hardware and software that reports water level, flow, and pressure from the wellhead, giving landowners and water managers a steady read on their wells without a site visit.
If you are attending and want to continue a conversation from the day, connect with Sean on LinkedIn.
Event Location: December 8 to 10, 2026 · Las Vegas Convention Center · Hosted by NGWA
Sean Trapp
Co-Founder
Connect with Sean on LinkedIn before December 8th.
