Conference Papers | 2005 Victorian Conference Papers

WIOA President's Message 2005

Welcome to the 68th Annual Victorian Water Industry Engineers and Operators Conference.

This is without doubt my favourite water industry event. Even before I was involved with the WIOA committee, I always looked forward to attending this conference and catching up with water industry colleagues. The following paragraphs will contain lots of thanking but the most important thanks goes to each delegate and trade representative for attending and supporting WIOA. Hopefully you will make the most of what this conference has to offer and network with your fellow water industry colleagues, listen to the papers, check out the posters, browse through the trade displays, and make sure you increase your overall level of knowledge. Try and take something useful back to your work place and show your colleagues that this event is worth attending. These are our main aims in putting the conference on, and we hope that you will take the opportunity to achieve them.

This year we welcome a very special group of International Visitors - a number of operators from New Zealand have made the trek across the Tasman to take part in the event. We have arranged tours of various water and wastewater plants to fill in the couple of days before and after our conference. We know that they will see some of our more innovative plants and we encourage everyone to make them welcome whilst they are with us. Perhaps this may be the catalyst for a return visit.

Organisationally, there has been a 'changing of the guard' so to speak with myself, the Association's first female President and George Wall, WIOA's first Executive Officer. As part of his new role, George is responsible for organising both the technical side as well as the trade exhibition. The trade has been looked after admirably for the past 16 years by Ron and Cheryl Bergmeier and staff from Australian Pollution Engineering. Ron couldn't give up his involvement so easily and has been giving George a hand, as well as sorting out all the conference sponsors. Ron, we thank you again for your tireless efforts. Thanks also to Marilyn Wall who has given up part of her home to accommodate all the WIOA stuff!

The growth of the conference, and in particular the trade exhibition, now limits the number of venues where we can stage the event in regional Victoria. Although we were last in Bendigo in 2001, we are pleased to return to the region and this time to a much larger venue. The trade exhibition has continued to flourish and this year will be our biggest ever with more than 130 sites filled. In light of this growth, the conference starting time has been brought forward and a Tuesday afternoon registration and welcome reception has been introduced to provide more time for delegates to meet the trade exhibitors and to network.

The registration fees for this conference are able to be kept very low due to the support and generosity of a number of Major and Associate sponsors. Thank you to our major sponsors Coliban Water and Campaspe Asset Management Services (CAMS). Australian Pollution Engineering has provided the satchels, the Water Sector Services branch of DSE has again contributed to the printing of this conference manuscript and the Victorian Branch of AWA has assisted with the distribution of information on our behalf.

To all our the other sponsors who had confirmed at the time of writing this message including ITT Flygt, Alldos Oceania, Lisa Rawlinson & Associates, Peerless Industrial Products, Earth Tech, KSB Ajax Pumps, G Tech Separation, CRS Industrial Water Systems, AWMA, WME Media, Ciba, Davey Products, Nordical Diving, Iwaki Pumps and Omega Chemicals we say a big thank you and we encourage you to keep the products or services of these companies in mind when undertaking your respective jobs. I would like take this opportunity to thank all the companies who are exhibiting and encourage all delegates to support them by introducing yourselves and having a look at what is on display at their sites.

It seems that the list of awards to be presented at the conference keeps growing annually. Congratulations to all who have participated and continue to give reason for our sponsors to support us. We have formed some long standing relationships with some companies including Southern Cross Laboratories (Actizyme) who have sponsored the prizes for Best Papers by WIOA members for the past 13 years and the Water Industry Training Centre (WITC) who have sponsored the 'Poster Paper' section for operators for the past 7 years. The AWA sponsored Water Industry Operator of the Year, Wal Whiteside Award, will also be announced again and has been presented at the conference annually since the award's inception in 1980. We welcome a new sponsor, Environmental & Process Technologies (division of Biolab) this year and they will present the inaugural Kwatye (Water) Prize. All these awards have been generously provided as an encouragement to operators for the great work they do and to provide an avenue to communicate their marvelous ideas.

In conjunction with the trade exhibition will be the "Conference Competition" ably organised by Peter Tolsher (No. 1). This competition has some great prizes on offer and is a good way to see more of the sites and their products, particularly those that you may not have had a specific interest in. The competition has created a lot of interest in the last few years with a number of teams including trade exhibitors participating, so make sure you get involved. Lots of other companies offer prizes and this year we will present all the prizes at the pre-dinner drinks session immediately before the conference dinner.

So after the conference what's coming up next? Mark in your diary October 2 as the date for the 8th annual charity golf day and this time at the lovely Kilmore golf course. Look forward to seeing you there - 'fore!'. To the WIOA Committee, it is indeed an honour to be associated with such a committed group and I offer my sincere thanks for the manner in which you have all gone about your tasks and contributed to the continued success of the Association. Committee members give much of their own time to attend meetings and functions, and to carry out their duties. In praising the Committee, I would like to also thank their employers and families for supporting their efforts.

Although it is not yet confirmed, we are looking at a venue in Warrnambool for the 2006 conference. In any case, enjoy the conference in Bendigo this year, and hopefully we'll see you all again next year.

Cynthia Lim
WIOA President