Those ASTT members who have been around before 2004 will remember the newsletter ASTT provided as it’s communication to members and the industry in general.
I am sure that in the special edition accompanying this magazine you will also read from Jeff Pace (ASTT Secretary), who was the person who had to produce those newsletters.
How relieved he was when Trenchless Australasia started!
You will see in this edition how the Trenchless Australasia publication has grown from those early days to now be regarded as one of the foremost trenchless industry publications, not only in our region, but the world.
In my time as Chairman of the Society, I have had many international representatives comment on what a great publication Trenchless Australasia is, and this was certainly reinforced again by delegates at the International No-Dig held in Sydney last year.
This milestone gives me the opportunity to not just reflect on how the magazine has grown over the last ten years, but how the relationship between the two parties involved has grown as well.
Great Southern Press (GSP) is the publishing company behind Trenchless Australasia.
Ten years ago it was a bold move by both Great Southern Press (then known as Pipeline Publications Australia) and the ASTT to become partners in developing Trenchless Australasia.
In my reflections over my business career especially in the contracting game, I have not seen too many mutually beneficial business arrangements come to fruition, but this is one of those rare occasions.
It took great vision from the owners and management of Great Southern Press to identify the trenchless industry as an opportunity and then partner with the ASTT to commence the magazine.
They were investing in the future and hoping that the industry would support the magazine to become profitable and widely read/circulated.
The immediate quality of the magazine ensured that this investment was successful within a relatively short period of time.
It has continued to improve and grow over the last ten years.
From the ASTT’s perspective ,the magazine has provided the platform to promote and advance the trenchless technology industry, which is one of the Society’s main objectives.
The success of the publishing partnership between the ASTT and GSP led to the two entities entering into another partnership.
In 2010 Great Southern Press and the ASTT extended its relationship to include events management.
This included management of the ASTT No-Dig Down Under Conferences and Exhibitions, No-Dig Live events, trenchless seminars and the ISTT/ASTT International No-Dig Down Under held in Sydney recently. Both parties have prospered from the relationship.
In recognising the success of the partnership to date, it has to be acknowledged that a lot of this has occurred because of the people involved.
Without wanting to limit recognition to these persons only, I would like to thank the management of GSP starting from the early days of Chris Bland, to Kate Pemberton, through to the current CEO Zelda Tupicoff and Editor Tori McLennon.
From the ASTT, I would like to recognise the Society’s previous Chairman Menno Henneveld and the current Secretary Jeff Pace who both oversaw the original arrangements.
I hope that Trenchless Australasia continues to successfully promote the trenchless industry, its stakeholders, and the ASTT for many more years to come.
On another note, again I want to remind industry stakeholders of the 2014 Water New Zealand Annual Conference and Expo, to be held at Hamilton, New Zealand from 17-19 September 2014.
The ASTT is a partner of this event and there will be a trenchless stream included in this conference this year and we ask interested members to be involved.
Trevor Gosatti
ASTT Chairman