A big thank you also to Great Southern Press for putting on a great show and of course to our conference technical committee: Jeff Pace, Trevor Gosatti, Chris Frangos and Ben Crosby.
With the conference behind us it’s appropriate that we review how it went and what we could improve upon next time. After the event all attendees were asked to fill out a feedback form; the results are now collated and we will be using this information to help shape future shows. You are also welcome to provide any comments to your local ASTT councillor or directly to me via my email. We would really like to hear what people think and your ideas.
I would like to extend the ASTT’s congratulations to all of our winners at the gala awards dinner. Well done to those who received project and technology awards, and I would particularly like to acknowledge and congratulate Lance Horlyck, the ASTT’s 2015 person of the year – a well-deserved recognition. Thank you Lance for your tremendous contribution to the ASTT, which continues to make a significant impact upon our industry.
The ASTT is fortunate in having many passionate individuals who work tirelessly to improve the society and look for ways to grow the industry. However, one of the messages I relayed during the conference is that we welcome and invite all members to become engaged with ASTT initiatives and to be a part of the change they want to see in the industry; hence the creation of the Special Interest Groups (SIG) and local networking forums.
It is with great pleasure that I announce that since the No-Dig conference, the first SIG has been established with the creation of the Microtunnelling Interest Group. A very big thanks to Jim Shooter of Pezzimenti Tunnelbore for his initiative in setting up of this group. I am also pleased to say that our second SIG for lining is likely to be established in the near future. I am hoping that this is the start of a movement that will deliver tangible opportunities for growing the society.
Another initiative that the ASTT is exploring is partnering with other societies. These partnerships would bring mutually beneficial outcomes for ASTT and partner societies, such as a bigger network, shared membership and joint participation in conferences.
We are starting to see momentum around some of the ASTT’s new initiatives, and society is going to continue focusing on new opportunities to get our membership involved. I look forward to it.