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STEEL AGENDA AGM & CONFERENCE 2018

SCNZ was proud to present Steel Agenda 2018 on Friday 28 September.

Rotorua put on a fantastic spring display for SCNZ’s annual AGM and Conference Steel. With 60 plus attendees, Steel Agenda energized participants and fuelled ideas.

The event opened with a Welcome from SCNZ Manager, Darren O’Riley, who provided a detailed update on the SCNZ 5-year Strategic Plan. By helping to ensure the future sustainability of the industry and promoting structural steel as the best solution, the plan works to advance the NZ structural steel industry.

Darren outlined the various marketing, educational and facilitating success activities; and reminded members of the importance of continuing to support SCNZ by attending events, reading newsletters, attaining SFC certification, etc.

Annual General Meeting

The SCNZ AGM followed with members approving and adopting the Compulsory Levy Scheme; and confirming the election of Wayne Carson as SCNZ Chairman and Wayne Wheeler as Vice-Chairman.

Gala Awards Dinner

The event culminated in the sparkling Gala Awards Dinner with the multi-talented entertainer, Geoff Dolan, acting as Master of Ceremonies and guest speaker Mahé Drysdale sharing inspirational messages from his sporting success.

Widely recognised as the industry’s social highlight of the year, the evening concluded with the presentation of our hotly contested Apprentice of the Year and Excellence in Steel Awards.

Thank you to our sponsors – Steelforce and Akzonobel International – and to the SCNZ staff who worked tirelessly to make this event such a success.

Conference

The main Steel Agenda Conference then kicked off with Andrew Boyd, Senior Building Consent Project Manager, Auckland Council. Andrew gave a presentation entitled, ‘Demonstrating compliant structural steel – We’ve never been asked that before?” and clarified what the requirement for compliant structural steel is intended to address.

Mark Smith, ASB Senior Economist, entertained the audience with his humorous “Trade Wars” presentation, in which he outlined the global and NZ economic growth forecasts and drew attention to key themes of technological disruption, population ageing and structural decline in interest rates.

Inspirational keynote speaker, Dale Williams, then returned to Steel Agenda after his passionate and entertaining talk in 2017 to update us on his endeavours over the last year. The community employment champion and former Otorohanga mayor reminded delegates that “young people can and will future-proof your business”.

To grow, meet demand and be sustainable, our industry must have a youth-to-work strategy and a strong trade-focussed offering. Dale urged SCNZ members to engage with young people, build relationships with them, invest in them, employ them and train them.

HERA’s Michail Karpenko concluded the afternoon’s series of instructive and compelling presentations with his overview of the SFC scheme, which included the launch of SFC: Erection and the new SFC/HERA workshop: SFC for Beginners.

Steel Agenda Gala Dinner

Fast-paced fun

Upon the conclusion of Steel Agenda, delegates jumped on board one of the Skyline eight-seater Gondola cabins to experience spectacular views of Lake Rotorua. Some people chose to master the luge tracks, while others flew through the sky amongst majestic Redwood on a Zipline. A few even tested their limits on NZ’s only Skyswing. All the participants had a great time and enjoyed experiencing an adrenaline rush after the day’s work.