Welcome from IPWEAQ

We are very pleased to welcome you to IPWEAQ’s annual state conference at the Townsville Exhibition & Convention Centre, 2426 October 2017. 16 CPD hours are available to delegates attending for the three days including technical tours:

• Infrastructure Tour - Riverway Drive Duplication

• Port of Townsville - Benwell Road

• Humes Production Facility - 844 Ingham Road, Bohle

The Welcome Function, sponsored by Abergeldie, will kick off the conference proceedings on Tuesday evening.

The mayor of Townsville, Councillor Jenny Hill will officially open the conference on Wednesday morning. She will be followed by our first keynote presentation by Dr Allan Duffy who will discuss the challenges of ‘big data’ which potentially, will have an enormous impact on the public’s expectations of what can be achieved in the public works sector.

The MC for our state conference this year is Alan Patching, considered to be ‘the Australian project and business leadership guru’. Alan is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s most outstanding leaders, consultants and business presenters. Alan will also deliver a keynote presentation on the development of human behaviour helping us to understand how much of what we do is subconscious and how this affects us and others.

Cowboys and Queensland legend, Brent Tate is ‘one of the toughest and most inspiring players to have ever played rugby league’ according to Mal Meninga. Our MC, Alan Patching will interview Brent and we’ll learn how he overcame adversity to sustain a lengthy career affected by serious injury.

Brigadier Chris Field together with a small Defence planning team worked closely with eight of Cyclone Debbie’s most affected councils to develop the State Plan 2017-2019 Operation Queensland Recovery. Brigadier Field will deliver a presentation on seven ways to sustain recovery.

Additionally, we have presentations from Councillor Graham Scott (Livingstone Shire Council), Sandra Burke and Bill Lansbury (TMR) and Phil Duggan, Department of Natural Resources and Mines.

The full comprehensive program can be viewed on page 9. We have a new feature to this year’s program, The IPWEAQ Futures Challenge, which will showcase thesis projects from five final year students studying engineering and related disciplines. We also have the return of The Great Debate which will see our teams deliberate over the topic ‘smart cities are not that smart’. Our MC, Alan Patching will moderate what will be another hard-fought yet engaging discussion and delegates will be asked to vote on their winning side using the conference App. Please see page X of the Handbook for more information on these program features.

The annual IPWEAQ excellence awards gala award ceremony and dinner will follow Wednesday evening. Please join us for this celebration of the projects and people that make our community great. And a huge thank you to our sponsor, Premise!

Our comprehensive trade exhibition featuring 46 organisations offering products and services for our sector will be accessible for you throughout the two days of the conference. And without our sponsors, we could not deliver these quality events so please join us in thanking them for supporting the public works sector. Please see our full list of Sponsors on page 16.

Fulton Hogan will once again be our hosts for the Closing Celebration at a Touch of Salt.

All of us at IPWEAQ – board members and staff – look forward to welcoming you to Townsville and to the 2017 IPWEAQ state conference, the premier gathering of those involved in the public works sector in Queensland.

Joe Bannan President