BY PRACTITIONERS, FOR
PRACTITIONERS
THE AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH BOARD’S NEW GENERATION OF WORKSHOPS IS PROVIDING THE ROAD AND TRANSPORT SECTOR WITH TAILORED, INTERACTIVE AND PRACTICAL SESSIONS, AIMED AT BOOSTING INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND BEST PRACTICE. Rather than being confined to a classroom, ARRB’s bridge inspection workshops feature a number of practical aspects.
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ast September, Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) changed the way industry thinks about transport research when it unveiled its new high-tech premises in Port Melbourne. The opening of ARRB’s headquarters in Melbourne signalled the beginning of a more modern approach for the company, which is not only reflected in the premises’ world-class materials lab and shared spaces, but in its renewed focus on workshops and knowledge sharing within the road and transport sector. In mid-2018, ARRB switched up its focus on knowledge sharing events to move away from the traditional once-a-year conferences. The idea was to run more regular touch points with the Australian road and transport sector, to help boost the shared knowledge around best practice on topics such as sealed and unsealed roads,
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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019
bridge inspection, basic geometric road design and high-friction surface treatments. Now, the organisation runs nearly three workshops a month nationwide and about 50 free webinars a year on a diverse array of topics, hosted by in-house presenters who share their wealth of knowledge with attendees. Gareth Thomas, ARRB Principal Professional, Knowledge Transfer, says the benefits of more regular workshops and webinars for industry knowledge sharing is bolstered by the workshop series’ more comprehensive focus on practical outcomes. “The changes we’ve made to our workshops take a more customer-facing approach, finding out what industry bodies and government agencies really need and the programs that benefit them. The conferences of the past were great, and suit a particular formula, but these workshops
and webinars are different – we’re looking at ways to make them more relevant to what stakeholders in the industry need right now,” Mr. Thomas explains. To develop a relevant and practical workshop program, ARRB has partnered with the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia’s (IPWEA) Queensland branch – a partnership Mr. Thomas says has been key to the workshop’s early success in the Sunshine State. “Industry bodies like IPWEA QLD have much more knowledge in the local government space, particularly with regards to areas like sealed and unsealed roads, which complements what we’re doing at ARRB,” he says. “I think the big difference compared with other workshops out there is we’ve got this new model with real, practical outcomes, and there’s a big market for that in Australia.”
