Following last year’s inaugural event, the 2014 SAIMC Gala Dinner proved once more to be a huge success. Held at the Maslow Hotel in Sandton, it drew a crowd of over 300 guests, who thoroughly enjoyed the good food, good entertainment and good company. Paul Sikhakhane from the SAIMC Durban branch again filled the role of MC, with a whole new store of entertaining jokes.
In his President’s address, Vinesh Maharaj highlighted the SAIMC’s many achievements this year, which covered four main areas. One huge breakthrough has been the establishment of a SABS Technical Committee dedicated to Control and Instrumentation. This is a major step towards the SAIMC’s goal of getting C&I recognised as a separate engineering discipline.
Sponsorship was again a feature, with opportunities being taken up by Platinum sponsors, EHL Consulting Engineers, Beckhoff and Siemens as well as Gold sponsors, Yokogawa and E+H.
Presentations by two young engineers gave a fresh new angle. Maternique Mdehluli shared why she chose C&I engineering as a career and what she learnt along the way. “I am a curious person and I needed a challenge in a diverse field where I had the potential for growth,” she explained. Theuns Greyvenstein then described his experiences participating in the Pneudrive Challenge, where he was a member of the winning team in 2009, and what the competition taught him.
Following this the Fellowship Award was presented to Vinesh Maharaj by general secretary, John-Owen Ellis for his service as President. All this was followed by some great entertainment from well known comedian, David Kibuuka.
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