After a hiatus of two years during COVID, the Durban branch of the SAIMC held its annual year-end dinner at the Mount Edgecombe Country Club in November 2022. Even the cool, windy and rainy weather (welcome to summer in Durban) didn’t deter people from turning out in full force to celebrate the return of this well-loved event which was deemed a success by all who attended.
As always, formalities were kept short, with Mark Calvert multi-tasking as both the very efficient MC and Branch General Manager. After welcoming and thanking everybody, he then introduced SAIMC CEO Johan Maartens, who gave a brief run-down of what the SAIMC had achieved during the year. Daleen Filbey from Reed Exhibitions gave another short presentation on what’s in store for the industry with Africa Automation & Technology Fair in 2023, and that concluded the formalities.
Dinner was a delicious buffet of Durban chicken curry and roast lamb with crispy roast potatoes and sautéed vegetables, which everybody tucked into whilst enjoying some background music provided by our musicians of the evening – Angus. Angus later upped the ante, and the volume, and even managed to seduce a few people on to the dance floor, providing a backdrop of some old and well-loved tunes.
Comedian Joey Rasdien.
Joey Rasdien was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening, with his clever and whacky brand of humour. In conversation with him the next day Joey admitted to loving the audience and instead of his standard 45-minute slot, very generously spent an hour and a half weaving threads of comedic magic throughout his routine – everyone there will remember the hilarious ‘peanut’ butter moment. Joey commented that it was a pleasure interacting with an audience of such high technical calibre (and IQ!) who ‘got’ his humour more than most.
The Durban management team would like to thank all table sponsors, and the following additional sponsors of the evening:
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