AAF 2015 – A grand success
Wow, it is already June and the cold winds of winter have arrived. However, we at the SAIMC are still enjoying the warmth and excitement generated at the inaugural Africa Automation Fair. Indeed, it was a phenomenal success with record attendance on all days and an increased overall attendance in excess of 50% from the previous 2013 event. I am sure you will find pictures of this great trade fair within the pages of this issue of SAI&C magazine. Vendors spared no expense to ensure that the AAF had an international look and feel. International experts were plentiful as well, answering the many technical questions posed by our visitors.
The integration of the FTC and FLL All Africa Championships brought the zestful energy of the youth to the show. Whilst this caused a fair amount of noise, which was at times challenging, knowing that this was a way for us to inspire the youth to take up engineering as a profession by providing a platform for them to meet and speak to practicing engineers while playing with their toys, made it all worthwhile! With these innovative and bright minds taking up engineering, we ‘senior engineers’ can ensure that we can enjoy our retirement, with the lights still on and no raw sewerage flowing past our stoep. The SAIMC will strongly advocate for the FLL & FTC to be part of the next AAF. We can do a lot to address the noise issues, now that we know what to expect.
The launches of new products at the fair also contributed to the excitement, as did the various giveaways by the vendors and organisers. The winner of the grand prize of the trip to Europe for either the SPSS or Hannover Fairs was announced at the Gala Dinner, after the event closed on Thursday evening is Anthonie Thiart from Multitech. Congratulations and enjoy your trip courtesy of élancommunications, the IIG and the SAIMC. Various other awards were presented at the dinner that night and they were:
• Project of the year award: Afrilek and Adroit/BCX.
• Best training provider: Adroit Technologies.
• Best customer service award: Siemens.
• Exhibitor of the year: Allpronix.
• Marketing team of the year: Yokogawa.
• Best small stand award: Afrilek.
• Best large stand award: Siemens
Congratulations to all the winners. In particular I would like to congratulate Siemens on the best stand, they really adopted the ‘go big or go home’ attitude that we at the SAIMC like to live by. From dominant signage, to a putting green, to a diversity of products as well as a photo booth, they certainly did have a very interesting stand.
It is indeed an honour that my peers in the industry, along with the two magazines and the organisers, chose to recognise my efforts in recent years by awarding me ‘Industry Personality of the Year’. This achievement would not have been possible without the support of a number of individuals. Firstly, Johan Maartens, the immediate past President of the SAIMC, who knowing that I was planning to drive radical change through the SAIMC supported my plans and risky ideas. His casting vote late one Friday evening paved the way for my entry. The councillors during my tenure as president have also enabled me to implement the rebranding of the organisation and other changes. Most of this is done after hours, so I am also very grateful to my wife, Yashika Maharaj for bearing with my absence on many evenings and weekends, over the past years.
Little did we know that the rebranding and modernising of the SAIMC would have such a positive impact on other areas of the industry, in particular, the Process Show and other industry road shows – vendors and other stakeholders have demanded similar changes as well. It is wonderful to see such a wave of positivity riding through the industry!
This wave will enable us at the SAIMC to continue to take care of the best interests of the industry by ensuring that we execute the objectives of our business plan. Yes, some of them are tough, but not impossible. The resistance to our recognition as the 10th Engineering discipline by ECSA will eventually wear away, and we have already attained international recognition and our own C&I standards committee at the SABS.
I would like to congratulate Hanli Kritzinger and her team at élancommunications, for an exceptional job in organising the AAF in such a professional manner, under extremely trying circumstances. We as an industry need to congratulate ourselves for the unity of purpose that was shown during the lead-up to, and during, the AAF itself. We really have a bright future if we maintain this momentum, even though we seemingly are surrounded by daily bad news on the economic front.
See you all at our Gala Dinner in October, details to be released soon!
As usual, please mail me your thoughts on [email protected]. I thank you all for taking the time to read this column.
Working together, achieving more,
Vinesh Maharaj, President.
| Tel: | +27 11 312 2445 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
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