AWA End of Year Queensland President's Report

As we approach the end of the year, QLD President Margit Connellan reflects on the last few months and looks ahead to 2024. 

What a great year for the water industry in Queensland! It is hard to believe how quickly the year is coming to an end, blink and it will be Christmas soon. Everyone I meet with says how busy the year has been and how they are rushing towards Christmas – with just over three weeks to go at the time of this column. It is my last for the year.

It has been another exceptional few months since our last issue of QLD Source, with the AWA Qld Branch hosting a sensational Gala Dinner with all the glitz and glamour of an awards night and 500 attendees. With so much interest in celebrating the best of our sector, we may need to search for new locations as it continues to grow year on year. We also had our North Queensland Conference in Townsville that also had a record number of attendees with fantastic papers and support from sponsors and exhibitors. The venue was awesome with some taking the opportunity to stay over the weekend to enjoy the warm weather and beautiful location.

And the Young Water Professionals held their ever-popular Amazing Race, with fifteen teams enjoying a great afternoon exploring the city, with most of these donning very creative costumes.

We recently hosted the QWater'23 Conference, ‘Making this Decade Matter’, at the Hilton in the City. We had 250 registrations along with several trade exhibitors; those companies and organisations are a great support to the industry. There were more than 80 people that stayed on for the Great Debate as part of our closing session on the Friday afternoon. It was a great way to finish off such a fantastic event.

So, as we race towards the end of the year, I would like to thank all committee members, past and current, and the members; I couldn’t have done it without you. Without you all, we wouldn’t be here to continue bringing you events, technical content, and networking opportunities.

We will be kicking off next year’s events with the launch of the Queensland Mentoring program in February 2024 along with the always successful, Industry Breakfast. This event sold out this year, so I encourage you to book your tickets early. We’re hosting our second ever regional technical event in March on the Fraser Coast, and you will soon hear more about the plans for our North Queensland Conference in 2024, we are very excited to be hosting that on Hamilton Island from 29-31 July!

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you all stay safe during this festive season and refresh and recharge for a busy year ahead. Thank you to those who will be working to keep our water running and ensure the safe treatment of our wastewater and who don’t get to take the extended break over the festive period.

Thanks again for a great year and I look forward to catching up with you all again in 2024.