– By Marc Sibbald –
Today is Star Wars day. So millions of fans around the world will be revelling in the joy of openly sharing their passion for all things intergalactic with the rest of the world.
May is also a month for Fleet Managers to feel the same joy. But they get to celebrate with colleagues and friends twice because there are two conferences being held in the same month.
On 11th and 12th May there is the AfMA conference in Melbourne. Then on 23rd to 25th May the IPWEA will hold its inaugural fleet conference in Brisbane in conjunction with the Brisbane Truck Show.
The AfMA conference has been an annual event for as long as I can remember. I love attending to catch up with friends, suppliers and old colleagues. It’s a highlight in my calendar along with the annual awards night. And even though this year it’s being held on my wife’s birthday, I’ll still be there.
As an event it has been hit and miss over the years with some of the topics and presenters being less than impressive. Also getting the attendee balance right between suppliers, sponsors and practitioners is hard so this has been a criticism of some AfMA events.
But last year was different. The AfMA team was new and there was an enthusiastic vibe at the conference. Most people I spoke with rated it as one of the best they had attended. This year AfMA have made some more changes and it promises to be better again. And the supplier exhibition space is a great way to collect ideas and make a lot of connections in a short space of time.
IPWEA (Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia) has been running fleet events and training programs for over over ten years. So it was a huge surprise for me, after 19 years in fleet, to find out about them in 2015.
I attended my first IPWEA event in 2016 which blew me away. The first thing I noticed was the lack of suppliers. There was a grassroots feel with the attendees, all Fleet Managers, engaged in every discussion or presentation. There were people from all over NSW and during each break the interactions were amazing because of the passion for all things fleet.
So the IPWEA Fleet Conference should be a great event. It’s being held over three days with a late start on the Tuesday and a morning finish on Thursday (don’t miss the panel session) to allow attendees to visit the Brisbane Truck Show for a VIP tour on the opening day. There will also be a exhibition space with many suppliers working with IPWEA for the first time.
