BRANCH REPORTS
QLD BRANCH REPORT Mid year QLD Conference Report Under the cloud of extended COVID restrictions in Queensland, the branch successfully went ahead with our mid-year Professional Development and Tradeshow on the 22nd and 23rd of July at the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane. A special thanks to everyone involved for their cooperation and patience with the restrictions of allocated seating, masks (except when eating and drinking) and sit-down meals. The conference was also a first with our interstate speakers joining us via ZOOM. With 67 registered delegates (with almost everyone able to attend at some point) and over 30 sponsors, the event was most likely our best attended conference ever. It was good to see people face to face and heartening to see a lot of new faces as well. Without our sponsors (14 booths/tables) the event would not have been the success that it was. Thanks for their patience at the tradeshow with the limitations of sitdown meals and drinks – towards the end there was some rearrangement of chairs around the booths! Special thanks to Higgins Coatings and Stantec Australia Pty Ltd for being our Major sponsors and Velocity Energy for sponsoring the Trade Show. The theme of “SUSTAINABLE HEALTH
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Order of Australia in the General Division (AM) ‘for significant
services to health infrastructure planning and management’. The first presentation was by Associate Professor Krispin Hajkowicz. Krispin is the Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at RBWH and has worked in the COVID-19 frontline for more than 15 months. Krispin’s presentation was on
COVID-19 learnings from an Infection Control perspective.
A very enlightening presentation that was well received
and well backed up by the next presenter, Peter Lutkic from Price Holyoake on converting normal spaces into isolation areas and back again. Peter is a Mechanical Engineer,
majoring in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, from the University of South Australia.
Mark Collen, the Business Development Manager
of Aqualyng ICES and a long time member of the IHEA
presented on the Sustainability in water management for Hospitals and Healthcare facilities.
Our next presenters were Richard Butcher and Brad
Benson from Velocity Energy. Richard’s presented on Peak Demand Management utilising Smart Grid Virtual Power
Stations. Brad finished off with a summary of the rise of the
Battery Electric Vehicle(BEV) asking, “Does it make sense to provide workplace charging?”
The next group of presenters provided insight into
some fantastic sustainability initiatives within the waste and
INFRASTRUCTURE – improves, maintains and restores” was well received with speakers presenting on a wide range of topics including water, power and waste management, recycling, procurement and climate impacts, managing data, project financing and BIM. In keeping with the times, we also had presentations on COVID learnings in relation to infection control and the conversion (and re-conversion) of normal spaces into isolation areas. Our Conference started with our opening address from Kate Copeland OAM, Kate is the Executive Director, Assets and Infrastructure, Metro North Health. Kate was recognised in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday awards as a Member of the
environmental management sector and we were delighted
Kate Copeland – Opening Address Speaker
Toby Maple and Mark Cronin from IIMBE
to have Cathy Hollis from the Metro North Health, Brendon
Seipolt from Metro South Health and Susan Farlow from the
St Andrews War Memorial Hospital. We learnt about turning our waste away from landfill and into furniture, fertilizer and tote bags (to name a few) and make a tidy revenue for the hospitals and associated charities.
To wrap up the day we had Deborah Wadsworth from
Uniting Care Health. Deborah talked about thinking outside the box when it comes to contractor engagement and
procurement and getting more bang for your buck when negotiating with potential contractors.
