[avatar user=”garywing” size=”160″ align=”left”]Gary Wing
Chief Executive Officer of the Packaged Ice Association of Australasia, Inc.[/avatar]

Ice World Journal Report December 2016

“Bring on Summer”

 

Well after one of the wettest, windiest and most stormy winters on record in South Australia and most of the southern region of Australia we are looking forward to a warm and fruitful Summer, the experts are predicting this, lets hope they are correct.

Power reliability concerns and costs continue to escalate in most parts of the country with my city of residence Adelaide (pop. Approx 1.3 million) at one stage was totally cut off. One Wednesday afternoon in September just before 4PM a storm took out some significant power lines in the country which tripped out a “Giant Safety Switch” (as it was described by our experts) and instantaneously the City and entire State (over 1.7 mill) were out of power, could you imagine the chaos in the CBD, people caught in elevators, traffic lights out, electric trains and trams halted mid stream etc. The lucky ones like me had power restored in 5 or 6 hours but many areas were out for days even weeks causing not only the obvious inconvenience for many but costing industry 100s of millions of dollars. Most importantly there was no lives lost throughout this episode so we survive and move on. Intermittent power blackouts continue and are predicted to continue over summer ( very uncomfortable when temperature hits 40C/105C ), never know this might present some unique opportunities for our Members over many parts of the country.

After a couple of road trips to Neil & Elvie’s ( approx 1100km/700mile round trip ) enjoying their wonderful hospitality and that the local “Mystic Park Hotel” we have successfully transferred the accounts and administration from their hands to myself.

One of my first tasks is to establish a new Website and E-Mail Domain, this has proven to be a larger and more time consuming task than first thought but we are almost there and this should be well and truly up and running by the time you are reading this article, once viewed feedback, comments and thoughts would be most welcome.

This will come with our own PIAA website Domain with which I will set up lines of communication and be in contact with members on a regular basis in the New Year. Although I know the majority of our members personally there are quite a few I don’t and I intend to be in contact with those in the New Year and make myself known.

We have also been organising the 2017 Conference and Trade Show, this will be held August 6th – 9th , the venue The Mantra Mooloolaba Beach Hotel on Queensland’s

Sunshine Coast about 100km/60miles north of Brisbane. This is a great and convenient location, the accommodation is apartment style, self contained in one, two

or three bedroom options at quite reasonable rates, keep your eye out for the “Early Bird Rate Specials” for bookings prior to the 31st of  March. The Accommodation Booking Forms will be on the Website with Conference Registration Forms and Fees following soon after along with the proposed agenda. These are also available by contacting myself (0452 605543). We hope to see many of you there so now is the time to pop the dates into your diary.

Lets hope you all had a wonderful, warm and prosperous Festive Season and I wish you all a Happy New Year.