Thanks NZ, now for Melbourne

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Comms Connect and RFUANZ for a successful show in Wellington New Zealand in May. Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, borders and local hot spots right up to the week of the event, it was a credit to all involved that the event happened.

The show was well attended by the New Zealand industry and government representatives. Everyone enjoyed being able to meet, network and catch up on industry matters.

RFUANZ also had their annual dinner, which was a great event and equally well supported. I was fortunate to be able to travel to New Zealand for the event and made the most of the opportunity by investing in local businesses, among many other industry members.

While in New Zealand I had the opportunity to attend the AGM of the RFUANZ and discuss some common objectives that our associations have. The intention is to sign an MOU between the RFUANZ and ARCIA on sharing training ideas and material. Both organisations have similar industry needs and also limited resources, so sharing makes sense.

Hopefully, as this is being published, ARCIA is conducting our first state event in Sydney over 15 and 16 of July at the Rydges Hotel Rosehill. The two-day training event will be complemented by an industry dinner on 15 July at the same location. The training event will be based on professional development training aimed at students and others who may be new to the industry, as well as those who have experience but want to expand their knowledge.

ARCIA is planning a range of professional development courses and events around Australia over 2021 so keep an eye on the events page of the website for local events: https://arcia.org.au/events. The next planned sessions will be in Perth on 12 and 13 August this year. The annual Perth networking dinner will be held at the same time and is always a great event, more details will be posted on the ARCIA website soon.

Planning is well underway for Comms Connect Melbourne and the ARCIA annual gala dinner, now in October. Hopefully Melbourne can overcome the COVID events currently affecting the city and we can return to the big show for the year. We think that everyone will really want to get together, and considering how tough our Victorian colleagues have had things over the last 18 months, they deserve our support.

As we look to the future, we should also recognise the events of the past year — in many ways our industry has been through the COVID-19 pandemic with little really serious impact, certainly nothing like many other industries have experienced and are still struggling to recover from.

The wireless communications industry has been proven to be resilient and many people have not yet realised just how critical communications are in hard times. Learning to work remotely, video meetings, infection control measures... we have accepted these changes and in many cases our industry has thrived, we should be proud. In addition, as we talk to young people it is important to point out that from a career perspective the wireless communications industry is vibrant and resilient.

The new financial year also sees two new promotional partners joining ARCIA. We welcome Progility Technologies and Cambium Networks as Silver level partners and this year, Simoco, Wireless Innovations (T/as Hypha) and CSE have stepped up to Elite level partners. These changes have demonstrated the confidence in our industry and we thank our partners for their commitment, it will enable your Association to continue to promote our industry and opportunities.

Keep safe everyone.

Hamish Duff

President