Another successful CICA conference

Held on 1-3 September, the conference saw several international guest speakers attend, including Christopher Kleiner (Liebherr), Les Brown (Fagiloi), Bill Stramer (SC&RA president), Tristan Williams (CANZ president), and regular Cranes Today contributor, Stuart Anderson.

“The annual conference is always a winner,” said John Gillespie, president of CICA. “With the great support of the industry members plus 18 months of planning and preparations, CICA was always confident of another successful event.”

CICA CEO, Alan Marshall, added, “CICA has a strong track record of successful conferences over 30 years so we were not going to drop the ball in Perth. We had such great support from the local WA troops and we had a new professional conference organizing team helping us raise the bar.”

370 delegates attended the conference, which had 30 exhibitor booths and 26 cranes on display. The proceedings included business and technical sessions, ‘lift of the year’ presentations and an international manufacturers’ panel, comprising of Eric Etchart (Manitowoc), Christoph Kleiner (Liebherr), Alexander Knecht (Tadano Faun) and Ralf Ressel (Terex).

The gala awards dinner saw the ‘lift of the year’ award winners announced, being- category A (over 130t): John Holland P/L, and category B (under 130t): Kelly’s Crane Hire. The CICA Bill Shaw memorial award for the best overall lift was announced with John Holland taking home the perpetual cup.

Years of service by president Gillespie, was also recognized. Marshall said: “Significantly, CICA awarded life membership to John Gillespie in recognition of his 40 years in the industry and his 25 successive volunteer years of the CICA Board. What a huge achievement by John.”

The 2011 conference, taking place 14-16 September, will be held at the Marriott Resort Surfers Paradise.