Wellington was ‘simply the best’ location to host the 20th annual IRHACE Conference for 2010 the theme “Natural Refrigerants and our Environment – a new era for the New Zealand Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Sector”.
Our host branch, led by chairman Pete Hutson certainly brought a truly “Wild about Wellington” flavor to the event.
The Overseas Terminal situated at Chaffers Marina was central to all amenities and the layout of the venue allowed us to hold all our functions / trade exhibition/ technical demonstrations/ technical presentations/ AGM in one central location.
The trade exhibition saw 27 companies involved & a constant stream of visitors attending. This included a new initiative with 6 live technical demonstrations proving to be very successful as well as adding value to the trade exhibition.
We had an enviable list of high caliber technical speakers that were engaging and well received by 130 delegates in attendance.
Thanks to those Year 3 Refrigeration & Air Conditioning apprentices and their companies who entered this years 12th annual Wallie Askew Memorial Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Apprentice Work Skills Competition.
Congratulations go to all competitors. The results are: 1st Lance Colligan (Sturrock & Greenwood Nelson) 2nd Morgan Corkill (Arneg Waikato) 3rd James Spinks (McAlpine Hussmann Wellington) Mark Jury (Chilltech Refrigeration Manawatu) Robert Gemmell (Climatech Auckland) & Wade Marriott (Piersons Refrigeration Canterbury-Westland)
Sponsorship and donated prizes were outstanding. Thank you to all those that assisted in the process, with Industry’s support such as this, we are able continue with this initiative.
Our partners enjoyed a Walking Gourmet Tour exploring some of Wellingtons favourite food places ending up at their final destination – Logan Brown.
The Friday night pre dinner drinks & dinner ‘western theme’ was kindly sponsored by Black Diamond Technologies & hosted by the IRHACE Wellington branch was a tremendous success & enjoyed by the 150 that attended.
The Saturday formal pre dinner drinks, dinner & awards evening kindly sponsored by Holyoake Industries was thoroughly enjoyed by 140 attendees.
Thank you to Glynn Cowley and Paul De Bernardo for organizing the Technical Site Tour sponsored by Cowley Refrigeration Engineering saw our delegates visit the new Wellington Regional Hospital purpose built, state of the art and finishing up at Mac’s brewery for some light refreshments.
Thank you to our sponsors and trade exhibitors for their invaluable input in helping us to create another successful IRHACE Conference.
Look forward to seeing you all in Christchurch 2011.
Rodger
Wyatt
Pete Hutson
IRHACE
President
Wellington Branch Chairman