Industry stalwarts and new beginners were equally recognised during the CICA South Australian Excellence Awards night.
CICA South Australia hosted the 2019 Annual Excellence Awards at the beautiful Adelaide Oval late November. The Adelaide Oval was a fitting location considering that many of the CICA SA members attending, had played a part in the engineering and building the Oval redevelopment.
CICA Life Member, Robert Way, and his wife, were guests of honour and the event was well attended. Guest presenter Chris Dittmar, a local media personality, entertained guests with humorous interviews with the award winners and CICA CEO, Brandon Hitch.
There was very good response to the awards this year, due to a revised format of submitting nominations that made the process easier and quicker. With the increased number and calibre of nominations, however, the task of choosing winners was much harder for the judging panel. CICA SA Chairman, Marcus Rigney highlighted that just being nominated was a win in itself – that nominees should feel proud of the recognition given them by their employer and the industry.
The Winners
Crane Operator of the year
– Brendan Cameron of Max Cranes
Crane Operator of the year runner up
– Damien Spadavechia of Morgan’s Cranes
Rigger of the Year
– Zachary Kenyon of Crane Services
Rigger of the Year runner-up
– Paul Glaetzer of Morgan’s Cranes
Trainee of the Year
– Jackson Arbuckle of Max Cranes
Outstanding Achievement Award
– Two winners – Mark Gilbert of WGA and Mark Kuhn of Max Cranes
Mark Kuhn gave a short speech recognising the investment Robert Way has made to the industry and emphasised the importance and need for a good trainee program to be in place for the South Australian crane industry.
The success of the evening was due to a lot of hard work by the CICA SA steering committee and judging panel. CICA SA would like to thank the support given by sponsors – Franna Cranes by Terex, Grove Cranes by Manitowoc, Liebherr Cranes, Sennebogen Cranes courtesy of Pace Cranes and Tadano Cranes who kindly donated model cranes that were presented to all winners.
Through the eyes of CICA SA chairman, Marcus Rigney
What a fantastic evening it was, celebrating Christmas with our members and combining it with a platform to celebrate the efforts of their nominated people on this award night. The evening was a great success, and it was heart-warming to see people celebrate and have a good time.
This was a very special night for our association, as not only did we celebrate the great work our association has done over the past year, but we also celebrated the nominees to these awards, and the companies that took their time to endorse, foster and support these nominees.
It dawned on us that our industry is working hard to develop traineeships and acknowledge our lifelong members, however we also wanted to recognise the hard work of our everyday operators and riggers; who are actively in the field representing our companies and industry.
CICA SA believes these awards play an important role, evidenced on the evening where we presented 15 nominations to these awards; to some of our leading operators, riggers, trainees and achievers in the industry.
When the judging panel reviewed the nominations and discussed the interviews, I remember thinking ‘wow, how exceptionally good are these nominations.’ So, to all our nominees, I would like to reiterate; you are doing exceptionally well in the field and on behalf of CICA; I wish to congratulate you on your efforts within the industry.
We also hope that another spin-off of the awards evening is for our association to engage more with our operators and riggers. Part of my address to the nominees during the evening, was that our association is the industry body for the crane industry, that offers tools and professional people that can help equip you with further knowledge, to foster your growth within the industry.
Our nominees were encouraged to engage on a deeper level with CICA, to attend some of our meetings; network with fellow industry professionals and seek any training or professional advice on offer, to carry out best practice work in the industry.
It was a nice touch to see the presentation to our winners of the Outstanding Achievement Award done by CICA life member Robert Way. Both Mark Gilbert and Mark Kuhn spoke openly about their contribution and passion to the industry and this was very inspiring to listen to.
I would like to say a big thankyou to the CICA SA steering committee for putting all this together. These people are volunteers to the industry, that took time out of their personal and work time to make this a success.
To the companies of these nominees, thank you so very much for your support and investment into this awards night. Thank you to our marketers that also supported the night.
We have a great association that came together on this evening to celebrate our industry.
I am looking forward to our next awards evening and am excited about the growth and potential we will see in the future.