Planning for a return to normal in 2021

Welcome to 2021! Let’s hope that this year we can reach some kind of new normal with the vaccines rolling out, and that we can begin to work on getting all of our communities back on an even keel.

To finish off 2020, ARCIA held an online event to celebrate the end of the year and recognise industry members nominated by their peers through our annual awards. The intent of the event was to get people together in their respective workplaces and have a relatively quick celebration. It was awesome to see over 200 people from 60 different locations around Australia log in and participate. A full list of winners has been published, and I would particularly like to thank Andrew Wyborn, who ran the event and showed off his excellent presentation skills.

The Jonathan Livingston Seagull award, the top gong from our industry, was presented to Mark Mezzapica from RF Industries. This is a very well deserved award; congratulations Mark. Thanks, too, to the team of people involved in keeping this a huge surprise until Ian Hyde, the originator of the award, made the presentation to Mark at RFI’s Sydney office.

In November ARCIA was invited by the Department of Infrastructure Transport Regional Development and Communications to participate in an online discussion about using 5G as a tool for innovation and productivity. There is a growing recognition within government that private LTE networks will have a part to play in the future of communications, and government is progressing through a number of programs. More information can be found at https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/supporting-australias-5g-future.

At the start of every year, ARCIA commences with planning days to set the program for the coming 12 months. Obviously 2020 didn’t quite go to plan. However, in February, ARCIA will run a series of online planning sessions for committee members, partners and anyone else interested to set the scene for 2021. This will be done from local hubs connected via Zoom, with the aim of getting great local conversations going without interstate travel being required.

In my view we really need to move on with training. I think we have now proven there is demand for online and in-person training. I am hoping that 2021 will be the year that ARCIA can make more content and courses available for members. More information on this will be released following those planning days in February.

Finally, we are delighted to announce that the annual gala dinner will return to Melbourne on 17 November 2021 at an exciting new venue. Given that this might be the first time industry will have had the chance to be all together again, ARCIA is planning to make this a year worth remembering. We are also hoping that we will be able to return with our usual functions throughout the year to help bring each of our groups of state members back into local networks again. It is important that we renew those networks to provide mutual support to all members.

Hamish Duff

President

Australian Radio Communications Industry Association