Radio dinner - mixing tradition with growth

Since its inauguration 30 years ago, the annual radiocommunications dinner has brought together individuals involved in all facets of the radiocommunications industry for an evening of professional recognition, industry networking and social entertainment.

At a magnificent new venue, this year''s dinner saw more support, more recognition and more excitement.

With the outlook of launching the Australian Radio Industry Association (ARIA), tickets to the dinner sold out early with just over 200 national industry professionals on the guest list.

Live entertainment from one of Australia''s top stand-up comedians, Dave Grant, entertained the crowd while the ''Peter Wallace Xmas Cheer'', which took place for the first time this year, saw attendees taking home Christmas novelties from yoyos to chocolates to environmentally-friendly bags.

The famous four from Wireless Pacific brought continuing laughs and a further ''wow'' factor as they gave homage to Peter Wallace through their distribution of Christmas novelties.

In conjunction with the presentation of the coveted lifetime achievement Jonathan Livingston Award, this year the dinner introduced three new awards recognising excellence in professional sales, customer service and technical excellence.

Ross Terranova from Crosscom took away the 2006 Sales Professional Award while the 2006 Customer Service Award went to Natalie Pemberton from Pacific Wireless Communications.

Steve Reining from JRD received the 2006 Technical Excellence Award.

As tradition demanded, the Jonathan Livingston Award was presented to Ben Czerniewicz from Polar Electronics.

Radio Comms Asia-Pacific editor, Mike Smyth gave his full support on the night with a motivating speech, enlightening the group on the power of promotion and advertising for radio industry companies. Attendees were encouraged to contribute their industry know-how and stories to the magazine.