In the last 8 months since our conference on the Gold Coast, we have witnessed significant changes in the business landscape.

Small to medium wire enterprises, as well as fencing companies have not been isolated from the difficulties being experienced in the wider business community.

Presidents report

Many businesses are experiencing slower payments by their debtors and uncertainty in framing budgets for next year.

The Association is currently finalising the format for this year’s conference to be held in Melbourne on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th of October 2009.

We are planning to include a number of business topics that will help you navigate through these difficult times.

A conscious effort is being made to keep the conference costs down and still provide an array of presenters that will provide relevant and timely information to make your businesses more successful.

Members are urged to note the dates and make airline bookings to Melbourne taking advantage of the cheaper flights currently being offered.

Sam Dermody
AWIA President

National Manufacturing Week 12-15th May 2009 Report.Thanks to our AWIA members who exhibited at National Manufacturing Week in Melbourne.

This year some of our members decided not to exhibit at NMW, a trend that has been seen in exhibitions throughout the world due to the economic circumstances.

However, feedback from our members is positive, reporting a good number of quality leads. Despite a decline in overall visitor numbers, NMW and Austech attracted a high quality audience, with significant levels of decision-makers in attendance. The category of Director / CEO / MD / GM / Owner made up 23.3% of trade visitors – demonstrating the purchasing power of a large proportion of NMW 09 visitors.

NB. These figures are only preliminary, and Reed Exhibitions will be sending out to our exhibitors a fully audited result in the next 3 months. This year there was a number of parallel events, including the Manufacturers Monthly Endeavour Awards, Ai Group’s Careers Advice Workshop, the SMCBA workshops and the WTIA Annual Awards Dinner and numerous other seminars and networking functions.