It’s a highlight of IPWEA’s Conference schedule – the Gala Dinner brings together delegates for a night of fun and revelry to celebrate the public works profession with your peers.
Guests came decked out in black tie to the elegant affair and enjoyed a musical line-up that ranged from rock opera to Wham!
Outgoing IPWEA President Michael Kahler made a fitting tribute to Chris Champion, who has stepped down as CEO of IPWEA to purse a part-time international role with the association.
“Through your innovation, energy and love for the role, you’ve built an organisation that is a lasting legacy for the public works industry for many years to come,” Kahler said of Chris.
In particular, Kahler thanked Chris’ wife Diane, who received a
standing ovation from the crowd, for sharing her husband with the
association for these 15 years.
The Gala Dinner would not have been complete without the auction of the ‘Magic Tie’. This is where they auction off the tie worn by Kristen McKechie from Opus International Consultants to the 2005 Adelaide conference where it was cut in half and magically put back together again.
The ‘Magic Tie’ has been framed and auctioned off at every IPWEA conference since Adelaide. Last year the tie was auctioned off for a fantastic $3600 to Brighton Council and Heath McPherson came on stage to hand it over.
After much bidding, the tie was sold to Bill Woodcock of Complete Urban who bought the tie for a whopping $4000 – a conference record. Congratulations Bill!
Guests spent the rest of the night dancing to a mix of cabaret and pop classics. Check out the picture gallery below for some cracking photos from the evening.
IPWEA would like to thank joint sponsors of the gala dinner, Fulton Hogan and Komatsu for sponsoring the evening.
The IPWEA Conference Gala Dinner 2015 by Slidely Photo Gallery