New horizons
New CIBSE President Peter Y Wong presents his first monthly presidential blog following his inauguration last month, in which he takes a look at what the 30th anniversary of CIBSE ANZ means for the Institution.
Welcome to my first President’s blog of my term – I hope
that you find it useful. This blog will be a monthly insight into my intended
path for the Institution, and will hopefully be an interesting perspective on
issues affecting the engineering industry as a whole from the first Hong Kong
President of CIBSE.
In my Presidential address that I delivered at my
inauguration, I listed reaching out to the world as one of my top priorities.
CIBSE can only be as big and effective as its membership – it’s the members
that create the knowledge and uphold our principles. It should be our wish and our mission to
share these with others in and beyond our membership - all over the world. So
it seems appropriate that my first blog is about my visit to the CIBSE
Australia and New Zealand Region (CIBSE ANZ), to celebrate the 30th
anniversary of their becoming an official overseas region of the Institution
with the mission to reach out to others in the sector and spread CIBSE’s
values.
CIBSE President Peter Y Wong will attend CIBSE ANZ's 30th anniversary celebrations in Melbourne |
CIBSE’s history in the ANZ Region is almost as old as CIBSE
itself, and 11 years after becoming the Chartered Institution of Building
Services in 1987 there were already 200 members working there. Beginning life
with several successful Conferences in its first few years, the ANZ Region
quickly established an impressive range of technical meetings, seminars and
networking groups with the aim of raising the profile of Services in the built
environment.
The CIBSE ANZ story is a perfect example of what I hope that
CIBSE can achieve in the world of engineering over the next few years: A truly
grass-roots approach to growth that engages engineers all around the world to
aspire to chartered status. Indeed, by drawing in membership overseas we can
make our pool of knowledge both wider and deeper, which will create a stronger
offering for the benefit of members and the industry at large.
If CIBSE it to keep growing and developing as an UK
organisation with an international footprint it’s not enough to rely on the exceptional work of our existing UK
regions – we have to engage directly with local engineers working in other
countries to find out what they need to help them, and what they know that can
help us. It’s this aim that CIBSE AMZ have excelled in, building an impressive
network of engineering contacts in industry and events who are able to
contribute enormously to CIBSE.
The CIBSE YEN team visit Hong Kong in 2015 |
In two countries with strong engineering pedigrees and a
great variety of environments at both land and sea, work on big projects such
as NABERS and individual buildings have been invaluable sources of information
and guidance that the whole CIBSE community have benefitted from. CIBSE have
also been able to give back in return, by working to establish the building
services industry as a voice in the ANZ built environment. The backing of an
authoritative and respected voice like CIBSE’s lent the industry more weight in
decision making and collective power greater than the sum of its parts.
This symbiotic relationship of working together and learning
best practice from each other is the future of CIBSE as it looks to expand its
reach and knowledge ever wider around the world – I hope to be able to learn
from them and strengthen the bond between CIBSE ANZ and the other regions,
including my home region of Hong Kong.
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