IMPROVING WINERY PERFORMANCE

2007 WEA Conference

Progress through Engineering

Another very successful conference inspired by the theme "Progress through Engineering" was held in June 2007 at the Mildura Settlers Function Centre. The WEA received excellent feedback throughout the conference from both winery delegates and exhibitors.

Cr John Arnold, Mayor of Mildura officially opened the conference with Mr Max Findlay, Managing Director of Programmed Maintenance Services (the patron sponsor) giving the Keynote Address on the history of PMS from a small painting company to the wide ranging maintenance solutions provider it is today.

The conference hosted an excellent speaker programme with many addresses focussing on the challenges the wine industry faces in progressing our business through continuous improvement and smarter processes. Topics included energy efficiency, refrigeration design and optimisation, packaging efficiencies and advancements, improvement in wine recovery and reduced losses and winery wastewater improvements.

Socially, the breakfast cruise on Thursday morning was enjoyed by all and proved to be an excellent way to start the day. The conference dinner on Thursday evening was an outstanding night with entertainment provided by the very funny Greg Champion. Fundraising and raffles with proceeds going to the Royal Flying Doctors were once again well supported.

The WEA acknowledged the continued support of all of their conference sponsors, with special thanks to Patron Sponsor, Programme Maintenance Services and Major Sponsors, Thermowrap Australia, Festo, Rockwell Automation and Sage Automation.