The IET Global Volunteer Conference 2016 was held at the seat of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, in Savoy Place, London on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th June 2016. As Chairman of the Local Network, I attended the Conference together with Mr. Hisham Rojoa from Mauritius in his capacity as Chair of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Communities Committee.
Thanks to receive a résumé of the programme and activities carried out:
Day 1:
• Plenary session – morning.
o Welcome and Introduction by Naomi Climer – President of the IET
o Presentation by below persons on the theme: "Inspire – Growing engagement".
Eur Ing R (Gordon) Dixon BSc CEng FIET FRSA
Joseph Dunn MIET
The Solent Network’s Young Professional team was show-cased. The speakers also talked about the importance of volunteers to the IET in its mission to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community
o Presentation on CPD and its importance. CPD will become a requirement in the future for keeping one’s Professional Registration.
o Speaker: David Parr CEng MIET, PRA & CPD Advisor
o There was also a presentation on the Accounts of the IET (how money is injected, invested and spent at the IET) by
Nigel Ward, Honorary Treasurer
Ed Almond, Director of Finance and Planning.
o The President gave a sublime lecture on the future of Engineering and the IET: “Influencing in the future”
o This was followed by a summary of the morning session by Nigel Fine – Chief Executive and Secretary.
• Afternoon Session:
o Colin Arthur, the Chair of CRC (Communities Resourcing Committee) gave an insight of the Strategy Update.
o This was followed by a joint presentation of the YPCC (Young Professionals Communities Community). Speakers:
Clara To
Sachini Yapa
o Richard Tregaskes from the Southern California LN then presented: "Building online communities: how the Southern California Network uses Engineering Communities".
o Danielle Antonellis from CRC then introduced “Leadership and Future Thinking” before we broke up into groups to work on the “Ideas World Map Activity”.
Here, I seized the occasion to highlight issues we currently have with our members’ database which is unavailable to us. Volunteers from other LNs pointed out the same issue. Proposals from Mauritius Network included the following as discussed in our Executive Committee:
_The creation of a portal on the IET website for worldwide job vacancies as may be available within all Local Networks/Countries.
_To see the possibility of creating a pool of IET Member experts / training specialists / consultants available to all Members for any transfer of expertise / special projects / training etc…
_To have an IET office in Mauritius.
After the activity, there were 2 presentations on:
o Strengthening the Technical: case study from the Healthcare Technologies TPN, and
o LNs and TPNs working together (Rich Baker presented the Tribology Network).
The first day ended with a Presentation of awards and prizes, and dinner.
Day 2 (half day):
It started with a working group for each Regional Stream.
o Our session was led by Mr. Hisham Rojoa where we discussed the achievements, challenges and regional strategy.
o There was also a presentation on the online Marketing Tools available to us.
Feedback from each Regional Stream was then shared to all present.
This was followed by a Communities Panel – Q&A session.
Finally, there was a round-up of the Conference Highlights followed by lunch.
For more information and some of the presentations, please click here
Some pictures of the Conference can also be found on our Community Page
as well as Facebook
Some other points that came out of this conference are:
1. Most of our members are over 40. Many are over 60. Very few are below 30. Hence, there is a big need to encourage new and young members to join the IET.
2. The future of IET?
3. TPNs were almost unknown to everyone. How can LNs and TPNs collaborate?
4. Some LNs are doing a great job like Hong Kong and Kuwait where this is a lot of engagement.
5. China and India are producing more and more papers on an annual basis and may soon surpass the UK.
6. How do we attract volunteers? How can the IET respond to the needs of a young engineer?
7. There was a big debate on Women in Engineering. There was a feeling that women were discriminated as a “minority” in IET whereas the women present demanded equality.
8. Funds are limited and the IET cannot satisfy everybody’s need. Judicious planning is essential.
9. With globalisation and the emergence of new technologies, there is a constant need to review “Engineering” as a whole.
10. In UK there is a lot too many institutions like the IET. Hence, collaboration and merging with other bodies would be most beneficial. However, this is sometimes difficult due to emotions attached to these bodies.
11. There is a need to expand IET in many other places around the globe. Collaboration with Universities and governments are encouraged.
12. More collaboration with micro-entrepreneurs was sought.
Finally, there were some points / issues raised by local members that were addressed during my visit to London.
Thank you and kind Regards,
Shah Nawaz Hossenbaccus, B.Eng(Hons.), MSc, MBA, MIET, PMP, CEng
Chairman - Mauritius Network