It is good to see that the world is slowly starting to open up again and I look forward to being able to meet many of you again in person later this year. Whilst I am obviously of an age where it’s likely to be some time before I receive my vaccine, I am always willing to digitally support Society members either by attending their meetings or speaking at conferences and events.
I wanted to take this opportunity to update ISTT members on several developments ahead of what looks set to be a really exciting year. Following the discontinuation of Trenchless International, the ISTT Board invited a number of media companies to pitch solutions for continuing with a member magazine and other information channels and how these could be developed going forward. The ISTT Outreach and Marketing Committee Chair, Trevor Gosatti, has done a great job as there were a number of excellent proposals and the decision was not easy. The ISTT Board of Directors did, however, make its selection at the January 2021 meeting and I’m delighted to be able to confirm our new media partner – Trenchless Works – and welcome them into the ISTT community. Hopefully you have all now seen the first issue of the e-magazine and agree with me that it holds many exciting possibilities for the future. Your comments about the magazine are always welcome.
As we return to normality, we can look forward to the 38th International No-Dig in Kuala Lumpur. The event takes place on the 16 and 17 November 2021 having been rescheduled from November 2020. We will also hold the International Council meeting on 15 November, the day before International No-Dig show begins. I have been in contact with Westrade, who are confident that the event will take place, and that travel to Malaysia will be possible and safe by this date. On this basis, it is probably worth those planning to attend starting to consider their travel arrangements (https://trenchlessasia.com/conference-2020).
Our Technical and Education Committee, led by Albert Shou, has also been very active in preparing a new series of ISTT webinars. Registration is available via the ISTT website (www. istt.com) where you can also view recordings of previous webinars. Additionally, we are now on LinkedIn. There is lots of excellent information on LinkedIn about trenchless so please do give us a follow. Other key events this year include conferences in Sao Paulo Brazil, Suzhou China, and Krakow Poland where I hope I can be present!
Finally, I would like to recognise the efforts of all six ISTT committees who have worked extremely hard and efficiently over the past few months. We have established a new committee – the ISTT Governance Committee – which will formalise the ISTT’s policies and procedures. The Chair of this committee will be decided during the next board meeting in March. I have also started to prepare our Chairman’s advisory panel with Dec Downey and Peter Smeallie which should be ready in April. My best regards to you all, Jari Kaukonen, Chairman, ISTT
