WA Branch Highlights
AITPM 2023/2024 Year in Focus
Richard Isted, WA Branch President
What were your highlights of FY23/24?
Aurecon hosted a joint AITPM and engineers’ event on the changes on energy transition in transport that was a great synergy of different minds and disciplines that rarely come together. It was great to catch up with everyone at the end-of-year function at Hylin (a café in Perth) and meet new AITPM members and professionals. The Emerging Professionals Networking Night in March was a great opportunity to meet many of the up-and-coming professionals (although I am not sure I helped my team much in lawn bowling!).
What was your favourite event of the year?
It was probably the Lawn Bowls night with the emerging professionals. It is great to listen and be challenged by new ways of thinking and values and hear the energy and passion they bring to everything that they do.
What was the biggest challenge and how did you and your committee overcome it?
The biggest challenge has been preparing for the 2024 conference here in Perth! But we will overcome it through the strength of skills and drive of the people that we have pulling it together.
Which partners, sponsors and stakeholders did you work with to achieve your outcomes?
Aurecon and Matrix brought a lot of energy to 23/24 and we are looking forward to working with them both at the conference and in other events throughout the year.
What are the burning or emerging transport and industry issues in Western Australia?
The growing disconnect in viewpoints between professionals from different backgrounds and circles about how to improve the transport and (more importantly) liveability outcomes is a recurring theme. Whether on achieving outcomes in road safety, providing mid-tier transit (of one mode or another) or the use of modelling in predicting and providing road infrastructure, disengagement is a threat across the entire sector, and, without united focus and a common language, we will only let loose the gates to transport hell.
We should be accountable for the outcomes of others in the way that the whole community sees it rather than just only how we as individuals or professionals see it.
What's been happening with the emerging professionals in WA?
The EPN continues to provide networking opportunities for professionals joining the industry and those potentially looking to do so.
What is the focus for the Branch in FY24/25
The conference, but also providing more from the local in-person events; we are planning a few events that provide different forms of interactions with our members.
What are you most excited about?
The Policy Platform is something that many members in AITPM have spoken to me about for years, so while I am apprehensive about some of the conflict internally that we will experience, I am also excited about our journey down that new path and the voice that it will give us.
Are there any acknowledgments that you would like to share?
Everyone who has been on the committee in the past year; they are the heart and soul of AITPM, and I am thankful for their commitment.