Record numbers at Conference

I’d like to give everyone a big thank you for contributing to such a successful NZ Plumbing Conference 2022. We’ve had amazing feedback from members, Business Partners and, of course, award winners. I do want to personally thank Fleur Nicholas and Luke Pirie for their huge amount of effort and commitment in organising the event.

We were extremely happy with our guest speakers and overall content of the conference. Special thanks go to Mico, Marley and Dux, and Plumbing World for their sponsorship of the three evening events.

As I reminded our members during the conference, all our Business Partners make considerable financial commitment to Master Plumbers to ensure we can keep improving our advocacy and membership services, and it’s important that member businesses show their support in return.

I’d also like to acknowledge Rod Miller and John DeBernardo, who have completed their roles as national Master Plumbers board directors. Both John and Rod have made a huge contribution at board level, as well as through their participation on Standards committees, advocacy projects and their tireless work to support our industry. I know they will both be missed from a governance perspective.

My congratulations go to all the award winners at this year’s NZ Plumbing Awards. The standard of entries was extremely high and the judges commented that this was one of the hardest years to pick the winners.

Zane Britton and Rachel Watson of BOI Plumbing and Gas have proved that small local businesses can perform exceptionally well against their peers and I’m extremely proud that they were announced as our overall Master Plumber of the Year in 2022.

I was also very proud of how all the apprentice award winners looked and spoke during the evening. This is a credit to their employers, not just in terms of the quality of their on-job training but also in helping to develop great young people in our industry.

We had record numbers at this conference—and to have more than 360 at the awards night dinner is a testament to the impressive Master Plumbers member engagement, which goes from strength to strength.

There is still much to do, including the delivery of a carbon-neutral gas sector, improving the PGD apprentice training platform, and pushing through with self-certification for plumbers and drainlayers. I can assure you we will be working hard to achieve these goals in the time to come.

Greg Wallace, CEO Master Plumbers, Gasfitters & Drainlayers NZ