Drawing more than 115 delegates to Victoria for presentations and networking about the latest developments in the restoration industry, the 2013 Jena Dyco Specialised Restoration Conference was the place to be from 10 to 11 May at The Rydges Hotel, Melbourne. With a line-up of local and international speakers, the topics covered heat drying techniques and thermal imaging through to customer relationships and filtration. In the words of Jena Dyco’s director Jenny Boymal, “the conference just keeps on getting better every year”.
Motivational speaker and the event’s MC, Warwick Merry, kept the audience on its toes with prize give-aways, lyrical poems and a constant stream of comedy in between speaker introductions, the first being Rachel Adams from the United States with more than 23 years’ experience in water damage and environmental health industries. Adams spoke about the techniques to measure moisture using various inspection tools on the market to ensure a structure is truly dry – and how to prove it through documentation and self-auditing.
Structural engineer Jiwan Sohn took the podium to speak about the engineer’s role in Restoration and remediation projects regarding water entry sources, microbial contamination and how an engineer’s involvement can help reduce liability by giving the extent of scope of work. Sohn was followed by Roger Christiansz, a University of Melbourne associate who presented on the use of thermal imaging in building diagnostics, in particular for locating moisture intrusion, air leaks and construction defects.
Heat drying was addressed by a few presenters, one of which was Ian Hopkin – managing director of heat technology company DBK Technitherm. Hopkin shared the results from a flood test facility which he used to characterise and compare drying techniques and tools. US speaker, Ernie Storrer who invented the Injectidry Trapped Moisture Ventilation System, spoke about the relationship between heat and air and the variables of time, atmosphere and materials that needed to be taken into consideration for any drying job.
There was an interesting presentation about cleaning hoarding properties by Angela Esnouf and Wendy Hanes while Shirley Guthrie from Professional Claims Management revealed the basic and correct format for preparing insurance reports. The last speaker for day one was Danielle Storey who delivered an inspirational and motivational talk on building million dollar relationships with customers, partners, staff and yourself to help your business succeed and flourish.
Day two started with US speaker Dick Driscoll, general manager of Mayhem & Mishaps Inc. and a consultant and instructor for Legend Brands, talking about managing restoration responsibility. He was followed by Nicole Bijlsma who touched on some health hazards in the home from allergens like dust and mould to chemicals in everyday products and electromagnetic fields from mobile phones and wireless Internet routers. The conference finished with two final presentations on filtration by Larry Carlson and another address from Rachel Adams on restoration media blasting.
There were three platinum sponsors for the event – Legend Brands, Restoration Express and 1800-GOT-JUNK? – each of which sponsored social events over the two days of the conference, with Legend Brands and Restoration Express hosting lunches and 1800-GOT-JUNK? sponsoring the mystery dinner. Gold sponsors included MouldLab, Absolute Safety, The Cartridge Family, DrainVac, Carpet Cleaners Warehouse, Whyte Specialised Equipment, SCRIA and Safety Equipment Australia. Silver sponsors were Beyond Green, Beyond Clean and Powerclean.