Delegates from various industries (including Eskom, Safripol, BHP Billiton, AECI, Lanxess, Illovo) around South Africa gathered together at the Didima Conference Centre in the Central Drakensburg from 11^th to 13^th March 2009 for ApplyIT’s annual SMART Summit.

The theme was Sustaining Excellence, and various topics relating to operations, safety and maintenance were discussed and presented by selected speakers in the form of thought leaderships, case studies and product updates.  Opportunities were also given for delegates to network and learn from their peers, as well as spend one-on-one time with the product developers – all set within the magnificent Drakensberg mountains!

After registering on Wednesday afternoon (11^th March) the delegates gathered for welcome drinks on the deck overlooking the valley.  This was followed by the San Rock Art multimedia show, which gave insight into the life and culture of the San that once inhabited these mountains.  The evening commenced with Dave Schaller, (GM Group IT at Illovo Sugar) bringing an inspiring message on “Striking a Balance”, after which an African themed dinner was enjoyed by all.

The conference sessions began officially on Thursday morning (12^th March) with Gavin Halse (MD of ApplyIT) setting the tone with an excellent keynote on “Sustaining Operations: Some Closely Guarded Secrets”.  Gary Cundill (Group Manager: Technology & SHEQ at AECI) then brought a challenging and thought provoking interactive presentation on “The Future of Safety”.  After the break Barry Visagie (Area Manager at Lanxess CISA) continued the sessions with his case study on “Integrated Safety Maintenance Systems” which was a practical and useful sharing of information. Scott Bredin (Product Manager at ApplyIT) then followed on with a case study on GEMCO entitled “Lessons From The Outback” which gave an insight into the application of solutions in Groote Eylandt, Australia.

After lunch the delegates gathered again to participate in their choice of leisure activity for the afternoon.  Some chose to play an entertaining game of golf, or rather a game of hiding the ball in the long grass or mud or water!   Others took a 4x4 drive to the top of Mike’s Pass to enjoy the spectacular views, while some chose to stretch their legs and hike to the beautiful Doreen Falls.  Despite the threatening rain, everyone enjoyed the opportunity to be out of the office and making the most of the great outdoors!  

The Gala Dinner that night began with an Award Ceremony presented by Shirley Breytenbach (Senior Application Consultant at ApplyIT).  The “Innovation Award” was presented to Eskom Generation, the “Reference Award” went to Safripol and the “Evangelist Award” was awarded to Ruan Vorster of Goldfields.  This was followed by a superb meal, enhanced by the outstanding musical talent of Candice Nel and Dave McMillan.

The Friday morning (12^th March) sessions opened with Baldwin Muzondo’s relevant and engaging presentation on “Productivity in Adversity” in which he shared valuable lessons from his experience working in Zimbabwe.  This was followed by the OpSuite “Product Roadmap” presented by Scott Bredin and Henry Fourie of ApplyIT, which gave an insight into the expanding product functionality and exciting new technology platforms of the OpSuite solutions.  And finally the conference was wrapped up with the session entitled “Innovation Through Participation” presented by Dave Brennan and Shannon Wiesinger of ApplyIT, who discussed the importance of solutions development based on customer input, gave an excellent background to the helpdesk and customer service process and also introduced an innovative new product.

With SMART Summit 2009 coming to an end, the delegates left knowing that the time had been well spent, having had an opportunity to re-focus and recalibrate the priorities in both their professional and personal lives.  The optimistic beat of the conference brought perspective, context and balance, and the positive feedback from the delegates reinforced the overall success of the event!

The conference committee would like to extend a sincere thank you to the ApplyIT staff who each played an important role that contributed to this success.  Thanks to both the team who worked so hard at the conference ensuring everything ran smoothly, and those who played a supporting role back at the offices – your efforts are most appreciated!  Thank you also to the guest speakers who put time and effort into preparing informative and thought provoking presentations. 

We look forward to another excellent and even more successful SMART Summit in 2010!

Comments and feedback:

• Great SMART Summit 09.  Well organized.  Excellent venue. 
• The speakers were informative and very engaging
• This event was excellently organized
• Very good opportunity to network and meet peers and establish useful synergy opportunities
• We were treated like ‘kings’ – excellent job
• Very interesting topics.  Great perspective, very topical
• I really enjoyed it – it’s not every day you can experience the beautiful nature of KZN
• It was an eye-opener on the change around the world
• Useful information / learning points presented
• There was a lot of diversity in the delegates and all were free to share information
• Well managed and organized.  Relaxed atmosphere, great
• Thank you ApplyIT for excellent summit
• Thanks to all for this conference and all your hard work.  Hope we will meet again in 2010!