The Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) will soon be hosting its 80^th Conference – a huge milestone for the institute that has been in operation since 1961.

The three-day-long conference will run from 26 to 28 October 2016 at the East London International Convention Centre. According to IMESA Local Organising Committee Chairman Mark Westerberg, the theme of this year’s event – Siyaphambili – Engineering the future – carries added import. The chosen topic carries more relevance this year, than originally anticipated.

“With all the challenges facing the industry today, we needed to adapt and be innovative. This starts with the local authorities, where most of us perform some function to serve our communities. It goes beyond the government corridors – it stretches into the ideas and solutions for taking municipal engineering into the future as envisaged and created by the engineers in South Africa,” says  Westerberg.

The main subject matter will be ably supported by 6 sub-themes, namely:

• Political, legal and regulatory
• Ecological and environmental
• Financial and social
• Transport and traffic
• Water and sanitation
• Roads and storm water

The IMESA Conference and Exhibition is regarded as one of the main events on the municipal engineering calendar, attracting around 1 000 delegates across Southern Africa. The IMESA Trade Exhibition has grown steadily over the past 80 years and has become a very important feature of the organisation’s annual conferences.

The keynote address for this Conference will be delivered by Arno Van Der Merwe, CEO and Executive Director Manufacturing at Mercedes-Benz South Africa.

For further information and to access the draft programme, please visit www.imesa.org.za