HVIA has partnered with Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds as the Official Charity Partner of the 2023 Brisbane Truck Show, and is utilising every opportunity to promote positive messaging around mental health and well-being.
The first of those is a “tools down” morning tea for all exhibitors and contractors involved in the build of the event.
“We are going to take time to enjoy a cuppa, a muffin and a chat in for a very worthy cause,” HVIA’s National Events Manager, Noelene Bradley said.
The bump-in of the Brisbane Truck Show began in earnest on Saturday. Transforming 35,000 square metres of exhibition space to prepare for some 40,000 attendees later in the week is a monumental task.
Noelene said that given the scale and detail of the build and tight deadlines, the pressure on contractors and their teams is always at risk of impacting those involved.
“We have a very complex environment with heavy vehicles and machinery, rigging, forklifts and semi-trailers coming and going non-stop for five days.
“It takes months to build a house and longer to build an apartment or office building, but this entire show comes together in a little over one hundred hours.
“We are privileged to be surrounded by hundreds of hard-working and supremely professional event people; they are extremely dedicated and talented operators,” Noelene said.
“However, there isn’t much that compares to the scale of the Brisbane Truck Show.
“It has a lot of moving parts and in order to ensure that it comes together incident-free, we have to run a very tight ship.
“The way we do that obviously includes intricate planning, but more than that, it comes down to mutual respect for each and every person working on the show.
“So, when we committed to supporting Healthy Heads through the event, we found ourselves looking beyond the usual suspects and got a little bit introspective as well.”
The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, home to the truck show for the seventh consecutive time, was quick to get involved, offering catering for the initiative.
“When I proposed to our partners from the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre that I wanted to do something for our contractors they didn’t hesitate to get behind our R U OK? Tools Down Morning Tea.”
Noelene’s offsider Kay Marco, who coordinated the South Bank Truck Festival in 2019 and 2021, has come into the show as part of a strategic succession plan this year.
“The process to get to this point has taken two years of solid planning, but the moment we move into the venue it is a whole different world,” Kay said.
“The collaboration and cooperation from every contractor and exhibitor is really something.
“But what that doesn’t allow for is that every one of us is under our own individual pressures; taking time to pause right in the middle of it all and ask “R U OK?” feels like we have really got our priorities right.”
The Charity Partnership is activated in a variety of other ways too, including engaging industry leaders at the event’s Official Opening breakfast. That event is sponsored by BP Australia who are a founding partner of HHTS.
HVIA Principal Partner and the show’s Platinum Partner, National Transport Insurance, is also a founding HHTS partner.
The South Bank Truck Festival’s truck and trailer showcase also features the Healthy Heads Roadshow.
Two free community concerts at South Bank, being produced collaboratively between the South Bank Truck Festival and Live at South Bank are also being used to help. The concerts will not only raise awareness but also some useful funds with voluntary donations already attracting strong support from generous patrons.
