Women in Pest Management at PMANZ 2022

The team from Women in Pest Management (WIPM) report on their visit to the PMANZ conference in Auckland, announce a new NZ representative and highlight WIPM activities in the coming months.

 

The team from Women in Pest Management (WIPM) had the privilege to attend the 2022 PMANZ Conference in Auckland a few weeks ago to represent the women working in our industry. We were excited to announce the WIPM representative for New Zealand, Anita Collins-Preiss.

Ms Collins-Preiss was born into the pest management industry and has recently taken over the family business alongside her husband now that her dad, Mike Collins (past PMANZ President), has retired. The WIPM committee is looking forward to working with Ms Collins-Preiss and we have already started collaborating some great ideas.

Anita Collins-Preiss (left) new WIPM NZ representative with Nicky Turner (WIPM President)

Pest management is a people business, so after three years of mostly virtual interactions, it was energising to reconnect in person at this year’s PMANZ Conference. Thanks to the Pest Management Association of New Zealand’s hard work, we were once again able to travel overseas to collaborate with others and discuss how we will continue to move the industry forward.

This conference turned out to be quite an inspiring event, with the highest number of female attendees to date. We want to share a few important themes from the conversations we had during the conference as we believe this is the reason for such exceptional attendance.

Firstly, more is achieved when we work together. Not only in terms of association to association (PMANZ was very supportive of WIPM attending the conference) but as individuals. We were thrilled to connect with so many dedicated women at the event. We listened to their challenges and talked about solutions. It was inspiring to see so much collaboration and discussion in solving the industry’s toughest challenges. This conference was a reminder to us that we really do need one another to survive and succeed.

Secondly, adaptation is key. Despite continued challenges, our industry has learned to adapt. The spirit of adapting to help customers is ingrained in all of us, and it will serve our industry well into the future.

Lastly, the best days are ahead of us. The pest industry is well positioned to not only grow but innovate and thrive as we meet the ever-changing needs of consumers and businesses. This also includes the start-up chapter of WIPM New Zealand. We greatly appreciated spending time with so many women at the conference and we cannot wait to see them again soon at the PESTacular Roadshow organised by Key Industries, one of NZ’s leading pest control suppliers.

We have many exciting events taking place over the next 12 months. WIPM President Nicky Turner will be heading over to Fiji with Anita Collins-Preiss with camera crew in tow to spend time with South Pacific WIPM Representative Asita Devi Deo, to film a documentary of three passionate women championing Women In Pest Management.

Ms Turner is then off to Japan in November to represent WIPM at her first FAOPMA conference. This will be an amazing opportunity to experience a large-scale conference and to network with people from all over the Asian, Pacific, and Indian regions. Seeing how things are done in other countries and learning how women are involved in these industries will be a great learning opportunity. We are excited to hear the report on this event!

Progress is underway for the personal development workshops that will be held in each state of Australia and New Zealand. Eliza Urey, our WIPM events co-ordinator, has been hard at work putting together an itinerary as well as facilitating the very first WIPM National Breakfast that will be held at the Termite Professional Conference in July 2023. More details will be revealed soon; however, we recommend you save the month as going by the feedback on the surveys sent out, it has already created a great amount of interest. The WIPM Recognition Awards will be announced at this conference.

WIPM membership is accelerating with now more than 175 members. The private Facebook Group is seeing lots of interaction with more than 80 posts this month alone and the online meet and greet also gaining lots of interest with 17 attending on the guest list.

Women and men are invited to become a member of WIPM by joining our Facebook group. Visit the WIPM Facebook page for a recap of WIPM at the PMANZ Conference.

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