ATUG awards night: Party photos
The venue was the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. These buildings used to be locomotive workshops. Built in 1887, New South Wales steam locomotives for the state were assembled, disassembled, repaired and maintained here.
Macquarie Telecom David Tudehope was supposed to get up and give a speech, but the crowd had to take off their glasses and clean them when Chris Greig, group executive telco business, carrier and legal, stepped up to the stage instead. His first words were "I'm not David Tudehope".
Once that was cleared up, he could continue. It turned out that Tudehope was caught in traffic and Greig had been notified via email that he was the next cab off the rank and needed to step into the breach.
Just when the crowd thought all the awards were given, suddenly there was one more: the Charles Todd Medal winner for Communicator of the Year. (Charles Todd directed the construction of the Adelaide-Darwin telegraph).
Apparently the winner had been kept closer to the chest than the NBN announcement, so when Stephen Conroy took the prize he looked genuinely flabbergasted.
He won, according to ATUG, for "seeking input from feisty and fearless friends", improving levels of customer service by working with industry, developing Australia's digital economy, working through platforms, policies, opportunities and obstacles and supporting campaigns seeking fairer outcomes for users.
Not only did he get a certificate ...
...but he also got a medal, and wasn't he pleased about it.
Other industry players at the event included ACCC group general manager communications group, Michael Cosgrave...
Macquarie Telecom national executive regulatory and government Matt Healy ...
And, of course, ATUG managing director Rosemary Sinclair in a bevy of revellers.
Unfortunately, the revelling had to end so that everyone could attend the conference early the next day. Conroy had some words, but there have definitely been enough photos of him up until now — so we'll move to Graeme Samuel ACCC chairman who gave a fire and brimstone sermon on the bad ways of the telco industry.
He was followed by the Secretary Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy Patricia Scott who was the one who had the final word on throwing Telstra out of the tender. In a brief conversation after her speech in answer to the question if the decision weighed heavily on her shoulders, she said: "Somebody has to be the Commonwealth."