Why the Best Pool Pros Never Enter Awards

In this episode of Mondays Down Under, hosts Lee Salisbury, Shane Melrose, and Nick take listeners behind the scenes of awards season, conference travel, industry recognition, and the importance of networking within the swimming pool industry. From award ceremonies across Australia to upcoming conferences and trade shows, the conversation explores how professional development, industry engagement, and relationship building continue to shape successful pool businesses. 

Episode Highlights

Awards Season Across Australia and New Zealand

Lee shares her experience attending both the ACT and New South Wales industry awards ceremonies, celebrating outstanding achievements from pool builders, technicians, retailers, and service professionals. The hosts discuss the significance of industry recognition and the challenges many professionals face when considering self-nomination for awards. 

The Challenge of Self-Nomination

The discussion explores why many highly qualified professionals hesitate to put themselves forward for awards, despite being deserving candidates. The hosts examine potential alternatives, including peer nominations, and discuss ways industry organizations might encourage greater participation from technicians, retailers, and service professionals. 

What Really Happens Behind the Judging Process

Lee offers insight into the award judging process, explaining how applications are reviewed, scored, and evaluated by multiple judges. The conversation highlights the extensive effort that goes into ensuring fairness and recognizing excellence across a wide range of industry categories. 

Recognizing Excellence in the Pool Industry

Several award winners and finalists are recognized throughout the episode, including discussions about the qualities that separate outstanding businesses and professionals from the rest of the field. The hosts emphasize the importance of technical expertise, customer service, mentorship, and industry leadership. 

The Value of Industry Conferences

The conversation shifts to conference season, with discussions about supplier conferences, trade events, educational opportunities, and networking experiences. The hosts share stories from conferences held in destinations including New Zealand, Fiji, Vietnam, Thailand, Israel, and beyond. 

Why Networking Matters

Beyond product training and education, the hosts explain how conferences create opportunities to build relationships, exchange ideas, learn from peers, and develop lifelong friendships within the industry. These connections often prove just as valuable as the formal educational sessions themselves. 

Looking Ahead to Splash

With the upcoming Splash Trade Show approaching, the hosts preview educational sessions, industry forums, awards presentations, networking events, and opportunities for listeners to connect with the Talking Pools team in person. 

Winter Recharge Before Summer Returns

As the southern hemisphere enters winter, the discussion concludes with a reminder about the importance of rest, recovery, and preparing for the next busy season. The hosts encourage business owners and staff alike to use the quieter months to recharge and invest in professional development. 

Key Takeaways

•  Industry awards recognize far more than popularity—they reward professionalism, technical expertise, and dedication. 
•  Many deserving professionals never enter awards due to reluctance around self-promotion. 
•  Conferences provide education, networking, and valuable business-building opportunities. 
•  Strong industry relationships often lead to better business outcomes and lifelong professional connections. 
•  The quieter winter months offer an important opportunity to recharge before the demands of the next season arrive. 

Connect With Talking Pools

Have a topic suggestion or question for the Talking Pools Podcast Network? Reach out at talkingpools@gmail.com and the team will direct your question to the most appropriate host. 

#TalkingPools #MondaysDownUnder #PoolIndustry #SwimmingPoolProfessionals #PoolTechnician #PoolBuilder #PoolRetail #Splash2026 #SPASA #PoolIndustryAwards #PoolBusiness #SwimmingPools #PoolPodcast #IndustryNetworking #ProfessionalDevelopment

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, good whatever time of the day it is. It is time for Mondays Down Under on the Talping Pools Podcast. Hi, I'm Lee. I'm the pool shop coach. And joining me as always are my esteemed colleagues, Shane in Auckland, New Zealand. Hey Shane, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Very good actually, Lee. Some good news that I did see today. The diesel price has gone down by about 25 cents.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Yes. Well the Strait of Hamas is supposed to be opening, and the war cancellation declaration, whatever, declaration of peace, let's call it, is being signed in Switzerland. Like they talk about the Swiss sitting on the fence. It's probably a good place to sign the pieces. And of course, in Queensland, we are joined by our esteemed colleague Nick. Hey Nick, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, good thanks, Lee. How are you going?

SPEAKER_04 0:54

I am very well. I'm very tired. Long drive home today, but we'll get into that in a minute. Well, actually, let's let's dive into it now. It is awards season, it is conference season, it is our down season. So it's the time that we're all having a little bit of fun, putting on our party pants, dance shoes, and going to conferences and trade shows and awards nights. So I was fortunate enough this weekend to go to two. I went to on the Friday night, I went to the ACT, so the Canberra Awards. And then on Saturday night, I travelled an extra three hours by car to go to the New South Wales Awards night. So both fantastic nights. Great to see our industry being recognized or industry members being recognized for their hard work and their great products. And uh New Zealand, you guys had yours last week, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, last weekend, yes. Yeah, last weekend I didn't make it unfortunately. Hopefully, next year we'll see how girls. Sammy has been saying to me that we should put ourselves forward for awards. I'm the reluctant one, so it's all my fault. But yeah, I think we we will. I just feel personally, I feel myself it's it's quite a big thing. Uh putting yourself forward for an award and actually receiving that award and that continuation of upholding that award, you know? It's yes, yes. So press yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Pressure's on pressure's on once you've got it to get it again, or if you apply again and you don't get it, does that mean your standards have slipped? You just don't know, do you? So but self-dominating is i is a big issue for some people, absolutely. Um for pool builders, I think it's a little bit different because they've got multiple pools, they've got multiple entries. Yes, it's their workmanship, but it's not them personally. So whereas when you're putting forward yourself as a pool technician or as a service business or as a retail store, it's like you're you're putting yourself up and going, hey, give me an award. I deserve an award. And some people are very deserving. They they do deserve the awards, they work bloody hard, they put in a great application, they really know their stuff. But a lot of people struggle to self-nominate. And I get it. It's it's not a nice feeling to be flagging yourself as uh somebody who deserves an award, putting yourself up, your hand up, I suppose. But the thing is, the the process is real. As uh somebody who has been a judge, so yes, I was a judge this year, not in my state and not in my field, so I'm not allowed to judge pool shops. I was funnily enough allowed to judge service technicians. And so, but I had a mixture, and they are very thorough. There was over 50 judges throughout the whole of New Zealand and Australia, and we were given a variety, and every application, from my understanding, and apologies to Sparza if I get this wrong, but my understanding is every application was viewed by three different judges, and then those scores were compiled and then averaged out. So, yeah, so they tried to do it as fairly as possible. And they're improving it every year. They're improving the process, trying to yeah, cover every aspect because one of the things I would love to see is more technical questions. Um, with the pool builds, I would love to see pictures of the plant and equipment, maybe the specs, drawings of the hydraulics. So getting to know the real nitty-gritties of the pool, not just a pretty picture and some nice words. I'd like a review from the client who actually had the pool done, and I'd like to see the schematics. So, yeah, know the real internal workings and know what equipment has been put on it. Some builders do give some details about those sort of things, some don't. But and I think I well, I know, yes, I've got some awards behind me from over the years, and a couple of those were self-nominated, several of them weren't. But the ones that I self-nominated for, I was actually in the era where pool shops were actually mystery shopped. So we actually had a mystery shopper come into our shop, do a mystery shop, and they were somebody from within the industry with a lot of technical knowledge and industry experience, and we had no idea who they were or when they were coming. And then at the end of it, they would actually so they'd bring in a water sample, go through the whole process with us, pretending they were a customer, and then right when you get to the bit, okay, well, you need this for your pool, you go through all of that, and then what do you need to purchase? And it's like, oh well, you've just been mystery shocked. And but all that hard work didn't make a say. And then they ask you, they ask me technical questions to explain why pH in a pool is important, how to adjust it, what other things it affects me. All different questions might then talk about heating or cleaning or whatever. Also how I interacted with customers, providing information, taking bookings, all of those sort of things. And that was just the retail award that we were up for, then and we won twice. But then the retail person won was an extensive interview. And I think by memory, it took about an hour. It was a a phone interview that again was just out of the blue and asking multitude of questions. So which was which really good because there were technical questions, customer service questions, business questions, all of those types of things that really test your knowledge and your experience. So, Nick, I think you guys were asked if you wanted to nominate this year, and you didn't put your hand up. You really should have.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, maybe. I think the last award I got was student of the week in grade two. I don't think that's been my highlight. I've got no fancy things on the wall. But yeah, I as you make some valid points there about self-nominating, and yeah, I've never been interested in it. And as a shop, we've never put ourselves forward, even though I think we do a lot of things well. But yeah, it could be something to look into for next year, I think.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

I did actually float the idea with Lindsay McGrath a couple of years ago, so I will try my luck again with Kristen Brookha uh Brookfield now. So but yeah, I would love to see the professional of the year award, so the sales rep of the year, retail person, service technician, even builder of the year be nominated. Or it might be building tradesman of the year. There's a variety of different professional awards that are available, but having those nominated from within the industry, and because I actually, funnily enough, did actually nominate a sales rep once and paid for their application and had to get it approved by their employer. But we paid for their application, we actually got together a heap of uh reviews, feedback from all different retailers to support this application. So I don't know whether it had ever been done previously in history, but normally it's done by their boss. And in this case, we thought this person was so deserving that we we nominated as retailers. So I think that probably gives that, in in my opinion, gives that application more credibility than anything. So it'd be it'd be good to see that happen on a on a bigger scale. And then, of course, yes, there's certain criteria that needs to be met. There's information that needs to come along. But to actually be nominated, so if you got a phone call, Nick, and it said, Hey Nick, this is Lee from Sparza, um, ringing to give you the news that congratulations, you've been nominated by your peers as pool service technician of the year. Congratulations, you are one of the top 10. Now, the next part of the process is you need to go through the application process. Are you prepared to do that? That would be a much nicer way. Would you say yes to that?

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Well, I probably wouldn't have answered the phone first. I'd probably went to message bank. And then I would have had to call back. But yeah, something like that, yeah, would be, you know, probably a little bit a little bit easier for me to do rather than self-nominating.

SPEAKER_04 9:29

Yeah. And it'd be lovely for those people to then get a certificate to say you were nominated. Like, which it it could be a certificate in itself. And then of those nominees, the ones that want to proceed with it then have to pay the nomination fees because there's obviously costs involved with this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

Uh pay the nomination nomination fee and then supply the necessary documentation, answer the necessary questions, go through the process as normal. But at least you're being nominated and by your peers. And I think that then gives credibility to to that application. So yeah. So I just thought it's a different, different way of doing it. So it'll be interesting to see if that ever comes to fruition. Maybe not. But yeah, so I had the pleasure of two nights at conferences and awards nights. I have to say the food was much better in Sydney than it was in Canberra. But it was a great night. Both nights were were fantastic. The first night I had the pleasure of sitting down at the table and being introduced to the person I was sitting beside Christian Christian Christian, sorry, I keep saying Christian. Kristen Brookfield, the CEO of Sparza on one side, and my husband on the other. But the fellow that was sitting beside my husband when he was introduced to me, he said, I know who you are. I listened to the podcast. So a shout out to Julian from Poolside Pool Sight Quote. So that's a building and landscaping quoting software program. Julian actually won um awards. He was nominated this, he was an award winner this year in a finalist in his category. And also la one last year he won. So congratulations for that, Julian. But so that was lovely to hear we had one listener. But then the next night we sat down at the table and I went to introduce myself to the fellow sitting beside me, whose name is Column. So that's C-O-L-M. It's Irish. Column from Swimming Pool Kits Direct. And again, he said, I know you. I listened to the podcast. So we have two listeners, guys. And that is Andrew from the Pool Butler. So a shout out to Julian Column and Andrew. Thank you for coming and saying hello. Thank you for listening. And listeners, if you see us out anywhere about, especially we'll all be at the splash trade show, um, hopefully. And that's our plan. And so if you see us, please come and say hello. Introduce yourself. We love to hear that we have listeners. It's hard doing a podcast and not knowing who listens, but it's surprising who listens. Say thank you to all of our listeners. But yeah, some great awards given out. One that really struck a a chord with a lot of us was Zach from and I'm going to remember I'm going to have to search up his business name because it escapes me at the moment. But Zach, and I can't find it. Zach won Business of the Year, and he was he's the nicest gentleman, salt of the earth, a really good soul, and spoke so highly about the strength of the industry through Unity and through supporting our industry body like Sparza. And that, yeah, to to it's important for us to grow and strengthen our industry together. So yeah, it was a lovely speech that he gave everybody. Gave him a huge round of applause. And I understand from speaking to Zach afterwards that a lot of people came up and acknowledged his words and and really appreciated them. So it was was good to hear.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Thank you. Yes, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

So he's a concrete pool builder, builds a beautiful pool. So he did actually win, I think it was concrete pool of the year as well. I could I no, actually, no, that wasn't him. But he did win, he won Professional of the Year. I know he won, I think, three awards. So yes, he got the business of the year. So uh yeah, some really some really very deserving awards out there to a lot of people. And there was some stiff competition. So I know I'm talking in New South Wales here, but there's Technician of the Year, there were three people vying for that. There was more than three vying for it, there was many, but the final three, all the top three, were were read out. And one of them was Damien Cahill, who's been with pool controls for decades and is an incredibly knowledgeable technician, wonderful customer service. It's been a great support to our business over the years, as I know he has with many. And he was up against Malcolm Brown from Pool Ability. And Malcolm, again, is somebody who's been in the industry for decades, is a wealth of knowledge and a great mentor to many. So a shout out to both of those guys if they happen to be listening. Congratulations. Unfortunately for Malcolm, Damien came all right away with the war. So congratulations to Damien. But I would have hated to be a judge on that one. That was that was really tough. As soon as they came up on the screen, I went, whoa, who's gonna win out of this? This is this is tough. They both deserve it, in my opinion. So it's it's definitely hard. But and of course, we have our own mentor award at the moment. So Rudy's been uh dealing with that. Congratulations to all the nominees for the Mentor of the Year award from Talking Pools Podcast. And I look forward to hearing all the interviews as they progress through the the process that Rudy goes through and then hearing the ultimate winner. It's always very deserving. Last year's was definitely a very deserving mentor. So yeah, so it's nice to see. But of course, party season. So I've put my s party shoes away, no dancing for me now. But we're on to conference season. So where are we all going?

unknown 15:35

Anywhere?

SPEAKER_01 15:37

No, unfortunately not this year. Staying home. But I do know there's a couple there's a couple on at the moment. So yeah, pretty exciting for those going.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

Well, you got the short straw straw this time. Where's your boss this week? Hey Kathy, uh, they're in Perth.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

In Perth for Floridra. So um, yeah, it's uh 10 degrees there, I think, today. So very, very cold when I was speaking on the phone earlier. So but I think it kicks off tonight. So I've got no hot gossip, no stories yet. I'll have to wait for next week's episode to wait for them to filter through.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

How long does uh how long does a like a traditional conference go on for? Like where the where they go on, is it like a two-day event, three-day event?

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Or you just get there with uh your welcome drinks and a few activities and yeah, short and sharp usually.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

They usually have day one is usually arrival and welcome drinks or welcome dinner. Day two is usually a day of conference all day.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Day two is usually hangover for me.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

True. And then day three is usually like a free day, or they might have activities planned where you it's networking type activities, so you might get a choice of things to do in small groups, and then the last night is usually awards night for that manufacturer or a distributor or whoever's whoever's running that. So Floridra obviously in in WA, I know Matronics are focus and focus as they are one combined company now, uh, the Philippines. So that's a lovely holiday for them. That's coming up very soon. And locals is in Bali for their full local dealers. So I don't know of any others. I do have to say I'm a little bit out of the loop with some of those, but um, with the consolidation of suppliers and also though with splash being this year, often a lot of the suppliers don't have a conference the year of Splash, or they dull it down because they know a lot of people are going to be going to splash, and they'll often tie their dinners, their day or two uh onto either end of splash. So that's that's quite common. So um yeah, it is party time, but we've over the years, I have to say, I have had the pleasure of quite a few wonderful locations. So Nick and I have both been to Queenstown.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Queenstown, yep.

SPEAKER_04 18:15

New Zealand. Yes. We didn't come and visit UK, but it is the other disappointed. It is the other end.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

It's literally the other end, yeah, yeah. That's a beautiful part of New Zealand as well.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

It it is absolutely. We got a couple of days of skiing in at the same time, so which was really good. So so yeah, we did Queenstown, that was 2019, wasn't it, Nick?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah. Yeah, girls would have been four and left the kids at home and left if the kids had grandma, and me and my wife went over there. Yeah, we had a ball. Absolute ball.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

And so Matronics and Focus actually that year did a tag team. So they weren't one company back then. They obviously only joined Forces uh or Matronics bought Focus nearly two years ago now, isn't it? But two years, I think, in dis November or December this this year, so 18 months ago. Um but they they topped and tailed. So we had one conference first for a couple of days, then a day's break in between, and then a couple of days for the next conference. I can't remember who went first, but yeah, it was it was a great week, and Queenstown was absolutely beautiful. But uh I do have to say the pool industry has afforded me a lovely set of holidays. So I've done uh Fiji. So Fiji with Focus was wonderful. That was actually our first international conference. Done Queenstown, uh Vietnam. So we went to um Hanoi, we went to Phuket, or I went to Phuket, left my husband at home, which he will never let me live down. So that was yeah, that was a good conference. Where else have we been? Israel. Uh went to Israel for a matronics conference. So it's some fantastic conferences, and it looks like I'll be going to Bali with low claw. So that's yet to be only, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Scott, get an invite.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

I'm I've never been to Bali, so I'm looking forward to it. And of course, my husband is insisting he needs to come with me to carry my so it's it's a great thing like to be able to have that opportunity to travel. Our kids came with us for a lot of conferences. So our boys came with us for the New Zealand conference to go skiing, two two of the three. Uh and Fiji. All three of them came to Fiji and we tacked on a week's family holiday onto it. And so it certainly makes winters fun and makes conf conferences something I really enjoy. Some people go for the booze fest.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

There's usually work there. There is usually work and products and yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

I go I go to learn. I always get a lot out of conferences. The networking is big, really important. You can always learn from each other. And so yeah, my husband would do the boozy bit.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

I did the work. You did a network and in the bar league. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Yes, yes. We did actually we had one year, what was it? Was two must have been 2012. I know that. Oh no, 2014. I know that because of which award was got that year. 2014, there was a conference that it was attached to Splash Trade Show. So we had the splash trade show, and we had the Matronics Conference, and then we had the Focus Conference. So we had like it was just one after the other. But then we were exhausted. And I remember by the time we we did the welcome drinks at Focus, that was the last conference. We did the welcome drinks that night. The next morning was conference day. Scott turned up for about 10 minutes. He was very hungover. He blamed the beer that he was drinking. Thinking that was no good. Obviously didn't agree with him. And he disappeared for the most of the day. And it was funny because he became the brunt of the joke. So anybody who knows my husband Scott knows that he has very little hair, like he has he's receding, but he also keeps it very short, like as in Buzz Cut. And he became the brunt brunt of the joke that day because at the end the host said, um, okay, now I'm gonna let you all go and get doled up and go to the girls need to go to the hairdressers and all that for the awards night tonight, and you better go prepared. It's gonna take it'll take a while because Scott Salisbury's been there all day. But he hadn't he'd been sick. So but uh Yeah, so it's a bit of fun, great networking. That's what I always love about it, connecting with people, creating friendships that really for me lifelong, lifelong friendships and some really valuable information and lessons learnt that you can learn you can learn from everyone. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Well, and in regards to the suppliers lead, they uh they send out emails to everybody, all of their yep. So they would send email emails.

SPEAKER_04 23:15

And some of some of them subsidize it. So it depends on how much you purchase from them, all of that sort of thing. Sometimes it's a point system, and so the trip is subsidized somewhat. So often you've got to travel, you've got to pay for your own travel, but your accommodation and your attendance is subst subsidized. So it just depends on how much you spend, how much it's subsidized, uh whether both of you get to go for free or whether one of you goes for free and the other one's half price, or different things like that. So it's uh yeah, your loyalty is rewarded.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Yeah, yeah, definitely. It pays off.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

Hmm. And Shane, you don't have conferences in New Zealand.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Not that I'm aware of, actually. I mean, to be quite honest, I mean, out of the really big suppliers over here, some of the main ones, we don't tend to buy a huge amount of them. We stick to some of our smaller suppliers. Um, one of them, Jamie, who was on the show not so long ago, talking about vinyl linings. He's he's he's almost the middleman for a lot of the suppliers. We do purchase things from Waterco from him. We we can go directly to Waterco, but we have a very good relationship with Jamie and he feeds us work, so at least what we can do is buy product from him. You know, we're still making our money, what we need to make. So yeah, I mean it I can imagine that I go into Waterco, I'll probably only ever go into Waterco as an example, maybe once or twice a year, and I could see him like, geez, are you still in business? We haven't seen you for so long. But I don't really realize that you know we're purchasing it from our other suppliers, and it it works for us. It does.

SPEAKER_04 24:58

It's like I know Dolphin, it's Dolphin Pools, is it?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Dolphin Pacific.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Dolphin Pacific, sorry. Dolphin Pools is somebody in Victoria who I know. Shout out to Kim if he's listening. But Dolphin Pacific, they they are actually a matronics distributor and the focus distributor. So I I know the boys from Dolphin Pacific attend the conferences. I have been squashed in in the back of a cover with Adrian, who is very big. Tiny. Very tall. We call him tiny, but he's very tight. He's not anything but tiny. It was actually quite funny because there was him, Scott, and I actually in 2014. It was that conference going from matronics to focus and being made both of us being matronics and focus dealers. We we went together. So John Charles picked us up and we were all squashed in the back with all of our suitcases in the smallest car you can imagine. And we were just laughed the whole way. So but yeah, so Adrian, I know Adrian and is it Neil? I think Neil was his general manager. Yes, yeah, general manager.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Uh Doug Doug, the general manager right here.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

Yep. And so yeah, we we've seen then those guys at conferences. So maybe they're taking your spot. So it's nice to well, like I say, it's nice to connect and see the same familiar faces, meet the new ones, network. And know that you're not in it alone. Because I think that's the hard thing in business is often you do feel quite isolated and it's nice to know that everybody else has the same troubles, the same concerns. And yeah. So it's it's it's a good chance to network. Do they have like social events or anything, Shane?

SPEAKER_00 26:42

I know Spazum was having social events, to be quite honest. I haven't checked on their website to see if it's still ongoing, but I I know they were. For ourselves, I d I think I mentioned a while ago there's like a group of eight or nine of us in a little networking group. So I think it was a month ago we all met up, you know, after quite a busy season. It was the first time we really met up for a long time and had a few drinks, played some crazy golf, shared some stories, you know. How's your season? How was your season? Oh yeah, and it's uh it's a good way of just getting things off your chest as well, especially people that are in the same industry, which go through the same, you know, the the the same pain each day. I'd say pain, it's it can be quite difficult as as we're all aware in the summer. But yeah, it's it's just nice to let it out. I'm sure Sammy gets enough, yeah, and yeah, need event to the boys, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Yeah, they have social events in Queensland.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yeah, there's there's golf days, there's different things. It's been a while since I've had a good golf day, so I'll have to look at the c look at the upcoming calendar.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

Well, I know there's definitely one on the Friday after Splash. You have to put your name down. You put your name down for that. I think it's on the week. Splash is on the week after Ecker.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Oh, okay. I haven't looked yet.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Sorry, Shane, that's Queensland speak for show day.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yeah. Exhibition.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Yeah, that's their that's their show day, Echka. So and different suburbs have different days off, don't they? It's the strangest thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Yeah, they're typically Wednesday for Brisbane, but we're in one of the outlying suburbs, so you we've got we've got the Monday off, so we get the long weekend, which makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

That's nice. Do you actually go to the show? Do you take the girls?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

I've never taken the girls. We um yeah, it's yeah, nah.

SPEAKER_04 28:38

Going to the show now is insanely expensive. Like the rides are like ten or fifteen dollars a ride.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Like it's just we've got all the theme parks close, so we've got par yeah, we just go to the theme parks.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 28:52

But no, so Splash will be on us before we know it, and we're all hoping to be there.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

So in the same room together.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

Yes, it will be nice if we record. It'll be nice if we can record together. And um, as we said, listeners, if you're there, please seek us out. I will be doing training deliveries for IR Learning on the Monday and Tuesday prior to splash. So if somebody wants to go to the Gold Coast early, or like who needs an excuse to go to the Gold Coast for a few extra days? Like, seriously. Go a couple of days early, and yes, you'd have to spend them in the classroom, but you get to spend them with me. Like, that's awesome. So, yeah, we're doing two days of training delivery Monday and Tuesday prior to Splash. And then we've got the Wednesday and Thursday is Splash Trade Show. We have welcome drinks on Tuesday night. Wednesday um in the morning is the women in industry breakfasts called Waves. We have a fantastic guest speaker about empowering women's voices this year. So she is awesome. I've seen her in person myself. And then obviously, trade show opens. We have the awards night, is that night? Is the Wednesday night, is the national awards, and then Thursday, when everybody rolls up with a hangover, is day two of the trade show. And then I think there's nothing planned for the Thursday night. I think everybody is always so exhausted. This year, they last year, the last time they did actually have an after party, but I think this year they decided against that. And then Friday is the golf day. So those who want to bring their golf clubs along for the journey to the Gold Coast can go out and and have a round of golf as a group. So some fantastic things on. Uh, there's some forums. I'm actually uh hosting a forum which Shane has uh been asked to be a part of, which is all about business growth. And there's a variety of different forums on. So hopefully you get to, and they're just free. I think fairly certain that they're free. Sorry if they're not. Uh, but you can jump in and and attend different topics. So we've got chemistry, we've got all different ones, and they're being um hosted or the forum the panel is going to be a wealth of knowledge in each situation. Each topic will be covered by industry experts in that indust in that field. So make sure that you take advantage of those resources that are available to you. So yeah, really looking forward to to splash. And that'll that'll bring us to really the start of our next season. Before we know it, winter's gonna be over. It's only just started, but yeah, it'll soon be it'll soon be over, and we'll be in the throes of the summer season all over again. Aren't you looking forward to it, boys?

SPEAKER_02 31:54

And a holidays.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Boy you can before it starts.

unknown 31:58

Are you?

SPEAKER_04 32:00

I was gonna say, speaking of holidays of well, Nick, you've already had holidays at Christmas and at Easter some night. Hey Kathy, do you like that dig? No, seriously, are you taking any holidays this winter?

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Me no. I don't I think we've got anything real organised. We've spent a weekend down in Sydney recently, and that was that was fun. So nothing booked for this holidays. Do have another little holiday booked in around September. But yeah, just that's just the Gold Coast, so not too far.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

Good. And Shane, are you gallivanting anywhere?

SPEAKER_00 32:31

Australia, fingers pressed. And yeah, potentially the UK, but that's more November. Okay. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

Big trip for the family coming to Australia again this year.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Probably no. I mean, if we're all gonna go to the UK, that's gonna be quite expensive. And Hugo's in school now as well, so it makes it a little bit harder to take him out of school.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

It's always that always that balancing juggling act with kids and school. Yeah. Trying to take holidays during school holidays, but then not during busy season. Well, except for Nick. I'm just getting you every time. But uh yeah, no, it's it's that juggling act. But it's important for us to make sure that we take time through the winter season to recharge the batteries for actually encourage our staff to take their leave because if they take their leave now, they don't have it to take through the summer season. And re everyone needs to recharge their batteries, which which is a good thing. So and get ready for another rip roaring season. So and they're saying El Nino is sitting off the coast and we're supposed to have a dry, warm winter that's going to lead to lead to drought.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Well, and some of the clients over here went through a job on that pool where I needed your assistance the other week, Nick, where it was digging. Oh and the weather has just been it's been really warm and really mild over here, and they were saying that some of their flowers are starting to blossom, and they usually come out in spring. And it was like the start of winter. It's like, what the hell's going on? So yeah, there is going to be a bit of a sh well, quite interesting warm winter this year, which isn't going to be ideal for my pools, which are high and cynic, so it looks like they're not going to get diluted enough. But we'll come to that as a we're muted.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

Well, here we are, like it's officially winter. We're recording this on the 15th of June, and this comes out next Monday, which is the 29th of June. And I know I have a jumper on today, but yesterday I had a t-shirt on, and it's been actually very warm, unseasonally warm. So it's uh yeah, it'll be an interesting summer.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

But anyway, I think that draws us to a close. So if you listeners are gallivanting off to conferences, trade shows, awards nights, or just generally your holidays, enjoy. Network, connect where the opportunity arises. It's really valuable for you and for your business. And make sure you take time to recharge those batteries this winter. Not just your lithium batteries or your phone batteries, but your batteries.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Thank you again for listening.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

We hope you have a great week ahead, and we hope to have your pleasure of your company again next week. When you we join you again on Mondays down under on the Talking Pools podcast. Remember, if you have any topic suggestions or any questions, drop us a line at talkingpools at gmail.com and Rudy will dish those out to the most applicable show host. Until next week, we'll see you then. Or we'll listen to you. You'll listen to us then.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Bye.

SPEAKER_04 35:55

Bye.