At the beginning of the 2000’s the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) came up with the idea of publishing a book to highlight its achievements and those of other players in the industry.
The book, published in 2001 and appropriately named “Sparkling Achievements”, was sponsored by SAIEE member companies and organisations, as well as other interested parties, who recognised it as a golden opportunity to showcase their aims and achievements in a form and with a shelf-life that no magazine or any other available printed publicity vehicle could match.
Also much helped by the great variety of content provided by the numerous participants featured in it, the book proved to be a great success at the time.
Then in 2018 the SAIEE decided it was time to start producing a successor edition. With many changes having occurred in the interim, including technological advances along with changed circumstances in the market and new businesses being established while others had faded into obscurity amid the political and economic turmoil occurring during this period in South Africa, they decided it was high time a new “Sparkling Achievements” book in the same winning format as before was required.
At that stage they couldn’t have foreseen the devastating impact that COVID-19 which was soon to hit the world would have. Not only has it had a serious impact on the economy and day-to-day business activities, but it caused delays and complications to bringing out the envisaged new book, resulting in it taking a total of 2-1/2 years to prepare and complete it.
“When we started out on this project I drew up a list of 72 companies and institutions I intended to approach to participate as sponsors, but with many of them dropping out for various reasons linked to the effects of COVID-19 – some going out of business, some saying they couldn’t afford it – we’ve ended up with 32 sponsors in all. Nevertheless the new book is very similar in size to the first,” said Mike Crouch, the book’s Compiler and Editor.
“It also has, I believe, an even greater variety of interesting content than the first book and the layout and presentation is more modern. We have produced a total of 400 printed copies but a new and exciting aspect – which was of course not available when the first book appeared – is that an online version is available free to anyone who wishes to access it via the Institute’s website www.saiee.org.za.”
The new book, entitled “More Sparkling Achievements”, was published in August this year and comprises 134 pages. Unlike the first version, which was a hardcover book, the new printed book, for sale at R350, has a soft cover for easier posting.
It is divided into two sections, with the first 26 pages devoted to the achievements and activities of the Institute, while the other 108 pages contain material supplied by the sponsors describing their own noteworthy developments and achievements, accompanied by photographs and other illustrations.
”Through the online version additional material of interest is available. For instance, in the Institute’s section where a selection of its online magazine WattNow is featured, viewers can gain access to a variety of fascinating articles on various interesting subjects and new developments written by our feature writer Dudley Basson. And in the sponsors sections readers may access their websites to gain more information about them,” Mike pointed out.
ACTOM’s contribution, which heads the sponsors section, covers 13 pages. Other major participants are the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) (11 pages), the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) & Meerkat, the only international contributor, with 10 pages, Reutech (6 pages), the University of Johannesburg (6 pages), Multichoice Group (4 pages), the University of Pretoria (4 pages) and the University of the Witwatersrand (4 pages).
