St Johns Priory 2009

St Johns Priory 2009

 Wander around just about any festival or public event these days and what is the one thing that is common amongst them all. No, we are not talking about long queues. It is the presence of those wonderful first aid volunteers and staff from St John Ambulance Australia. Dressed in their familiar black and white uniforms, they provide an extremely valuable and sometimes life-saving service wherever crowds gather. St John Ambulance Australia is a self funded and charitable organisation that over the course of the last year, has treated 86000 casualties and provided 1.4 million hours of voluntary service. Active in Australia for over 125 years, the history of St. John traces back 900 years to the Knights Hospitaller from whom St John today derives its inspiration and maxims – Pro Fide Pro Utilitate Hominum, 'For the Faith and in the Service of Humanity.'

 Needless to say, an organisation such as this would require the same infrastructure and planning as any large company, and if there is one thing that this means…..meetings. Lots of them. However, once a year the volunteers, staff, and cadets from around Australia gather to take part in their National Convention, fondly known as the St John Priory. Held over the course of one week, the Priory is a forum that hosts an enormous variety of meetings, discussions, workshops, educational seminars and trade exhibitions, culminating with a day of First Aid Competitions and a Gala Dinner. This year it was Queensland’s turn to be the host state, and with the Gold Coast strip as the backdrop, Conrad Jupiters became a First Aid Paradise as 400 delegates from St John set up camp for the week. It could be argued that for the duration of the week, and with this many first aid officers onsite, Conrad Jupiters was probably the safest spot to be in Australia. Fortunately though, no immediate medical assistance was required during this time, apart from some very sore heads on the Sunday morning.

 Working in conjunction with the IT department from St John, a Noble Event initially established a speaker’s prep room where from the comfort of couches, speakers could check their presentations before loading them onto a computer network linked to the plenary and six other meeting rooms. Complete A/V systems were then installed into each of these rooms and included ceiling mounted projection units, large 16 x 9 format screens, audio systems, stage modules, and lighting.