Share your memories as part of IPAF’s 40th celebrations

Members and friends of IPAF are invited to share their industry memories, featuring favourite moments, innovations, and influential people from the past four decades, as part of the International Powered Access Federation’s 40th anniversary celebrations.  

IPAF officially launched its 40th anniversary celebrations at April’s IPAF Summit in Berlin, Germany, by screening a short film featuring reminiscences from IPAF CEOs past and present, including IPAF’s founder Paul Adorian, who has published a memoir, Don’t Look Down, about his life in powered access, copies of which were available to delegates.  

Meanwhile, the 16 and 17 November have been confirmed as the dates for IPAF Elevation 2023 to take place at the Belfry Hotel & Resort, West Midlands, UK. The event brings together the IPAF community in celebration of this special year and will include a networking lunch, a half-day conference, a drinks reception, a gala dinner with entertainment and a special par or spa option the following day.  

IPAF has also announced it has reviewed and modified its mission to ‘promote the safe and effective use of powered access’, to ensure it is still relevant after 40 years, and Peter Douglas, CEO & Managing Director of IPAF, says: “While we think it is still absolutely relevant, we’ve updated it with the addition of the word ‘enable’, as we feel this better reflects the work IPAF does in 2023. So, our updated mission is to ‘promote and enable the safe and effective use of powered access worldwide’. 

“In terms of helping IPAF to celebrate this very auspicious year in our history, we would be delighted if you can join us later this year at the Belfry for Elevation 2023 and, in the meantime, we’d love to hear your key memories from across the past four decades in powered access. Simply post on your preferred social media platform using the hashtag #IPAF40. IPAF will share these and feature a selection of your memories at IPAF events throughout 2023.”  

Over the past 40 years, IPAF’s membership has risen to more than 1,650 members worldwide, expanding to 80 territories. IPAF has launched a range of global targeted safety campaigns, based on data collected via the IPAF Accident Reporting Portal.  

The campaigns promote awareness of specific hazards involved in operating MEWPs and aim to significantly reduce the most common types of accidents, such as falls from the platform, electrocutions, entrapments and MEWP overturns.  

IPAF has celebrated many milestones, introducing the first PAL Card in 1993, and marking the one millionth PAL Card issued in 2015, with that figure surpassing two million in 2020. Alongside operator training courses, IPAF has advanced training delivery, including the use of eLearning and VR simulators, and the launch of the ePAL operator app.  

Peter Douglas concludes: “We launched the celebration of our anniversary at the IPAF Summit 2023 in Berlin, Germany, and we will continue to showcase our key milestones and favourite memories across all of this year’s events. I want to thank you again for your continued support of IPAF and the wider industry.”  

● To view the short film IPAF has released to celebrate 40 years in powered access, featuring reflections from Peter Douglas, Paul Adorian and Tim Whiteman, visit IPAF’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfhJEihOckk.