From Trees to Talks - Highlights from My First International ISA Conference

Christchurch, New Zealand was the venue for my first International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) meeting — and it definitely lived up to the hype!

The event kicked off with the World Tree Climbing Championships, where our very own committee member Jolyon “Joly” Elliot was selected as a technical judge. The competition ran over two days in the beautiful Christchurch Botanic Gardens — an amazing venue to start the week - see photo below.

Left to right - Dave Crispin, Joe Carriera, Zana Sheary and Jim Jordan from Paperbark Technologies

I arrived with Joe Carrera from Beaver Tree Service just in time to meet delegates from around the globe on Sunday. It was great to reconnect with familiar faces from past Arb Aus conferences in Australia — the energy was building fast.

With over 800 delegates attending, the newly constructed Christchurch Convention Centre proved to be the perfect host. The venue featured a large auditorium and multiple breakout rooms for the presentations, which ran concurrently over three packed days. My biggest challenge? Choosing which sessions to attend — there was just so much on offer!

Sunday night’s pre-conference drinks gave me the chance to catch up with Mick and Sandra Byrne (CPD Tree Services), Guy Badger and Brown (The Arbor Guy), Zana Sheary and Jim Jordan (Paperbark Technologies), and Paul Harrison (Beaver Tree Service) — a great way to kick things off.

Climbing Competition Results

Women’s results –

·      1^st Steph Dryfhout, New Zealand

·      2^nd Jo Hedger, UK/Ireland

·      3^rd Mariah Lundstrum, United States

·      4^th Stephanie Littenberg, United States

·      5^th Murielle Krebs, Switerland

Men’s results –

·      1^st James Kilpatrick, Germany

·      2^nd Barton Allen-Hall, Australia

·      3^rd Jeremy Millar, New Zealand

·      4^th Michael Curwen, UK/Ireland

·      5^th Jamie Boston, Australia

 A huge congratulations to Barton and Jamie — you did us proud!

The conference itself ran from Monday to Wednesday, with presentations starting at 9 a.m. and wrapping up around 5 p.m. each day — long but rewarding sessions. Each talk lasted around 45 minutes, led by world-class experts. I found the best way to absorb everything was to take plenty of notes and photos, then review and unpack each day’s insights later.

As a representative of Arb West, it was fantastic to connect with other delegates from Australia, New Zealand, and ISA chapter leaders from across the U.S.

Now that it’s all wrapped up, it’s time to reflect — to sort through all the notes, ideas, and connections — and figure out how we can implement the best of what we’ve learned to strengthen our association and the wider arboriculture industry.

Dave Crispin

Acting President – ArbWest