ABOUT
Overhead line design and engineering is a specialised and uncommon role. Given the fragmentation of New Zealand’s electricity distribution industry, both geographically and through relatively small-scale distribution businesses, overhead line designer’s generally form a small team within an organisation, or may even work alone. For this reason, it is important for a wider NZ professional community or Overhead Line Designer’s to exist. The Line Designer’s Forum seeks to support this community.
The overarching purpose of the Line Designer’s Forum is to:
- Develop and sustain an Overhead line design and engineering professional community.
- Provide a networking opportunity for overhead line designers and subject matter experts
- Communicate good practice overhead line design, including specific examples of design and generally design which is consistent, efficient, effective, and safe
- Support and promote industry learning programmes
- Communicate and roll out new industry standards, regulations and resources (e.g. EEA publications)
- Foster and coordinate collaboration across industry members and stakeholders
- Support the development of Overhead line design subject matter experts and future leaders
THE EVENT
The event runs over two days with the following activities:
- Tuesday 19 May 2026 from 10:00am to 5:00pm: SUPPLIER EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOP DAY
- Tuesday 19 May 2026 –6:30pm: DINNER
- Wednesday 20 May 2026 from 8:30am to 3:30pm: DESIGNER’S INTERACTIVE FORUM DAY
WHERE IS IT?
All Line Designer Forum activities will be held at the Commodore Airport Hotel, 449 Memorial Avenue, Christchurch.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This event is intended for designers, asset engineers, project managers , consultants, and anyone else who works on electricity distribution overhead line assets.
Supplier Educational Workshop Day
The call for supplier presentations is open now. Suppliers are invited to present on topics which educate their customers, the overhead line designer and asset engineering professionals in attendance. Examples of topics presentations that may be covered are:
- New technologies and opportunities
- Technical background information relating to products and services
- Required knowledge for informed engineering design, decision-making and purchase, of products and services
- Education about a product throughout its life cycle including manufacture, procurement, transportation, handling, specification and design, installation, maintenance, condition assessment and disposal
CALL FOR SUPPLIER PRESENTATIONS
Presentations should be generally non-commercial and should present information in a balanced way. Each supplier will be allocated 25min, which includes time allowed for questions. For the first time this year a best supplier presentation award will be given. The award will be given, by a vote of the attendees, for the presentation that provides the most benefit. The programme allows for 13 suppliers, with spaces allocated on a first come-first serve basis. Suppliers can register for the event here.
Forum Networking Dinner
On the Tuesday 19 May all attendees are invited to dinner at the Commodore Hotel, starting at 6:30pm. The dinner cost is included in the event fee, but you need to indicate your attendance for catering purposes.
| Note: Indicate that you would like to attend the Networking Dinner when you register by checking the tick box |
Designer’s Interactive Forum Day
The Designer’s day is an interactive forum for OHLD professionals. Attendees and invited guests will provide talks of 5-20 minutes in length. A programme will be provided closer to the time. For the first time this year three awards will be given at the end of the day. The awards will be given for the following categories:
- Best yarn (by vote of attendees)
- Most valuable presentation (by vote of attendees)
- Industry contribution
CALL FOR DESIGNER PRESENTATIONS
The call for presentations is open now, and closing on the Tuesday 15th February 2026.
If you are interested to speak or have ideas for topics that you would like covered, please send an email to carl@linesmarts.com. As this is an interactive forum for OHLD professionals, we invite attendees to present on topics they are interested in. So, if you have some design challenges to share or have been involved in any interesting work/projects from which others could learn from please contact Carl who is putting the Forum Agenda together.
Presentation topics might include:
- New products, techniques, experiences
- Problems solved, learnings
- Unresolved problems
- Proposals for collaborative work
FORUM FLYER
OH Line Designers Forum_19 – 20th May 2026 Christchurch_ Flyer.
Registration
Follow the link below to register for this course.
