About 60 people gathered to celebrate the festive season and the year that was 2025 at the Stamford Plaza in Brisbane on Friday 28 November.
Thanks to our sponsors for the day, Velseis, InGauge, RealTime Seismic, Terrex (the lucky door prizes), ERC (the trivia quiz), and Comet Ridge (the oil price guess). Without this support the event would not be the same.
There were plenty of prizes and winners on the day.
The trivia quiz was ultimately won by Sam McDermott, after a tie between Sam and Peter Crosdale, who each scored 15 points from a possible 20. The consolation loser’s prize was also won on tie break by Aram Lopez Renteria with 4 points from 20.
The Who am I? bonus question was won by Peter Crosdale, whose brain was obviously really firing on the day!
A new segment “Know your committee” was introduced, where committee members had to be matched to a random fact about themselves not related to their work or PESA activities. From a possible 10, Kim Owen top scored with 7. The greatest number of correct guesses across the board were for Mel Fitzell (VP) and Rachael Ciesiolka (Secretary) with 13 people correctly matching them to their random fact, and the least number correct were for Sue Slater (President) and Noele Carvalho (events) with only 5 people correctly matching them to their random fact.
So you think you’re a Smartie? Christmas fun facts were won by Jennifer Cooling, Janny Spilsbury-Schakel, Damien Ryan (twice!), Megan Nightingale, Alison Troup, Ethan Vanderwal, Sean Keogh and Karel Driml. The winners all got a box of Smarties of course.
The oil price guess was open between 6 October and 3 November. Participants had to guess the price of oil (Brent) at 9am on the morning of the Christmas party, in $US. This year 23 people joined the competition, and I think it was a challenging year. Guesses ranged from a low of $54.49 to a high of $74.60. For the first time we had a tie, with two people guessing a price of $63.45, Maddie Kowalski and Karel Driml which was only 0.103c from the actual price of $63.347.
Lucky door prizes sponsored by Terrex Seismic were won by Elio Lanzilli, Karel Driml and Inna Kampoli. Additional lucky door prizes from the PESA Committee were won by Kim Owen and Damien Ryan.
Congratulations to all the lucky winners. Thanks to the staff at Stamford Plaza who really make us feel welcome, and to the committee who helped make the day happen.
Words by Sue Slater. Attached photos by Elio Lanzilli.
