Parmelia Hilton Perth
28-29 May 2025
Agenda
Day One
09.10 Opening address:
Mastering Professionalism: The power of planning, preparation, and tenacity for unstoppable growth
- Strategic planning for success
- Using the art of preparation
- Cultivating tenacity and resilience
- Learning to back yourself
Rachel Korziuk, Executive Assistant to President APAC/Africa, Ausenco
09.50 CONVERSATION CLINIC: Harness the power of conversations
- Understand the value in connecting with fellow attendees and get the tools to make the most of this experience
- Gain confidence in starting conversations
- Learn how to identify and follow your curiosity
- Build meaningful relationships that last
Emma Gibbens, Change Strategist
10.40 Morning tea
11.10 Panel Discussion – Leveraging high-level administrative skills to change direction
- Knowing your ‘why’ to inform the desire for change
- Identifying your toolbox of skills and how they will support career change
- Evaluating your transferrable skills against desired role descriptions
- Demonstrating your broader expertise by showcasing adaptable skills to leverage opportunities
Karen Corica, EO to the Chief Customer Officer, WA Department of Finance
Deb Robinson, Business Partner, International/Global Operations, recently ex-Fortescue
Shaymaa Solyman, Executive Assistant, Executive Director Planning and Development, City of Swan
Lorraine Kingham, Principal’s PA, Mandurah Catholic College
11.55 Transforming your work: SMART work design and job-crafting for better job roles
- Revealing the power of good and bad work design
- Understanding the SMART framework of work design
- Identifying key job resources and demands in your role
- Empowering yourself with job-crafting strategies
Fangfang Zhang PhD, Research Fellow, Centre for Transformative Work Design, Curtin University
12.40 Lunch
13.40 Becoming strategic as an Executive Assistant
- Understanding what it takes to be strategic
- Developing a managerial mindset
- Managing your executive’s mindset to foster ready acceptance of your inputs
- Strengthening business skills with training to create growth opportunities
Jacinta Altham, Senior EA, Mid West Development Commission
14.25 Mastering Overwhelm: Thriving in High-Demand Roles
- The brain under pressure – understanding cognitive overload
- Managing energy levels for sustainable productivity
- Calm command through emotion regulation
- Resilient decision-making
Nicky Veenvliet, Mindset and Personal Leadership Coach, Nicky Veenvliet Action Strategies
15.10 Afternoon tea
15.35 Managing your relationship with your Executive to strengthen your influence as an EA
- Developing trust by demonstrating integrity and reliability
- Gaining awareness of the goals and objectives of the leadership to hone your business acumen and strategy
- Building bridges by strengthening collaboration between senior leaders and the wider organisation to enhance alignment and communication
- Offering constructive and thoughtful feedback, providing perspective and steady counsel to executives and others to help support better decision-making and strengthen relationships.
Lydia Hart, Career & Life Coach, coachingwithLydia
16.15 Senior Executive Panel – Meeting expectations – how does my Executive Assistant do this?
- Knowing your Executive to act as them when needed
- Forward planning, problem-solving, and communicating to prevent obstacles
- Using outstanding interpersonal skills to build stakeholder relationships and improve office culture
- Mapping processes to meet deadlines
Judith Barker ASM, CEO, Royal Flying Doctors Service WA
Andrea Crichton-Browne, General Counsel, Resource & Environmental Regulation Division, Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety
Paula Rogers, CEO, Committee for Perth
Keri Shannon, Chief Executive Officer, City of Nedlands
Duncan Olde, Chief Financial Officer, Town of Victoria Park
17.00 Congress photo
17.10 Networking drinks
Day Two
09.10 Panel Discussion – Thriving as an ‘exceptional’ Executive Assistant
- Fostering strong and collaborative relationships across the organisation to build trust
- Developing underestimated soft skills to enable greater organisational involvement
- Finding your unique selling point
- Developing your brand to enhance your value
Marnie Mowatt, EA to the Chief Executive Officer, Office of the Auditor General
Sophie Menezes, EA (ADG), Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage
Sue McComasky, EA to Chief Executive Officer and EA to General Manager – Western Australia Region, GHD
Danica Kay, EA, AMB Holdings
Kellie Woodcoe-Bryant, EA, City of Busselton
09.55 Conducting difficult conversations to encourage progress and growth
- Understanding the person to adapt conversation tone
- Providing feedback that encourages improvement
- Planning discussions to allow flexibility of approach
- Ensuring a satisfactory outcome for all participants
Sarah Blake, Conflict Strategist, Sarah M Blake
10.40 Morning tea
11.10 Enhancing your strategic value using Artificial Intelligence as your ally
- Shifting your thinking to embrace a 21st century mindset to boost productivity and performance
- Exploring the myriad of AI offerings to help you create your AI support suite
- Humanising AI for enhanced solutions
- Creating a personalised reference library at your fingertips
- Keeping up as AI evolves to continuously develop your career
Mario Halouvas, CEO and Founder, MHPP (Mario will also lead Workshop A on time management)
12.10 Panel Discussion – Managing time and tasks to effect efficiency and productivity in your day for you and your Executive
- Developing routines to prioritise your ‘best time’ to set up your day to allow you to tackle your ‘hit list’
- Creating and triaging a ‘master list’ using strategic thinking, forward vision, and your executive’s consideration to focus on the ‘urgent’
- Planning, prioritising and being goal-focused to demonstrate a can-do attitude and initiative
- Establishing open communication, questions, and corporate knowledge to know who and what is important to timely completion of any task
Rachel Korziuk, EA to President APAC/Africa, Ausenco
Heather Bell, PA to Executive Director Corporate & Commercial, City of Albany
Yenta Hodgetts, EA to Deputy Commissioner, Australian Taxation Office
Lisa Dixon, EA, Alcoa Pinjarra Refinery
12.55 Lunch
13.55 Combining confidence and knowledge to boost your assertiveness
- Stepping out of your comfort zone to increase self-confidence
- Understanding the part information plays in being assertive
- Creating ‘thinking time’ strategies to push back the bulldozers
- Asking open and investigative questions to support your capability
Heidi Anderson, Keynote Speaker and PR Coach, Heidi Anderson
14.55 CONVERSATION CLINIC: Synthesising the Congress
- Reviewing the highlights and useful takeaways from the past two days
- Discussing different reflections helps deepen everyone’s understanding
- Leaving with the key messages and learnings top of mind
Emma Gibbens, Change Strategist
15.30 Afternoon tea
16.00 CONGRESS CONCLUDES