Congress Day One – Wednesday 31 July 2024

Opera Room, Watersedge, 25 Hickson Road, The Rocks

08.30 Registration

09.00 Opening remarks from the chair

09.10 KEYNOTE ADDRESS:

‘Finding Your Inspiration: Your Why’

Emphasising the importance of your purpose and motivation
Navigating a dynamic environment to juggle multiple tasks and competing priorities and overcome obstacles
Inspiring the broader organisation with your passion, enthusiasm, solutions-focus, and tenacity to overcome obstacles to meet objectives and achieve success
Increasing confidence and enhancing resilience to develop capability

Dr Jana Pittman, two times World Champion and four times Commonwealth Champion in the sport of athletics

10.10 Leveraging networking opportunities to strengthen your organisational value

Moving outside your comfort zone to broaden your circle of contacts
Developing engaging conversation openers
Cultivating contacts once made
Deepening connections in the work world by maintaining contact

Oksana Koriakova, Founder and CEO, Impero Group

10.50 Morning coffee

11.15 Creating better time management for your Executive Assistant and Executive partnership

Creating strategies to making more time in your day
Managing your Executive’s time to focus on strategic goals
Making time for you and your Executive to plan short- and long-term goals
Diverting distractions to minimise disruption in your day

Julie Jones, Productivity Ninja and Flow Coach and Mentor, Think Productive Australia and New Zealand

11.55 Prioritising multiple tasks to effect greater efficiency in your workday

Identifying task and stakeholder importance to create meaningful deadlines
Understanding the difference between deadlines to enable prioritisation
Recognising whether multitasking or focus should be your strategy
Knowing your peak performance time to prioritise complicated and simple tasks

Rachel Samsa, Diary Manager, Office of the Hon David Littleproud, Commonwealth Parliament of Australia

Diana Moffitt, EA to Chief Operating Officer, ASX

Emma Crowe, Executive Assistant to Head of Division, Digital Transformation Agency

Nonie Veness, Operations Manager, GCQ Funds

12.40 Lunch

13.35 Building your confidence and self-worth to realise your value

Knowing your ability to deliver what you bring as an Executive Assistant
Understanding the value of the abilities you bring as an Executive Assistant
Ensuring your contributions are visible to the organisation
Marrying your experience to opportunities that arise

Ema Volavola, Executive Assistant to CEO, Bingo Industries

14.15 Practising assertiveness as an Executive Assistant

Winning friends and influencing people by being firm but fair
Being proactive, not reactive in situations requiring assertiveness
Using your role to lead to demonstrate purpose
Influencing without perceived positional authority

Katrena Friel, Australia’s Leading Success for Intrepreneurs, Refresh Your Thinking

14.55 Afternoon tea

15.20 Working with your Executive as a strategic partner

Building great rapport with your Executive or stakeholders cultivates good relationships to support your strategic partnership
Tracking progress, collaborating with project teams, and providing insight to your Executive as a strategic partner
Being succinct, clear, and becoming a sounding board enhances communication with your strategic partner
Knowing the business to anticipate problems and solutions that arise

Melissa Rourke, Executive Assistant to the Founder and Chair, Adara Group

16.00 Aligning your mindset with your Senior Executive to strengthen your strategic partnership

Unpacking what is required within your strategic partnership
Listing the skills, experiences, and values that Senior Executives seek
Communicating effectively to foster a great working relationship
Using your social skills to be CEO’s strongest ambassador
Implementing effective and practical decision-making

Cameron Kerr, Chief Executive Officer, Taronga Conservation Society Australia

Lucy Poole, Head of Division, Digital Transformation Agency

Caroline Flatley, Partner, Brown & Chase – Talent Acquisition and Advisory

Michelle Kvello, Managing Director and CFO, Lantern Partners

16.45 Conference photo

17.00 Networking drinks – Squires Landing Brewhouse

Congress day 2 – Thursday 1 August 2024

09.00 Opening remarks from the chair

09.10 Identifying learning and development opportunities to grow in your career

Understanding your strengths and passions and how you can align them to develop a rewarding career path
Recognising and taking advantage of opportunities to use your initiative to broaden your experience
Demonstrating curiosity and commitment through continuing professional development and informal learning
Setting a course for success by formulating KPIs that work for you and Executives to ensure continued growth

Patrizia Iacono, Executive Assistant to Group Chief Information Officer/Women of Westpac Mentor, Westpac Group

Jess Bath, Senior Executive Assistant to Deputy Secretary, Skills and Employment, Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (VIC)

Maria Ferlito, Executive Assistant to Chief Operating Officer, Sydney Olympic Park Authority

Natalie Kennefick, Talent Acquisition Specialist (former Executive Assistant), Arriba Group

09.55 Translating Executive Assistant skills into project management to move upwards or across in your career

Creating efficiencies through coordination and multitasking
Remaining adaptable, agile, calm, effective to achieve results
Maintaining document management systems and being detail-oriented to maintain control
Tracking progress to monitor team performance, assess data and metrics, and adjusting when required

Tiffany Riches, Project Coordinator, Telstra

10.40 Morning coffee

11.10 Modelling the future Executive Assistant

Comparing what the modern-day Executive Assistant brings to the table versus the traditional Executive Assistant
Generating the capacity to be proactive, anticipate needs, and get ahead of the tasks
Value-adding as an Executive Assistant by being the strategic partner
Adapting to the rapidly changing office environment’s work practices and technology
Remaining adaptable, agile, calm, effective to achieve results

Marise Maechler, Business Partner to CEO, Aon Reinsurance Solutions; President, The Association for Women in Insurance NSW

11.55 Manage your time, focus and technology to get more done

Mastering automation for routine tasks
Integrating key applications like Outlook, OneNote, and Teams for seamless workflow
Employing shortcuts for increased efficiency
The power of digital notetaking
Applying effective techniques to boost concentration at critical moments

Mario Halouvas, Director, Mario Halouvas Productivity Professionals

12.40 Lunch

13.40 Improving the Executive Assistant/Executive team by building a better relationship

Identifying the Top 5 qualities in Executive Assistants and Executives that promote productivity
Defining effective strategic relationships to develop a great partnership
Learning how to manage self and your Executive on days when stress takes hold
Approaching communication as a two-way street

Kya Blondin, Executive Director, People and Government, Sydney Opera House

Anthony Carthew, Executive Assistant to the CEO and Head of Protocol, Sydney Opera House

14.25 Future-proofing the Executive Assistant role with emerging technology

Understanding Artificial intelligence: Friend or foe?
Harnessing the power of ChatGPT to work effectively and avoid the pitfalls
Mastering AI: Staying relevant as an Executive Assistant in the world of ChatGPT
Enhancing your value as an Executive Assistant by keeping your skills relevant

Luke Hayler, Founder, Automic Consulting

15.10 Afternoon tea

15.35 Delegating responsibilities to benefit everyone

Delegating simpler tasks creates time for focus on major projects
Providing clear instructions when passing on tasks
Recognising that delegation does not confer accountability
Mentoring to create opportunities to delegate

Anthony Carthew, Executive Assistant to the CEO – Head of Protocol, Sydney Opera House

Shamiran Georges, Executive Assistant to the Managing Director and CEO, Alinta Energy

Rebecca Fieldes, Executive Assistant to the Mayor and General Manager, Bellingen Shire Council

Priscilla Smith, EA to the Chief People Officer and CEO, Avant Finance

16.20 End of Congress Day Two