The InterContinental, Melbourne, The Rialto
Congress Day One – Wednesday 20 March 2024
08.30 Registration
09.00 Opening remarks from the chair
09.10 Keynote Address: CONFIDENCE AND COURAGE = RESILIENCE
- Building inner strength to boost your confidence, giving you the courage to speak
- Understanding how best to promote your ideas
- Kicking uncertainty and insecurity to the kerb to make room for self-assuredness
- Gaining the confidence to find your own voice to advocate for yourself in all aspects of your career and your life
Grace Tame,
2021 Australian of the Year, motivational speaker, advocate for speaking out
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
Kerryn Powell, Founder and Director, The Network Catalyst
11.10 Morning coffee
11.35 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
Leigh-Anne McGill, Lead Executive Support and Office Coordinator, Secretary Office of the Secretary, Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions
Natalie Moore, EA to Executive Assistant to David Parr, Regional Head of Australia, Global Client Solutions – Australia, IFM Investors
Kaye Mercer, EA to CEO and Executive Team, Alumina Limited
Emma Crowe, Executive Assistant to Lucy Poole, Head of Division, Strategy, Planning and Performance, Digital Transformation Agency
12.15 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
David Park, ELL Digital Transformation Lead, Pearson
13.00 Lunch
13.55 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
Frank Joyce, Director, Organisational Performance, Mitchell Shire Council
Andrew Douglas, Managing Principal, FCW Lawyers
Thomai Veginis, Chief Procurement Officer, Procurement Division, Investment & Technology, Department of Transport and Planning
14.40 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
Megan Green, EA to CEO, Reliance Real Estate, Page Personnel EA of the Year, 2016, Finalist, CEO Magazine EA of the Year, 2018
15.25 Afternoon tea
15.50 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
Narrelle Matthey-Aickin, EA to Chief Risk Officer Institutional Banking, ANZ
16.30 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
Kristi Evans, Project Manager, KSE Project Management
17.10 Networking drinks
Congress day 2 – Thursday 21 March 2024
9.00 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
Samantha Webb, Board Secretariat, Beyond Blue
09.55 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
Amanta Giesen, Executive Assistant to Chief Executive Officer, Choice Hotels Asia-Pac
Linda Grant-Janson, Executive Assistant to Chief Operating Officer, RACQ
Abilene Roscoe, Executive Assistant to Chief Information Officer, VMIA
10.40 Morning coffee
11.10 Developing resilience strategies to manage health and wellbeing
- Building trust to enhance confidential discussions with your Executive
- Achieving balance in the face of emergencies
- Fostering support networks away from work
- Slowing your mind to manage stress, anxiety and burnout
Clair Turner, Founder and Executive Coach, Clair Turner
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 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
Sue Glasser, Productivity and Success Coach, Director, Paperclippo
14.25 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
Kathryn Moir, Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer and to the Executive Director, Governance, Quality & Assurance, Red Cross Lifeblood
Dee Peterson, EA, Public Affairs Department, Executive Manager Janine Morgan, City of Whittlesea
Leigh-Anne McGill, Lead Executive Support and Office Coordinator, Secretary Office of the Secretary, Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions
Tara Bedwell, Executive Assistant to Kira Duggan, Director, Evaluation & Program Impact Branch, Performance & Evaluation Division, and Robert Mizzi, Director, Performance Reporting Branch, Performance & Evaluation Division, Department of Education
15.10 Afternoon tea
15.40 End of Congress Day Two