Conference Program

Tuesday 9 November 2021

The Corporate PA Summit program is designed to deliver content that is cutting-edge, highly beneficial, easily transferable, empowering and inspirational. It’s designed specifically to help you fulfil your potential and be the best you can be.

Check out the full program below.

8.30 – REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE

9.00 – OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR, JESSICA STRUTT

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Calm and controlled under pressure

Dr Fiona Wood AM, FRCS, FRACS

Executives need their assistant to remain calm under pressure and project the impression of cool, calm, and in control.   They need a resourceful and adaptable partner who can foresee their needs, often before they are aware of them.  Someone who knows them well and can anticipate their desired outcomes and requirements, especially when faced with multiple challenges.

Our opening speaker Professor Fiona Wood, world-renowned burns surgeon and innovator, is no stranger to dealing with highly charged situations.  She will share how she stays in control and assertive by:

• Embracing unpredictability and facing it head-on
• Juggling numerous priorities and responsibilities to ensure everything gets done
• Gaining control of your thinking and your emotions and learn to identify self-sabotaging barriers
• Learning to analyse situations to become a better problem solver and to adapt to a changing environment
• Getting what you need from people when you need it, to do your job as effectively as possible

Creating connection, impact and growth

Alicia Curtis, social and business entrepreneur, award-winning speaker, leadership facilitator and community change maker

Successful Executive Assistants create powerful partnerships and connection with their executives while also nurturing all relationships within the business. Your ability to connect and influence directly affects your impact and that of your executive. In this session, Alicia Curtis will share her tried and tested methods by sharing

• The key to building strong relationships with your boss, peers and the wider organisation
• Building your influence and increasing your ability to get what you need done, when you need it
• Exploring mentoring options for your career development, learn how to find a great mentor and understand what they are looking for in a mentee
• Learning how to approach networking from an authentic place

10:45 – MORNING COFFEE

INSPIRATIONAL KEYNOTE: Taking control of your career and your life

Tracy Vo, Channel Nine news presenter, former political reporter, author of the book SMALL BAMBOO

Do you often feel like you’re not in the driver’s seat of your career? Do you see opportunities as out of reach for someone like you? Do you find yourself keeping quiet, then kicking yourself for not speaking up?  In this session, Tracy Vo will share her story to help you embrace fear and see change as an opportunity to grow, and

• The importance of self belief when stepping out of your comfort zone
• Embracing unpredictability and facing it head-on
• Identifying your key strengths and where you can excel
• Creating opportunities for yourself personally and professionally
• Looking to the future: changes, challenges and the opportunities

Powerful Partnerships

Adam Robertson, Executive Assistant, South32

Successful Executive Assistants create powerful partnerships with their executives while also nurturing all relationships within the business.  In an ideal world, you support and you are supported. In this session, Adam will share what has made him an invaluable support to those he works with by

• Building on your leader’s reputation
• Using your skills and agility to embrace change as an EA to support your executive
• Initiating those difficult conversations
• Asking for help and owning any mistakes or oversights
• How to embrace mentoring and your networks, either as the mentor for other EAs, or as the mentee

12:30 – LUNCH BREAK

LIMITLESS: Amplifying potential on the edge of chaos

Vanessa Vershaw

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” Mahatma Gandhi

Imagine having both the mental flexibility and skills to jump on the board of life and enjoy riding the waves of disruption in life and at work. Imagine feeling brave enough to chase the next big opportunity and harness your gifts to push through the limits of what you thought possible. Imagine having the capacity to accelerate your ability to learn and build new skills by 240% and your creativity by 400%. What would that mean for your career? For your life?  It is all within reach.

This keynote is a wake-up call. Vanessa Vershaw, global high-performance and transformation expert. will show you how to make the most of your skills and talents when it matters the most.

You will learn how to:

• Stop playing those old records holding you back
• Embrace uncertainty
• Use tough situations to thrive
• Use stress to spark exceptional performance
• Unlock your inner unicorn
• Step into the unknown with confidence and courage
• Get noticed for the light that you shine
• Live your best life

You are capable of more than you think

Chandler Comerford, former US Special Forces Officer (US Navy SEAL)

The US Navy SEALs are arguably the military’s most elite high performing team, and to be part of that team you must believe that you deserve to be there.  The workplace and team you are part of are no different.

Chandler is a former US Special Forces Officer (US Navy SEAL), and this experience has provided him with deep knowledge and understanding of what is required to develop high-performing individuals and teams. The challenges he has faced on many fronts have provided insights that enable him to consult and coach to some of Australia’s most successful executives.

Chandler will show you can embrace the learnings from SEAL training, and apply these in your workplaces and your careers.  He will share how the three tools of Perspective, Fellowship and Commitment can assist you when faced with challenge and change.  Be ready to discover just how good you really are!

15:00 – AFTERNOON TEA

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: The confidence coach: Find the confident you

Michelle Cowan, sportsperson, high performance coach and mentor

Confidence underpins much of the role of an Executive Assistant. Effective communication, gaining and maintaining trust, and being a reliable problem solver  – it doesn’t happen without confidence.   Some think that you have it or you don’t. The fact is you’ve found your confidence, or you haven’t unearthed it yet. Confidence Coach Michelle Cowan, known for breaking barriers on the football field and in the boardroom,  will share her experience and how you can

• Communicate with confidence and how to use your voice effectively
• The importance of self-esteem when it comes to projecting confidence and being assertive
• How to recognise and acknowledge your strengths so you can build on them
• Michelle’s top tips for recovering from a confidence knock in the workplace
• The role of positive psychology in confidence building

16:30 SPONSOR PRIZE DRAW

16:45 – CLOSING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR, JESSICA STRUTT,
FOLLOWED BY NETWORKING DRINKS