IN TRAY


Specialist training for office specialists such as EAs and PAs who are called on to organise business events is being offered by the new Australian Events Academy, the training and education arm of Meetings & Events Australia. MEA (www.meetingsevents.com.au),


the largest industry association for events, conventions and meetings in Australia, has launched AEA (www.australianevents- academy.edu.au) to run specialised training by events professionals. It will offer nationally recognised qualifications, diploma and certification courses, one-day courses, online courses and customised training. MEA chief executive officer Linda


Gaunt says a significant number of corporate leaders attended the official launch event. “They were interested in pursuing


the need for customed training for their organisation,” says Gaunt (pictured). “It is evident that executive and


personal assistant roles have quadrupled over the past few years with companies multi-skilling their staff so they can plan


Keep up to date with the latest news and views of interest to busy PAs.


Chance to sharpen event skills


who may need to organise events as part of their work. MEA membership ranges from meeting


industry suppliers and specialists to experts and full-time meetings and event organisers. The organisation provides ongoing industry-focussed development opportunities for its members as well as knowledge and skills expansion. MEA also hosts conferences,


networking events and forums. There are also accreditation and recognition programs as well as a state and national industry awards programs. Government funding subsidies may be


their own events in house. “I believe this is a good strategy,


provided these staff members are trained adequately so they can deliver events as would a professional conference organiser, ensuring that the return on investment is in place for their company and that the quality of the event is second to none.” Gaunt says the AEA event management course entry level is suitable for people


One-day course offered in Sydney


Sydney events and marketing company Elevents (www.elevents.com.au) is launching a one-day course run by event professionals to help give people the skills to run corporate events. Covered by the Elevents Events


Extraordinaire course are such subjects as choosing venues, managing budgets, negotiating with suppliers, securing sponsorship, promoting events and evaluating success. Elevents founder and creative and managing director Elisa Limburg says


the course will be helpful for office professionals who may be asked to organise events as part of their job. “Having been hired by some com-


panies to teach staff how to run events and set up their event systems, I realised there was an opportunity to create an easy industry-based practical course with tools that can be used in any event- planning situation,” says Limburg. While the course will be in Sydney,


Limburg says it is planned to roll it out to regional areas as well as Melbourne.


The art of making an impression


Taking scanning codes to a new level, Turkish advertising agency Büro has issued a print advertisement featuring a faint QR code superimposed on a skin-like image with the text “New tattoo artists wanted. To apply, fill in the QR code carefully”. The idea is that only applicants with a steady hand and patience will be able to scan the completed code to apply for a position.


available to participants in the AEA eight- week short-course program.


Psychopaths ‘common’ in workplace


An Australian psychotherapist has asked employers to watch out for workplace psychopaths, who are “more common than generally thought”. Dr John Clarke says psychopaths can isolate and mentally destroy the staff around them, and the only way to win the war against them is to refuse to tolerate their damaging behaviour, reports ABC News. He says people generally think of a


psychopath as a serial killer or a rapist, “and they are fairly similar things”. “The workplace psychopath is somebody


who psychologically destroys the people they work with to feed their need for a sense of power and control, and domination over other human beings,” Dr Clarke told the Tasmanian Work Health & Safety Conference. “They don’t have any guilt or remorse


– in fact, they enjoy the suffering of other people.” He said that between 1 and 3 per cent of the adult population are psychopaths, and it is hard to identify them in the workplace, usually because they are generally well-liked and competent at their jobs.


APRIL/MAY 2013 I WWW.EXECUTIVEPA.COM.AU 07


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