Announcements

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Paul Vittles

Paul will deliver an abbreviated and tailored version of his award-winning presentation. Owners and leaders of SMEs will find this a stimulating session with practical tips underpinned by sound theory and many years of experience. The key points and take-outs are:

• Trying to predict the future is fraught with difficulty but you can do much to shape and manage your future
• Desired state planning and vision-led change are tried and tested tools for sustainable success
• Avoid directionless busyness and focus your energies
• Understand how your people deal with change and lead them through change
• Use the Push-Pull-Involve model to take your business forward

About Paul Vittles

Paul started his career as an economist before training as a professional researcher, rising to the very top of his profession and being awarded Fellowship of the UK Market Research Society and co-chairing the 2009 research industry conference in Australia – with a record attendance of 580 and voted the best ever.

Paul has been in CEO/director level leadership positions for the past 15 years, including working for some of the world’s leading knowledge-based consultancies (eg MORI, Nielsen, Urbis, TNS).

In addition to working in corporates and government, Paul has many years of SME experience. He joined a firm in the UK, RBA, which had just 6 employees when Paul joined in 1991 and which had 50 employees when he left in December 2004 to move to Australia. As CEO of RBA, Paul sustained revenue growth of 20% per annum over a 9-year period.

Paul has also worked with many SMEs, specialising in supporting owners and leaders in growing and developing themselves and their firms. Paul trained as an executive coach with the UK Academy for Chief Executives (ACE) and he has practiced as a coach since 1997. Paul is very much a practitioner but he also studies evidence-based coaching through the University of Sydney.

www.vittles.org

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Anick Patry

3 take-home values:
- tools to manage stress better at work and in life
- awareness on the type of stress you are dealing with
- changes in attitudes

Goals of presentation:
- educate
- de-dramatize
- discover tools

Everything you always wanted to know on how to manage stress! Join Anick Patry in her presentation The Four Types of stress: physical, emotional, intellectual and environmental. This is an enjoyable, enriching interactive seminar, which offers simple, practical tools and a humorous look at life. We are confronted each day with stressful situations and tension accumulates rapidly.

Anick Patry offers you what you have been waiting for to de-dramatize your daily life forever!
Engaging, dynamic and insightful! Anick captivates her audience with her boundless energy, and her contagious sense of humor. She certainly makes everyone laugh while transmitting valuable tools for stress management. Anick Patry is an “edutainer”.

“Stress is a fact of life; it doesn’t have to be a way of life” Anick Patry

Who is Anick Patry?
Anick Patry is called a “people connecter”. She is a stress management master, who helps people achieve results by re-connecting them to what really drives attitudes, engagement, joy and positive outcomes in business and life. Her skill in transforming the spirit of people and cultures connects and engages people; changes perceptions; improves relationships and leadership; and reframes the value of change.

With experience in teaching and speaking in both hemispheres to different types of groups and associations, combined with constant research in scientific discovery, Anick will entertain and “edutain”, connect you and your people and will teach you tools to manage stressful situations and move your team to action. Anick draws on a vast foundation of knowledge, techniques and experience. Anick Patry teaches people how to bring out the best in themselves and others, and how to keep a positive spirit, no matter what the circumstances. She will remind you that you are a “human being” rather than a “human doing”.

Anick has a Bachelor's degree in communications, a Diploma in Creative Arts Therapy, she is qualified as a Master Practitioner in Neurolinguistic Programming, and she has expertise in group dynamics and zillions of rich life experiences around the globe as a reporter at CBC in Canada and SBS in Australia, a teacher, a voice over performer, an explorer, a “people connecter“...

So what’s so different about Anick?

Anick has packed more into her life than most of us could in two lifetimes. She’s sailed around the world and survived near fatal sea storms. And she’s come through it with a raw energy, an intuitive nature, and a deep understanding of what makes people tick.

She combines this intuition with tried and tested techniques using neuroscience, scientific research, communications and creativity. Anick inspires people to re-engage with their lives and their work, to manage their stress better and to find renewed passion and determination. Anick brings out the best in people by educating and entertaining her audiences with contagious humor, energy and insight.

Her methods are dynamic, based on actual experience, with a view to generating a conscious integration of newly learned concepts by building on right brain learning. All presentations take a humorous approach.

By blending her areas of expertise to connect body, mind and spirit she enables people to become more effective professionally and personally, and guides them to manage stress and revive joy at work and in life.

The effect on businesses therefore on people is dramatic – as you can read from her testimonials.

To find out more about Anick’s services, visit her website at www.anickpatry.com

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Elena Reed

Add the quirky spice to your professional mix

Do you know a wonderful person who does not get the full rewards she or he truly deserves? Or a talented business owner who doesn’t not sell as much as he or she potentially could?
 
Talent and hard work are no longer enough to step up on any career ladder. Being brilliant at what you do is simply a minimum requirement of current economic climate.
 
Business people who can’t ‘sell’ themselves are like painters with a garage full of artwork that no-one wants or knows about.
 
Elena Reed knows what it takes to get your talents noticed. She fled to Australia as a teenager with no family,  no money and not a person she knew in the country.  Today she has two university degrees in Law and Sociology, a successful business and a beautiful family.  
 
In this fun and practical session Elena will share with you how you can use the way you look to position yourself for success in any situation, personally or professionally.  

- 3 take-home values for the attendees
 
Sticky brand. Why it is a big deal?
 
Colour, style and fashion for business success.  
 
Staying current. The easy way.

Russian born, Elena Reed combines her flair for European style with her professional training as an internationally certified style, fashion and business etiquette specialist.

Academically rock solid, Elena holds two university degrees – one in law, the other in the arts. In addition to her formal education, she is a former synchronized swimmer and an accredited practitioner in neuro-linguistic
programming and hypnotherapy.

In this entertaining presentation, she is going to share with us some ʻBRAND-YOUʼ practical tools that you can use personally and professionally to survive and thrive in tough economic times.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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Toby Jenkins

Toby Jenkins is the MD and co-founder of Bluewire Media a Sydney managed web strategy firm, as well a popular and entertaining speaker on digital strategy, sport & business.

Toby was a professional water polo player whose career culminated in the representing Australia link here at the Athens Olympics.

These days, Toby consults with clients on internet strategy and business processes and is passionate about companies using their website as a business and marketing tool.  Toby has been interviewed on Nova 106.9 link here, Brisbane Extra link here and is a past speaker at ad:tech link here.

Toby is also on the board of the Queensland Olympic Council link here & was named in the 2009 Hot 30 Under 30 link here  list of young Australian entrepreneurs.

At Toby's session you will -

Learn 7 major mistakes in developing and executing internet strategies (including websites, email marketing and online payment processing).

Learn the simple but commonly overlooked secret to developing successful internet strategies.

Examine 2 case studies of successful implementations of this process.

See 6 other examples for additional ideas.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Raise your SME Capital!

Andrew Lorking

Tuesday 9th March 2010

Andrew began his career as a Chartered Accountant before moving into investment banking.  He has worked on the origination, structuring and implementation of structured finance transactions abroad and in Australia from 1994 to 2005.  

Andrew then worked with a boutique asset management company in Sydney as Portfolio Manager managing third party funds , as well as developing and executing investment products. Andrew gained valuable experience in raising capital from Institutional and High Net Worth Investors during this period.

Andrew has since consulted in lean thinking including combining and developing “Lean and Green” capabilities to measure and reduce Carbon Footprint for Corporate clients, and assisting lean thinking clients to implement lean accounting systems.

Andrew has recently incorporated Polaris Capital, which is a business set up to assist SME’s to raise capital, using a unique platform in Australia.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

John Gerrie

“Management is about doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”
Peter Drucker 1909 – 2005

Businesses fail more often for not doing the right things, than by not doing things right. Following Peter Drucker’s logic, they fail because of poor leadership, rather than poor management.

John Gerrie has spent 30 years in marketing, sales and senior management roles in Africa, USA, Australia, East Asia and Europe. Most recently John was the head ‘ideas-guy’ at Reckitt Benckiser Global Headquarter in London, a global consumer goods company with dominant market positions in over 60 countries with global brands like Dettol®, Nurofen®, Mortein®, Lysol®, Harpic®, Vanish®, Airwick®, Woolite® Finish®, Gaviscon®, Lemsip® and many more.

John now runs an innovation training and consulting company, KN3W IDEAS, based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney working with large multi-national companies like Diageo, Ericsson, Sanofi Aventis, Fonterra and The Dulux Group but he is also committed to imparting his knowledge and experience to SME’s, entrepreneurs and inventors.

John will share his unique, patent-pending methodology, in an interactive session that will help you to look at your business in a different way, to pick the right things to do.

John will leave you with a unique new perspective on:
What actually drives customers to pick your product or service over that of the competition
How to look at what you are doing differently
How to develop new approaches and new ideas in your business Picking the Right Things to Do.
Good luck or good judgement?

“Management is about doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”
Peter Drucker 1909 – 2005

Businesses fail more often for not doing the right things, than by not doing things right. Following Peter Drucker’s logic, they fail because of poor leadership, rather than poor management.

John Gerrie has spent 30 years in marketing, sales and senior management roles in Africa, USA, Australia, East Asia and Europe. Most recently John was the head ‘ideas-guy’ at Reckitt Benckiser Global Headquarter in London, a global consumer goods company with dominant market positions in over 60 countries with global brands like Dettol®, Nurofen®, Mortein®, Lysol®, Harpic®, Vanish®, Airwick®, Woolite® Finish®, Gaviscon®, Lemsip® and many more.

John now runs an innovation training and consulting company, KN3W IDEAS, based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney working with large multi-national companies like Diageo, Ericsson, Sanofi Aventis, Fonterra and The Dulux Group but he is also committed to imparting his knowledge and experience to SME’s, entrepreneurs and inventors.

John will share his unique, patent-pending methodology, in an interactive session that will help you to look at your business in a different way, to pick the right things to do.

John will leave you with a unique new perspective on:
What actually drives customers to pick your product or service over that of the competition
How to look at what you are doing differently
How to develop new approaches and new ideas in your business