Topics will include work/family life balance, web-based technologies, finding your niche in the VA industry, social media and other items relating to being a Virtual Assistant and operating a business from home.

Here are just some of the speakers lined up for March 2010.  More will be added very soon.

Many will know the name Shelley Taylor-Smith, who is a 7-time World Marathon Swimming Champion & Peak Performance Coach.  Shelley’s message is set to inspire you and help you find the Champion inside of you.

About Shelley Taylor-Smith www.championmindset.com.au

Shelley Taylor-Smith is Australia’s No.1 Mental Toughness Coach: by looking at how they spend their time and energy – and where they focus their attention – Shelley helps people transform their Champion potential into performance. An energetic and inspirational speaker, international bestselling author and corporate educator, Shelley demonstrates how harnessing the power of your mind and boosting your self belief can help you achieve your goals. With her passionate commitment to being relatable, Shelley delivers a powerful lesson in mental toughness.

We will be having two MCs for our event:  Warwick Merry on Friday and Camille Valvo on Saturday.

Warwick Merry is a professional speaker, consultant, coach and trainer renowned for his high-energy presentations and seminars. Warwick has previously earned the second highest accreditation of Professional Member with the National Speakers Association of Australia (NSAA) and has spoken to over six thousand people since Dec 2000.

Warwick holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Computing) and a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) but does not let that stop him from being an energetic and entertaining presenter!

Warwick ignites an inexhaustible passion to Get More out of life. His clients come from a variety of industries, including finance, government, professional associations, education, manufacturing and mining. He has worked with organisations such as: ANZ Bank, Esanda Finance, CPA Australia, Mt Eliza Business School, Citipower, Victorian TAFE Association, Mooroondah City Council, Stellar Property, Gordon Tafe, Fitzpatrick’s Financial Advisers, Pacific Access (now Sensis), Western Mining, Lundbeck, Oracle, Victorian Water Industry Association, Australian Institute of Office Professionals and Crown Casino.

For more than 30 years Camille has been on the frontline trenches….. and will be joining us as our MC for the Saturday of our event.

In the people business that is! She estimates she has served over 2 million customers working in the trenches of the retail, airline, and event industries. (She’s got stories you couldn’t make up!)
A skilled MC/host, internationally accredited speaker, and dynamic facilitator, she uses those real life experiences, coupled with a great sense of humour to manage the frontline for event, meetings and conference organisers worldwide.  Born in the US and educated in Japan, Camille speaks fluent Japanese (and English!).

She has served the National Speakers Association of Australia, and the USA. In 2006 she was NSW chapter President as well as on the executive board, and chosen to MC the NSAUSA conference in Orlando, Florida. Recognized in 2007 with the Walter Dickman award for outstanding service to the professional speaking community, she was also the first international speaker to host the audio magazine, Voices of Experience for NSAUSA. VOE is the leading global resource for over 5000 professional speakers.

A published writer and industry presenter, Camille is the author of  ‘How to MC a 1st Class Event’, and co-author of ‘How to MC almost Anything’. She is involved in more than 90 speaking and MC events every year throughout Asia, Australia and the USA.

Camille resides in Sydney Australia, near the glorious Royal National Park amidst a variety of wildlife which includes her husband and teenaged daughter.

Melissa Khalinsky, Business Mums Network
Melissa Khalinsky is the founder of Business Mums Network and has helped many Mums start and grow their businesses while running around after their children. She is also the 2009 winner of the business services category of the Home Based Business Awards.

Beverley Neil, owner of d’Scriptive Words, is an internationally accredited, multi award-winning resume writer who has been writing resumes for more than six years. Beverley has a passion for teaching others how to write powerful resumes and cover letters, which has led her to writing and teaching the Online Resume Writers Course. Due to Beverley originally starting out as a VA, the self-paced course has a slight VA focus and is suitable both for complete beginners who want to add resume writing to their list of services, and for those who want to improve their existing resume writing skills in order to better help their clients and to command a higher fee. For more information visit www.onlineresumewriterscourse.com

Charly Leetham, Ask Charly Leetham.
Charly Leetham has more than 20 years experience in the IT industry ranging from ‘hands on’ technical to high level business management.  She has actually installed and configured computing equipment and personally managed business contracts in excess of $26 million dollars.

Charly is an Online Business Implementation Expert and her services are designed to help solopreneurs and small business get their business and online presence in order.   She approaches web services work from a holistic point of view, helping businesses map their online presence to their business processes – so that technology is working FOR them instead of the business working FOR technology.  Charly helps businesses ensure that the website is an enabler and supporting the business rather than determining the direction of the business.

Michael Licenblat is a Resilience Expert who teaches people how to become ‘pressure proof’ and bounce back fast from people pressure and tension in work and life.

He believes that motivation and life balance is more about becoming resilient to pressure and expanding your capacity, instead of trying to reduce your stress.

With a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Diploma in Shiatsu body therapy, Michael has helped thousands of people to understand their pressure profile, better manage their people pressure, and stop ‘working themselves to death’

Heather Maloney is the MD of Contact Point IT Services Pty Ltd, the creator of eNudge – an online email and sms solution.  Heather will share with us how eNudge has been used by hundreds of businesses around world to not only increase sales and improve customer relationships and client retention, but also achieve productivity improvements in the execution of their business.

Rob Anderson is the founder and CEO of the Cagora Community Network (http://cagora.com) and the International Community Marketing Consultants Association.  (http://marketingconsultantsbiz.com)
Prior to this he spent 15 years as a Chemical Engineer, Operations manager and management consultant in the food/biotech industries.  Rob’s company has also hosted several Virtual Expo events for the VA Industry (OIVAC for example).

Rob is passionate about how the Internet can make a difference
in local economies around the world by enabling Small Business
and local Non profit Organizations to thrive. Rob will be discussing
some of the ways Virtual Assistants and Home Business Entrepreneurs
can profit from some of the latest developments with the Internet and
Web 2.0 including the opportunity to provide Marketing Services for
local Small Businesses.

Sam Mutimer has captured attention recently with her direct, enthusiastic and transparent approach to social media, personal branding and business.

Sam is an energetic and creative Web 2.0 Strategist, Speaker and Social Media Marketer with experience in the latest strategies and functionalities within the Web 2.0 World.

With significant experience in the Web2.0 industry as a strategist, Sam’s big passion and purpose lies in researching the latest powerful Social media strategies that are applicable to network market any business. She has rapidly leveraged social media tools such as Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook to promote her personal brand, her blog about Web2.0 and her up and coming events.

As Sam’s virtual network has increased many doors have opened. She now runs a regular ‘Social Media’ slot on the Kiss.fm breakfast show, is the regular expert blogger for the Smart Company, founder and organiser of Melbourne’s active offline twitter community group @tweetupmellers and speaks at many events sharing her passion and knowledge for the topic.

Stuart Campbell, Director, Business Success Nexus Pty Ltd is a former NAB Bank Manager and began his coaching career with Action International.

Stuart has been a business coach for over 8 years working with 100s of different organisations in a variety of industries including retail, wholesale, manufacturing and business services.

Prior to this he had a 14 year career with the National Australia Bank in areas such as Corporate Banking, Private Banking, Business Banking, Credit Bureau and Human Resources.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business, is a Senior Associate with the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a member of the Australian Institute of Management. He is currently studying a Masters of Marketing @ Monash.

Stuart has a good understanding of the Virtual Assistant industry, having been business coach to Kathie Thomas for the last 4 years.

Leanne Sklavenitis has been extensively involved in the Secretarial/PA and the Fitness industry both in Australia and the USA for 20 years as a Group Fitness instructor and Personal Trainer running her own business, presenting to 5000 delegates at a conference in Singapore and interviewed in Fitness Instructor editorials.  She is an Online Fitness Motivation Coach and Home Based Business Owner/Virtual Assistant who is passionate about helping others succeed in their health and fitness goals.  Leanne will show you how to stay motivated and be a fit and healthy Virtual Assistant – check out more at www.fitnesstips.com.au and www.followthetrainer.wordpress.com.

Don Christie started online over 9 years ago when the Internet was in its early stages. He built small profit websites whilst working in some of the world’s most exclusive resorts and hotels as an Executive Chef. He was responsible for thousands of meals per week, had over 50 staff reporting to him and was daily ordering $1000’s worth of produce, equipment and supplies. A specialist at working under extreme pressure and deadlines, he can relate to the pressures faced by many small and medium businesses.

For the last 5 years, Don has been experimenting and making money from Internet Marketing Channels such as SEO, PPC marketing, and Article Marketing. Don Christie Marketing and Consulting was founded to focus primarily on affiliate marketing. After an incredibly successful first year, Don expanded his businesss to consulting services, bringing his nationally recognized internet marketing expertise to small business. To really help them stay on top of their internet responsibilities and duties.

Lyn Prowse-Bishop is Australia’s first certified Master Virtual Assistant (MVA), an EthicsChecked VA, Accredited Secretary Online (ASO), Certified Australian Virtual Business, 2008 Australian Achiever Award – Highly Recommended, 2007 Business Achiever’s Award winner for Professional Services, and 2006 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee. She has been in private practice since February 2000 as owner of Executive Stress Office Support, coming from over 15 years’ experience in senior Executive PA roles in the legal and hospitality industries. One of Queensland’s most well known and respected virtual assistants, Lyn is founder of the Australian Virtual Business Network, was a foundation steering committee member of the Online International VA Convention, and serves on international committees looking at standards and certification for the global VA industry. She currently runs her practice from regional Queensland serving clients across Australia, in Singapore, the UK, Canada and North America, and through AVBN runs monthly training webinars for VAs and small business owners.

What kind of entrepreneur would risk starting their business journey while 34 weeks pregnant with their third child?

Only someone who is extremely driven, motivated, determined, and goal-oriented with a dynamic personality of course.

That’s exactly the type of person Kylie Short is and she was, indeed, 34 weeks along in her third pregnancy when she started Tilda Virtual Services.

The Australian School of Copywriting was founded by Bernadette Schwerdt in 2001.

The copywriting course started life when Bernadette was invited by a real estate group to train their in-house team of new copywriters.

The course proved so effective she offered it to the wider market. The first seminar sold out within days. Since then, the course has been completed by over 800 students. Seminars are regularly held in Melbourne. Students from other states enrol in the Home Study course.

Bernadette will be sharing her expertise with delegates at AVAC.

Kathie M. Thomas pioneered the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia and is a Virtual Assistant Coach & Trainer having trained and mentored many VAs during the life of her business.  Kathie is also an award-winning author and is many times published in business and women’s magazines. An associate member of National Speakers Association, Kathie speaks around Australia and overseas.
Kathie is a two-times “Australian of the Year” Nominee (2008 & 2009).