What a way to start the 2021 QLD events calendar

Well what a way to start our events calendar with a sold out February Breakfast. 

The statistics for the event, and who doesn’t like a good stat, were a total of 170 tickets sold. This is consisted not only of those attending face-to-face but also four remote hubs and 25 individuals online.

Overall a great outcome for our members and the potential members out there; we really showed AWAs value proposition, and our regional approach worked well with the hub model of event delivery, so thank you for those online attendees. This event demonstrated that the hub model is successful on a number of levels. Not only does the hub model allow connection with our regional membership, it also provides organisations  the opportunity to host and stream the event for their staff or attend a sold out event. Our online digital ticketing option is supporting this modern approach and supporting members who would have otherwise missed out.

The hub approach is really gaining momentum and I am asking our members and member organisations to embrace and continue to support the concept. It not only allows technical events to be open to a broader membership audience across Queensland but also allows for networking within those “hub” areas. I have heard loud and clear that networking is a key product for AWA QLD branch to deliver and this approach enables both.  It also needs to be acknowledged that in our still present COVID environment, the amount of people who attend in person will also be somewhat restricted to smaller numbers that we are used to, hence the hub approach, even for members within the South East Corner. So please, I urge you all to get on board with the hub model for attending our events as well as face to face.

The branch also had a strategy session in February, our first face to face meeting since the beginning of COVID; actually since February 2020.  It was a great session and facilitated by Gavin Blakey OAM.  A big personal thank you to Gavin for his facilitation on the evening.  Corinne Cheeseman, AWAs new CEO, also attended the meeting in person and I also thank you, Corinne for your insights and vision for AWA.  Some of the common themes that came out of the session was a continued focus on face to face event but also an increase in regional engagement and promotion of technical hubs.

For those of you who are itching to get involved in AWA generally and the QLD branch committee specifically, the committee elections are coming up soon, with nominations open on 1 May. This is your opportunity to get involved and be part of driving the committee to achieve outcomes for all of AWA members.

And on a final note, a special thank you to Sharon James, the AWA QLD Branch Manager. Sharon has been the Branch Manager since May 2017 and supported the branch committee, technical events, conferences, and of course, been the right hand person for the QLD President. I have enjoyed working with Sharon enormously during my time as a committee member and more recently, in my role as President; I couldn’t have done it without you, Sharon. Sharon will still be an active AWA member but is taking up a full-time role at the University of Queensland. I, the QLD committee and AWA more broadly would like to wish her well in her future endeavours and we look forward to seeing her at all of our future events as an audience member.