Minutes of the In House Meetings Planners Category Forum meeting held at the MEA National
Conference in Brisbane on Sunday 17 April 2011
Chair - Tania Goodacre
ATTENDEES total 13 people including chair:
Jenny McCreery – Family Business Australia – [email protected]
Cathy Kayess – Avant – [email protected]
Alice Boyd – Early Childhood Australia – [email protected]
Lydia Sper – Monash University Venues – [email protected]
Tanya Budisavljevic – Monash conference Centre – [email protected]
Lynette Maxwell – International Water Forum – [email protected]
Jessica Stonier – International WaterForum – [email protected]
Sheree Ferguson – Clayton Utz – [email protected]
Nadine Giatras – ashm conference and Events division – [email protected]
Robyn Henderson – Networking To Win – [email protected]
Paulette Bridson – Amgen – [email protected] (might be [email protected])
Brooke Kidd – Amgen [email protected]
POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST – Robyn Henderson who is a professional speakers and is
booked to speak at conferences.
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING – May 2010
Discussions re National MEA Professional Advisory service –
*registry of professional advisers
*contact for general areas, IT, registration
Timing was not right for advisory board – too time consuming for national office. However, somebody
is needed as the “go to” person to answer queries, mentor new people and answer member to
member people. Risk management is a big issue. Request for forum of in-house people who could
share ideas – almost and internal Q&A online forum.
Templates offered for procedures and possible on-line community.
UPDATE:
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MEA has templates through members sections of website.
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Tania Goodacre asked the question – “As a state chair, do you not get anything back through
your states?” response – NO. Suggestion MEA should listen to forums.
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Victoria did have an in-house conference organiser but it was disbanded.
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Recommendation was to meet informally in coffee shop/restaurant to discuss pco issues.
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Definitely dissatisfaction in the ranks and a desire to meet regularly and have informal get
togethers.
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Awareness that with small numbers , it would not be financially viable to have a MEA branded
event and these might not get off the ground.
OPTIONS:
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Create a MEA PCO group on LinkedIn for discussions and group interaction. It was pointed
out that this would still need to be approved by MEA before
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Informal non MEA badged get together bi-monthly
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Online forum – could be driven by Nadine in NSW and Alice Boyd in CBR
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Drivers could be:
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Lynette – Qld
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Jenny – Victoria
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Nadine – NSW
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Tania to drive communications/emails between PCO inhouse groups
List prepared with Name, company and email (see start of minutes)
Last year discussions were about software, events pro, venue choise, negotiations,
salary.
Tania mentioned that she had seen an interesting Salaries Survey and will seek permission
from the author to share it with the PCO group.
BREAKDOWN OF STATES:
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Victoria – Paulette, Jenny, Lydia and Tanya
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NSW – Nadine, Brooke, Josie
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Brisbane – Sheree, Lynette, Jessica, Cathy
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Suggestion was made to the list of inhouse PCOs from 2010 and 2009 and with their
permission create a master list of inhouse PCOS 2009, 2010, 2011
Mention was made to BCC (blind copy) emails when sending to the group
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Social media was discussed – some very successful with Twitter and getting journalised to
interact with conference organisers. Very handy at conferences during presentations – need
the hashtag promoted at the conference.
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Twitter 3 times per day
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Facebook updated daily
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Discussions re. use of facebook – and building a following.
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Recommended that you have a social media strategy.
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When conferences/conventions/events are planned - - ask the question – what website
support do you need? What’s the hashtag?
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Meeting concluded at 4.45 pm
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Any queries re. Notes, please contact Robyn Henderson 0407906501