Wherever you’re working from – home or an office – you’ll want to mark your calendar for an impressive virtual conference that UK professional association EPAA is offering this coming week, free of charge to members and non-members alike.
About EPAA
EPAA is the acronym for the UK’s Executive & Personal Assistants Association. Founded by Victoria (Darragh) Wratten, this professional association was officially registered just over five years ago. EPAA has a General Advisory Board and is recognised across the UK and beyond for its mission, values, and impressive professional development opportunities.
Victoria Wratten, Founder and CEO, EPAA
Since 2017, I’ve had the pleasure of travelling to and around the UK to present at EPAA’s professional development events. I’m proud to count a number of EPAA members among my friends.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting members, EPAA founder Victoria Wratten and her board were planning how to continue delivering professional development opportunities. They settled on an April 2 and 3, 2020 Virtual Conference, and consulted with members about opening this free event to non-members. Knowing EPAA members as I do, I was unsurprised to learn of the overwhelming support for sharing this opportunity with assistants around the globe.
Click here to register for Shelagh’s free April 2, 2020 presentation,
Career and life lessons from a pandemic
We educators are joining in the spirit
I’m one of a number of my peers who will be presenting virtually and live to support assistants and their employers in these challenging times. I’ve presented alongside and/or know a few of the great speakers who form this conference programme, and you’re in for some solid professional development.
Thinking about dress code? I’d suggest Pandemic Casual or whatever you’d like, as you’ll see presenters, but we won’t see you!
Unprecedented times
Over the course of roughly three decades as a career assistant, I’ve experienced the impacts of financial booms, recessions, and even an economic depression on the workplace and human beings. I’ve worked alongside senior executives through the course of a merger and, in another time and place, through the dissolution of one institution in order that components could re-emerge as two distinct institutions.
I’ve been accountable to a number of board chairs, CEOs, VPs and other executives … and I’ve also been an auxiliary/temporary employee, when I rebooted my career as our kids began their school years.
An uplifting presentation
In other words, like many of you, I’ve seen a lot and worked through challenging times. Until now, I’d not experienced a global pandemic. The year 2020 will go down in history not only for the scale of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but also for its economic and social impacts. With unprecedented access to information feeds and opinions as this pandemic unfolds before our eyes and on our screens, there are lessons to be had.
Join me for an uplifting look at lessons on business continuity, resilience, and how assistants can step up to the plate in times of crises.
Click here to access EPAA’s virtual conference website and register free of cost for individual sessions
It’s a pleasure to give back to the assistant community through this virtual conference, and I look forward to presenting and *seeing* many of you this coming week!
… and, while you wait for this conference, check out the links below for more of Shelagh’s ongoing series on assistants in the time of COVID-19
- March 24, 2020 – Innovation: How are you adapting to working from home?
- March 20, 2020 – Weekend Poll: Pandemic – A snapshot in time
- March 19, 2020 – Pandemic insights from professional association leaders
- March 19, 2020 – Tips for Using Microsoft Teams to communicate with colleagues
- March 18, 2020: The pandemic’s impacts on assistants around the globe
- March 17, 2020 – Italy’s COVID-19 Experience
- March 17, 2020 – Work from Home (WFH) Tech checklist
- March 15, 2020 – Phishing advisory
- March 12, 2020 – Update and Weekend Poll results
- March 2, 2020 – Workplace practices and Shelagh’s Weekend Poll
