Sector and AuSAE News

  • 29 Oct 2015 9:50 AM | Kerrie Green

    When was the last time your employees got excited about training? Those responsible for training must continually find new, creative ways to “sneak in” learning opportunities whenever possible to make it accessible and engaging.


    Technology has drastically changed the way we learn, and employers are incorporating it frequently to reduce the time and costs of training. In fact, technology-based training is up to 90 percent less expensive than traditional classroom based training. It cuts down on the time employees spend traveling as well as travel expenses (airfare, gas, mileage, hotel rooms, food).


    In the coming year, we’ll continue to see companies adopting new, innovative forms of learning. Here are three leadership training and development trends to keep on your radar for 2016 and beyond.


    1. Blended Learning

    Blended learning—using e-learning or the virtual classroom as well as in-person sessions to give employees the best of both teaching styles—is on the rise as technology becomes the norm for training. More than 29 percent of training hours were delivered through blended-learning programs in 2014, which was a 0.8 percent increase over the previous year.


    2. Using Gamification as a Training Technique

    Companies are moving toward using games and simulations to foster greater employee engagement by tapping into the innate human preference for fun. By applying games to work related scenarios, employees can use their problem-solving skills to develop business solutions.


    For example, Deloitte built a leadership development training program for its senior executives, but had difficulties getting them to complete it. The company revamped the program to include gaming components like badges, leaderboards and status symbols to track the executives’ progress. This change resulted in a 50 percent shorter completion time and a 46.6 percent increase in the number of users returning to the site daily.


    3. M-learning as a Training Technique

    Said to be the future of learning, mobile learning—or m-learning—is expected to coincide with the rising use of mobile for everything. The key benefit mobile provides is access to information anytime, anywhere. For learning purposes, m-learning condenses lessons into shorter, bite-sized micro lessons that can be easily absorbed on the go. Microcontent such as graphs, charts or 2- to 3-minute videos can be consumed while commuting on the train or during a lunch break.


    Less formal than structured learning environments, m-learning is mostly done in between other tasks and is self-initiated. Some mobile learning platforms even include social elements that encourage learners to share their experiences and learn from one another on social media. The global market for m-learning is expected to reach $12.2 billion by 2017.


    The Bottom Line


    Research has shown that when companies spend more time and money on training they have lower turnover rates, more top-performing employees, higher promotion rates and overall higher engagement and satisfaction. When employees feel like their company invests in them by providing training and advancement opportunities, they are more likely to perform better. This means employees are more satisfied in their positions and with the company as a whole. The ROI of leadership development efforts is clear for high-potential employees who aspire to leadership roles.


    As workplaces continue to update their training processes, it’s important to choose approaches that will keep employees engaged and design programs that play to their preferred methods of learning. Using newer training techniques like games, m-learning and blended learning can set your employees up for success and have a positive impact on your organization.


    This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community here and was written by Darleen DeRosa. 

  • 29 Oct 2015 9:20 AM | Kerrie Green

    Most social marketers I know have been hard at work trying to build a robust presence on various social channels, be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. But when they go to their executive team to tell them about all the success they have been having, they get a resounding, “So what?” Any marketer that cannot show the economic value of their activities will fail to earn the attention of their executives. Period. Further, they will fail to get those same executives to focus on the right social strategy because they are not demonstrating the impact of their efforts. The good news is that proving the value of your social media marketing strategy is not as hard as it seems.


    Here are 4 simple metrics you can use to prove the economic value of your social media marketing strategy to your executive team:


    1. Engagement Rate

    The engagement rate is the total number of audience comments, likes, and shares (basically any action a fan or follower takes) per social post. The primary function of social media is to have engaging conversations with your audience. If you analyze your engagement rate you will understand what is interesting to your audience as a result of how many user comments you get. This is very important to understand because if no one is replying to your posts then why are you posting? Tracking the engagement rate forces you to go back and understand which posts resonate with your audience and which do not—and then, allows you to hypothesize which specific elements of these posts are winning your audience over. Once you know that, you will be able to test the elements you incorporate into your posts going forward, such as humor, images, surveys, or questions. To tie this back to demonstrating value to your executives, by tracking your engagement rate, and identifying the elements that are and aren’t successful, you can show your executives how your efforts drive deeper engagement over time.


    2. Amplification Rate

    The amplification rate is the number of forwards per social contribution. Social shares are very important because, according to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust the recommendations of their friends. (92%!!). If my direct audience shares my messages with their networks, they are magnifying my messages and my brand (and do my work for me!). The core purpose of the amplification rate is to understand if the people who are following you are amplifying your message beyond your immediate reach. This is brilliant marketing. Now you can go to your executive team and not only show how your followers have grown over time but also how your messages are being amplified by orders of magnitude! Now that will get their attention!


    3. Affinity Rate

    Affinity rate is defined as the number of “positive clicks” per social contribution. One of the key things about social media is that it is really hard to understand the quality or relevance of our contributions to our audience. Normally, brands go on to social media and start shouting at people—here are some promos, here is our content, here is our website. Well, the truth is that this is not always very useful to the audience in general. So, then, how do you measure the quality of your contributions? That is where affinity becomes a great metric. What affinity rate measures is that for any given contribution, how many people have you delighted enough to like or favorite your post? If I see that a post has a zero or very low affinity rate, I can understand that it is not relevant, high quality, or of value to my audience. Remember we are trying to initiate engagement on social, so this becomes very important. By tracking your affinity rate, you can show your executives that you are driving brand affinity over time.


    To read the full article please click here


    This article was originally sourced from Business2Community here and was written by Jamie Lewis. 

  • 29 Oct 2015 9:06 AM | Kerrie Green

    Lots of conference organisers want a magic formula for pricing sponsorships.


    Sadly, there isn’t one.


    To grow this critical revenue line, sponsorship seekers must do the following:


    • Earn a high concentration of participants who have influence on deal making or purchases.
    • Involve leadership in the relationship building of primary investors or targets.
    • Place attendees’ needs and desires above those of the organization or sponsor.

    Four Common Sponsorship Pricing Models


    Most conference organisers use one or more of these pricing methods:


    1. Expense Recovery


    These are in-kind or cash investments that you would otherwise be paying out of pocket for.


    2. Cost Plus


    (Cost to deliver benefits + Cost of Sales + Cost of Servicing) times three. These should never be discounted by more than 30%. To calculate labor, multiply the adjusted net hourly wage by two to cover benefits, taxes, etc.


    3. Market-Based


    This pricing strategy is based on intelligence gained from competitive research…what the market will bear.


    4. Value-Based


    This is the holy grail of sponsorship pricing. Sponsor seekers usually can only achieve this with a combination of exclusivity and strong alignment with the sponsors target market. Attendee mattering must also be high.


    Beyond these four, sponsor seekers get creative with bundling of various properties and assets. Some apply discounts for first year sponsors to get them in the door.


    Pricing Intangibles


    Conference sponsorship programs are not created equal. After analyzing dozens of them, there are seven key attributes that must be present for a thriving program:


    1. Fewer investors, but bigger investments. Get rid of the micro-sponsorships! They usually have very low attendee value/appreciation. It’s always the highest area of churn and negatively impacts cost of sales.
    2. Benefits beyond eyeballs and logos. If the sponsorship doesn’t have high attendee mattering (i.e. bag inserts, banners, etc.), replace it with something that does.
    3. Activation plans that span 90 days plus. The conference dates are the pinnacle. Pre and post conference amplification adds great value and touches more people.
    4. If the attendee doesn’t win, nobody wins. Never sell your attendees out!
    5. Good concentration of an elite or elusive attendee segment(s). Show me an underperforming sponsorship program and I guarantee it has an audience problem.
    6. Leadership participation in sponsorship strategy discussions. Executives need to open doors and match power with power. Big investors expect a seat at the table.
    7. An account management strategy where you don’t have multiple team members or vendors trying to sell different visibility options. A single relationship owner is strongly preferred by your major investors.

    This article was originally sourced from Velvet Chainsaw here and was written by Dave Lutz. 

  • 29 Oct 2015 8:50 AM | Kerrie Green

    Twitter is perhaps one of the fastest-moving social platforms. With hundreds of thousands of tweets being shared every day, maintaining visibility and driving engagement become key challenges for most Twitter marketers. Here are a few tips for your non-profit to make sure that its tweets don’t go unnoticed.


    1. Share fresh, trending content consistently


    The quality of content you share and the frequency of your posting activities are two important factors that determine the amount of engagement you’re able to drive on Twitter, or any other social channel for that matter. Take a look at UNICEF’s Twitter page and you’ll see that they’re rather disciplined with their posting – they share one tweet almost every two hours.


    However, maintaining consistency and quality can be quite challenging, especially if you’re curating your posts and sharing them manually. Using content curation and scheduling tools like DrumUp and Feedly is a smart solution to this problem. These tools simplify the process of content discovery and save you significant time and effort in the process.


    2. Use custom hashtags for dedicated campaigns


    Custom hashtags are a great way to make your content more discoverable, while also creating a strong call to action around a campaign. When you use custom hastags, it also becomes easier to track conversations around them. As a result, you’ll be able to better monitor your campaigns and identify followers who are engaging actively with you. This also gives you an opportunity to interact directly with such followers by thanking them for their support or encouraging them to spread the word further.


    3. Get your team involved in your Twitter campaigns


    Additionally, custom hashtags also serve the purpose of SEO. Since search engines now index hashtags, using a custom hashtag consistently across multiple social accounts will help enhance organic search results. Tools like Keyhole and Hashtagify are extremely useful in tracking and monitoring hashtags.


    Pushing content through employees’ or volunteers’ personal accounts can help you pull some weight on Twitter, particularly if you’re just starting off, or don’t yet enjoy a massive following. However, this can be a tricky terrain since not all of them may be willing to pitch in. You have to be careful not to coerce your team into retweeting or sharing your posts. Instead, just make sure that they’re genuinely interested in your campaign, and everything else will follow.


    But it’s not always easy leveraging a large group of employees, volunteers and campaign partners to talk about your cause or campaign on social media. You need to make sure that there’s a unified message coming out of all these conversations. One way to do it is to issue broad guidelines that all your employees or volunteers should keep in mind when sharing any branded content. Design an employee/volunteer engagement program that focuses on how social sharing will benefit them. Keeping them in the spotlight will also help you retain their interest in the long run.


    To read the full article please click here


    This article was originally sourced from Social Fish here


  • 28 Oct 2015 4:29 PM | Kerrie Green

    Internet Australia, the peak body representing Internet users, welcomed the release of the NBN three year plan, which gives greater certainty to the market and to Internet consumers.


    CEO Laurie Patton commented:


    “Our members have genuine concerns about the viability of the ageing copper network which should not be ignored, but whatever technology is used, we need to make sure the rollout is undertaken as quickly and efficiently as possible.


    Earlier in the year Internet Australia called on the Government and the Opposition to hold a bipartisan Digital Future Forum to create an agreed national strategy so that we become a leading player in the digitally enabled world economy. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten supported this but the Abbott Government didn't respond either way. So today we have renewed our call in the hope that Prime Minister Turnbull will agree to our proposal.


    The Internet is not just about our economic future however, it provides a powerful platform for social good. This includes improved delivery of health services, especially in regional and remote

    areas, and opportunities for innovation in the field of education”. 


    2016 is the National Year of Digital Inclusion. We owe it to all Australians to build a fast, ubiquitous national broadband network that is open and accessible to everyone. 


    Internet Australia chair, George Fong runs an ISP in regional Australia. He comments: 


    “This three year plan will promote certainty, especially in regional and rural areas and allow local

    councils to better develop economic and social strategies around broadband infrastructure. It’s as

    much about reach as speed. Both are critical to the sustainability of regional and rural communities. Digital natives, as opposed to us (older) digital immigrants, make decisions about where they want to live and work based on accessibility to the Internet”.


    This media release was directly sourced from the Internet Australia website here


    Media contact:

    Laurie Patton | 0418 777700 | ceo@internet.org.au


  • 28 Oct 2015 3:34 PM | Kerrie Green

    The Perth Convention Bureau’s (PCB) 2016 Aspire Awards are now open to individuals involved with not-for-profit associations who can apply for the City of Perth, the City of Mandurah and Giving West Scholarships funded by PCB under its Aspire Program. PCB is also pleased to announce the launch of the Telethon Kids Institute Award, open to staff at the Telethon Kids Institute. The aim of the Aspire Program is to assist the individual’s personal and professional development through attendance at a relevant international conference. The funding covers travel, accommodation and registration expenses to the maximum value of the award.


    Application information and guidelines are now available at http://www.pcb.com.au/aspire; the deadline for applications is the 31st March 2016. 


    A wide range of assistance and advice is available to help you apply, for more information contact PCB’s Director Stakeholder Relations, Tracey Cinavas-Prosser on +61 (0)8 9218 2925 or email aspire@pcb.com.au. A free workshop lunch will be hosted on 12th February 2016 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. All interested parties are welcome to attend, for more information on how to register please visit http://www.pcb.com.au/aspire/aspire-events


  • 28 Oct 2015 3:02 PM | Kerrie Green

    The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), the body that administers the self-regulation of advertising in Australia, has announced a revised definition of ‘advertising and marketing communication’ to include relevant direct-to-consumer public relations materials.


    Material such as social media promotion, blogging and tweeting on behalf of a brand will now be captured by the AANA Codes, so that consumers can make complaints about this type of material to the Advertising Standards Bureau as part of the current system of advertising self-regulation.


    Put simply, if it’s content distributed directly to the consumer that the brand can control – eg. it doesn’t go through a journalist working for a news organisation – it is advertising.


    Brand owners will not be responsible for editorial content in traditional or social media which they did not produce or that they cannot control.


    It’s a fairly common-sense definition, but until now the industry lacked a clear definition.


    “Responsible advertisers are already taking the initiative and reviewing their consumer public relations communications against the AANA Codes, as it forms part of their advertising mix. This evolution aligns the AANA Codes with international standards and current practice among brand owners,” says Sunita Gloster, CEO of the AANA.


    The AANA’s announcement was welcomed by the Public Relations Institute of Australia, with national president Mike Watson saying that it reflects and respected transformations in contemporary professional communication operating environments. “In addition to specialist communication with traditional publics, such as media, regulators, employees, investors, and so on, this evolution of AANA Codes reflects reality in that PR practitioners are now communicating directly with consumers more than ever before,” he says.


    Mel Cullen, chair of the Public Relations Council, also approves of the approach, saying it provides members of the public with a clearer complaints procedure. “The AANA Codes ensure that when a member of the public has a complaint about marketing communication that is targeted at them, they can make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau, irrespective of whether the material was produced by a public relations, marketing or advertising executive.”


    The revised definition in the Codes will come into effect in 2016 and will apply to all AANA Codes and future codes.


    This article was originally sourced from Marketing Mag here and was written by Peter Roper. 


  • 28 Oct 2015 12:09 PM | Kerrie Green

    Alzheimer’s Australia welcomes the announcement of $43 million in new funding to be shared among seventy-six new researchers for dementia research.


    The Minister for Health, The Hon Sussan Ley said this commitment will support bold and innovative research ideas to tackle the huge impact of dementia and find ways of preventing and curing the disease that is currently the second leading cause of death in Australia.


    Alzheimer’s Australia National President, Professor Graeme Samuel said “we are delighted to see such a significant investment into dementia research. With cost of dementia set to outstrip that of any other health condition by 2060, it is evident the pressing issue is to build capacity in dementia research, to ultimately reduce the burden of disease on the health system.”


    This $43 million is part of the Australian Government’s $200 million commitment to boost dementia research. The NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research will support the research fellows to ensure Australian dementia research remains at the forefront of international efforts to tackle this chronic disease and better support people living with dementia and their carers and families.


    Professor Samuel continued, “this news offers over 342,000 Australians, whose lives are affected by dementia, new hope. We look forward to seeing this crucial contribution into dementia research translated into results to create a healthier Australia.”


    This media release was directly sourced from the Alzheimer's Australia website here


    For further information please contact: Bianca Armytage, 0407 019 430, bianca.armytage@alzheirmers.org.au 

  • 28 Oct 2015 12:05 PM | Kerrie Green

    At their recent Annual General Meeting members of the state-based Commercial Vehicle Industry Association of Queensland took the unprecedented step of unanimously approving the transition to a national mandate and the creation of a new national representative body to be called Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia. As a consequence, the CVIAQ will exit a federated body it has been a part of since 1986.


    ‘With the transfer of responsibility for regulation of the heavy vehicle industry from the states to the Commonwealth and the creation of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, our industry needs a strong national voice dedicated solely to the interests of our members,’ said CVIAQ CEO Brett Wright. ‘Unfortunately, within the old federation policymaking was in the hands of the passenger-car dominated motor trades associations.’


    The vote was the result of an intense 18 month period of work which included attempts at reform of the old federation, a national consultation of members and industry leaders, creation of a robust business plan and the development and delivery of a communications campaign. CVIAQ was advised throughout by association consultants THINK: Insight & Advice.


    ‘We were in unchartered territory and we relied on the expertise of Randall Pearce of THINK to navigate our way through the myriad issues,’ said Wright. ‘He provided clear and wise advice at every step along the way to this terrific result,’ he said.


    ‘Many professional and industry groups complain that the old federated structures are no longer fit for purpose but don’t feel as if they have any options,’ said Randall Pearce, managing director of association consultants THINK: Insight & Advice. ‘Fortunately, Brett and his board exercised real vision and courage to bring about the change.’


    Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia is designed to be a modern national association. Instead of state-based offices, HVIA will have three regional offices in Melbourne serving Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, in Perth serving WA and the Northern Territory and Brisbane serving Queensland, NSW and the ACT. ‘We are implementing a matrixed management structure where each national manager will be responsible for a national program as well as a geographic region,’ according to Wright.


    To ensure that the new association is seen as a truly national organisation, the new offices in Melbourne and Perth will open on the same day on 1 March 2016. The board is already reflecting the new national character of HVIA with three new directors elected at the AGM from outside of Queensland. ‘Our board meetings will rotate through the regions and we will continue to recruit directors from across the country as we make the transition,’ said Wright. ‘Exciting times indeed!’


    This media release was directly sourced from the CVIAQ website.


    For more information contact: Brett Wright, CEO, CVIAQ, 0419 716 050 


  • 28 Oct 2015 11:41 AM | Kerrie Green

    Two of Australia’s largest independent, not-for-profit aged care providers today announced plans to merge into a single organisation capable of delivering more high quality services to more people every day.


    Board Chairman of RSL Care, Mr Pat McIntosh, and RDNS Board Chairman, Mr Paul Montgomery, said the decision to combine strengths would give customers access to a comprehensive continuum of services from home nursing and support, through to retirement living and residential care.


    “The Boards have identified this opportunity to create one trusted organisation enabling us to leverage our combined scale and experience. Working together we can deliver more health and wellbeing services for more Australians than we could possibly provide alone,” Mr McIntosh said.


    “With a combined history of over 200 years of continuous service to the community, RDNS, like RSL Care, share a proud legacy of service to Veterans and their families. By joining forces we will deepen our commitment and further enhance our service to this important group.”


    Mr Montgomery said: “Today marks the beginning of the journey to bring together two organisations with a shared mission and commitment to deliver high quality services, and to positively respond to the changing needs and expectations of our clients.


    “Australia’s health and aged care sectors are experiencing unprecedented change. The move to consumer directed care, advances in technology, and the demands of an ageing population are transforming the landscape in which we work.


    “These developments create enormous growth opportunities for RDNS and RSL Care and we can best respond to those opportunities by merging to become a bigger and stronger organisation.”


    Crucially, the merger will be managed in a way that ensures total continuity of services for clients and residents of RDNS and RSL Care, plus stability for employees.


    A snapshot of merged capability


    • More than 6,000 staff plus over 400 volunteers
    • Working with more than 25,000 customers every day
    • More than 4 million home visits made to clients every year
    • Provision of Veterans’ support to more than 22,000 people per annum
    • Delivery of more than 25,000 episodes of care using telehealth
    • An asset base of more than $1 billion and combined revenue of approx. $500M
    • Combined reach and influence in communities across Australia, operations in New Zealand and a recognised presence in Asia
    • Strong delivery in research, innovation and design with RSL Care complementing the industry-leading research conducted by the RDNS Institute
    • A Registered Training Organisation courtesy of RDNS’ Education and Learning Centre

    Stephen Muggleton, designated CEO charged with building the strengths of these two organisations into a single entity, expressed his conviction that the merger would bring significant benefits to customers, staff and the wider community.


    “This is a complementary merger of two organisations from a genuine position of strength and compatibility,” Mr Muggleton said.


    “By bringing together our expertise and research capacity, we can build our understanding of customer experiences and create innovative services that better support customers and promote independence.”


    Mr Muggleton said the organisations were complementary in many ways, sharing a strong alignment and a deeply felt commitment to improving the lives of more Australians.


    “We are not just adding two organisations together,” Mr Muggleton said.


    “We are multiplying our capability and reach of service by bringing together two innovative and trusted organisations. The new merged organisation will be beautifully positioned to provide a range of flexible services to a growing aged population across Australasia. The broad range of clinical services also allows the organisation to provide practical solutions like chronic disease management, hospital avoidance programs, transition care and rehabilitation for Local Hospital Networks and Primary Health Networks.”


    This media release was directly sourced from the RSL Care website here



The Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE)

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