Conference Program

Conference Website 

Register Here 

2:00 - 4:30 pm

Revenue Streams Workshop, Pre-Conference Workshop (limited numbers) , Terri van Schooten, Director, Verve Copthorne Oriental Bay, Lvl 7 100 Oriental Parade, Oriental Bay, Wellington 6011

4:30 

Welcome Reception: Association Executives Only, Copthorne Oriental Bay, Lvl 7 100 Oriental Parade, Oriental Bay, Wellington 6011

6:15 - 9:00 pm 

Conference Welcome Dinner, Flamingo Joe's Bar & Eatery, 1/10 Waterloo Quay, Pipitea
Buses depart Copthorne Oriental Bay,at 6:00 pm sharp - concludes 9:00 pm

Monday 9 November

8:30 am

Registration open, Conference First Timer / Solo Participant Meet Up Networking Morning Tea

9:00

Conference Opening & The Honour and Burden of Representation
Keynote Address Vanisa Dhiru, Commissioner for NZ National Commission for UNESCO

10:00

What I have found as a New Association CEO, Keynote Address Elise Adams, CEO, NZSTA

10:45

11:15

Procurement Process: Technology Solutions that Supports Strategy
Chad Stewart, Founder, Sr. Software Adviser, SmartThoughts

First Time & Emerging CEOs: Key Responsibilities
Elise Adams, CEO, NZ School Trustees Association
Lyn McMorran, ED, Financial Services Federation

12:00 pm

Group Session, Working together to change perception in Health and Safety in our Sectors - Splitting Industry Sectors. Philip Aldridge, Executive Director and Mike O’Brien, Independent Chair of Health and Safety Association of NZ (HASANZ)

12:45

1:30

Fish where the fish are: enhance your association with an epic online presence, M-C Andrews, CEO, ShowGizmo

Helping your members create agile and compliant workplaces.
Vaughan Granier, HR Assured
National Workplace Relations Manager New Zealand

2:15

Getting Government to Hear Me and My Organisation, Deborah Hart, Director, Deborah Hart Consulting

Embracing virtual and hybrid meeting formats,  Jan Tonkin, Director, The Conference Company 

3:00

Networking & Refreshments

3:15

Membership Engagement: What are your touch points
Terri van Schooten, Director, Verve

Association Conference / Event Organiser Certification
Brett Jeffery - general manager, AuSAE

4:00

Closing + Keynote - Vulnerability Is Your Leadership Superpower, Greg Ward, Speaker

5:00

NETWORKING DRINKS - Rebuilding our sector with the exhibitors - Open to all association staff - including staff that aren’t attending the conference

6:30 - 9:30 pm

CONFERENCE DINNER - THE WELLINGTON EXPERIENCE SOUTHERN CROSS 

Tuesday 10 November

8:30 am

AuSAE Town-hall - Join our AuSAE Board & GM NZ Brett Jeffery as they review the accomplishments of 2020. What lies ahead in 2021. We’ll have an open, candid discussion, bring your questions 

9:15

Social Impact Keynote Address: Accepting Responsibility On Who You Are, Peter loft, Co-Founder & Honorary Life Member of Achilles International NZ

10:00 

NETWORKING & Refreshments

10:30

Membership Revolution: Cultivate a Vibrant Online Community Heather McNair, Chief Community Officer, Higher Logic

11:30

Adoption of a Code of Conduct, Terry Copeland, CEO Federated Farmers of NZ

12:15

LUNCH & Refreshments 

1:00

Lightening Talks, What have we done to make our organisation more diverse after COVID-19, Three association executives then Q&A 

1:45

Practical Approach to Risk Management in a Membership Organisation, Barry Baker, Partner, Business Advisory Services, Grant Thornton 

2:30

Keynote Address Retirement it is not as hard as it looks, Jane Wrightson, Retirement Commissioner, Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC)

3:15

Wrap-up and closing address, Detecting Deception, Trevor Slater FRI, Chief Operating Officer, Resolution Institute 

4:00

Farewell Function

Conference Program Information

The Honour and Burden of Representation, Vanisa Dhiru, Commissioner for NZ National Commission for UNESCO

What I have found as a New Association CEO, Elise Adams, CEO, New Zealand School Trustees Association, Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa.

As a first time CEO one may strive to anticipate what comes with the title, the role and the territory. Having the ultimate responsibility within an organisation may either be embraced or carefully chartered. Join Elise Adams, First time CEO of New Zealand School Trustees Association as she shares her journey after her first year in the role. The insights, the highlights and of course the learnings.

Elise Adams was appointed to CEO of NZSTA on 31 July 2019. Having been a school trustee for 18 years, being CEO at NZSTA was a goal for Elise as she continued to develop herself and her career. Prior to joining NZSTA, Elise was interim CEO at the New Zealand Veterinary Association where she was originally appointed as Head of Business and Support Services. Prior to her 5 years in the Association sector, Elise was Operations Manager for Huia Publishers (9 years) following a 17 year career in the public sector including Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education and the Tertiary and Secondary Education Sectors.
Elise holds a MBA with Victoria University, with research completed on the Career Pathways of Maori Executives in Non-Maori organisations.
After working in different sectors, Elise believes that she has found her 'home' in Associations and enjoys the breadth, depth and challenge that this sector brings.

Procurement Process: Technology Solutions that Supports Strategy, Chad Stewart, Founder, Sr. Software Adviser, SmartThoughts
During this session, Top 10 Tips in Software Selection for Managing Associations, you will learn:
1. How to navigate an enterprise software selection process
2. How to avoid the biggest mistakes in your software search
3. The greatest cost of software failure
4. How to save hundreds of hours in googling
5. Become a rock star software buyer
Who should watch? If you manage, collaborate on or direct an association you will benefit greatly from learning more about AMS selection.

Chad Stewart is a professional software buyer and software technology advisor. He has helped hundreds of organizations save time and eliminate risk by making smarter software technology decisions. Chad's passion is helping improve operational success with the technology that is best suited to his client's needs.

Getting Government to Hear Me and My Organisation, Deborah Hart, Director, Deborah Hart consulting
Ever needed to know how to get the ear of Government? Deborah Hart has successfully achieved it for a range of membership associations and organisations. In this session she gives you the how-to guide so your association can be heard by Government.
Deborah Hart established her consultancy just last year to help all kinds of organisations and individuals with government relations, public relations, reviews and evaluations and mentoring

Deborah Hart: Over the past decade Deborah has been executive director of the membership organisation, the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand. On her watch the modest not-for-profit doubled its size, successfully lobbied for law changes on several fronts and became a national byword for professional excellence in dispute resolution. She is now the part-time Director of another membership body whose reason for existence is to lobby, that’s the smokefree lobby group, ASH.Deborah is also a Panel Member of the Human Rights Review Tribunal, the chair of the board of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand and on the board of DocEdge. She is also undertaking the review of the New Zealand Bar Association and undertook the review of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme. Mum to 3 adult boys, Deborah lives in Auckland with her partner, John Walton, as well as Falafel the Wonder Cat and Sheeba – a Portuguese Water Dog. In her spare time, reads, hikes and cooks, and hangs out with family and friends.

Practical Approach to Risk Management in a Membership Organisation, Barry Baker, Partner, Business Advisory Services, Grant Thornton New Zealand

Risk Management is something we are all told we should "do" in our organisations but what is Risk Management & how can we actually embrace Risk Management in a practical, real world way.
This plain English session will cover
1. Why do Risk Management at all?
2. What is Risk Management? (the main elements)
3. Some cautionary tales – theory versus people
4. Suggestion about how to make it actually “live & useful”

Barry Baker is an Advisory Partner at Grant Thornton and specialises in working with Membership organisations.
He and the GT team help organisations to operate more effectively to better identify and deliver value and relevance to members.
The help he has given includes strategic planning, risk management, support to CEOs / Boards, financial communication to members, improved internal systems, helping pricing services and upskilling organisation’s teams.
Barry believes in proper planning and processes but advocates taking into account how people and the real world actually operates.
Barry has held various governance and finance / risk committee roles.

Membership Revolution: Cultivate a Vibrant Online Community Heather McNair, Chief Community Officer, Higher Logic
There was a time when “community” meant the people in your neighborhood. But today, online communities connect like-minded individuals from all over the world and enable them to interact at any time from any place. An active and engaged online community can play a big role in your customer experience. Once new members come to the community, what are you doing to keep them engaged and motivate them to contribute to the community?  Join this session and get the tools you need to cultivate a dynamic online community.

Heather McNair is Chief Community Officer at Higher Logic, a software company that takes a data-driven approach to engagement. She leads the Applied Research Team, which studies behavior patterns on thousands of communities to create data-backed engagement strategies and user experience improvements in a field largely driven by anecdotal evidence. A pioneer in the industry, Heather has over 13 years of experience in building and launching successful communities. She’s developed many of the techniques and best practices Higher Logic uses today, and has been a champion of an emerging customer success model that elevates community to a keystone of the customer experience and a conduit for deeper customer engagement.

Fish where the fish are: enhance your association with an epic online presence, M-C Andrews, CEO, ShowGizmo

Marie-Claire Andrews a business development, sales and capital-raising specialist having run my own and other people's businesses. Prior to SmartShow, most recently I was the establishment General Manager of the Wellington (New Zealand's capital) angel investment network and my 'girl geek' status was confirmed when I was appointed as chair of Unlimited Potential, New Zealand's leading technology business network, in 2006, a position I held for two years. I have been interested in the potential for technology to shape meetings and events since my involvement with Virtual Expos NZ established in 2007.

I've also owned a sales/business development consultancy, started and sold a café, managed sales for an enterprise software company in Wellington, established a government project office and founded a tech-startup which funded my Philosophy degree.

Helping your members create agile and compliant workplaces. Vaughan Granier, HR Assured - National Workplace Relations Manager New Zealand
Businesses that can't adapt quickly to changes in their external environment often are overtaken by those that can. Agility is key to survival in these changing times. From COVID to elections, foreign policy and trade, every business needs to be agile. Your members lean on you for guidance and support, and you know that agility cannot come at the cost of employment law compliance. Here we show how your association can help members build agile businesses without workplace risk.
Vaughan Granier has over 24 years’ experience in international human resources, health and safety, and workplace relations management. With over 10 years working in New Zealand and Australian companies, he provides in-depth support to leadership teams across all areas of HR, Health and Safety, and employee management.

Embracing virtual and hybrid meeting formats
While the value proposition behind meetings hasn’t changed, the way it’s delivered has.  That’s posed challenges but also delivered silver linings.  In this session Jan will share her observations from being immersed in the world of hybrid and virtual meetings.

Jan Tonkin, Managing Director, The Conference Company, Chair of the Training Academy, IAPCO (International Association of Professional Congress Organisers) Jan founded The Conference Company in 1990 and today is the hands-on managing director of the busy company which has offices in Auckland and Sydney. Her team organises meetings of all shapes and sizes throughout Australasia and beyond, with particular expertise in association conferences and their exhibitions, government meetings and awards programmes. Her other hat is that of leader in the international meetings world. She is a former President of IAPCO, the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers and chairs the Association’s Training Academy. 

Detecting Deception. Trevor Slater. FRI,  Chief Operating Officer, Resolution Institute 
When dealing with clients we rely heavily on what they tell us to make decisions on the services we provide and the cost.  But what if all they are saying is not the truth or more importantly not the whole story?  Then our decisions will be negatively impacted.Scientific Content Analysis (SACN) is the science of detecting deception in the written and spoken word.  Trevor Slater has had extensive training in SCAN and has used it in many various circumstances. In this very interesting and fun presentation Trevor will share with you how to identify when your client is not telling you the full story and how to uncover the truth.  The Detecting Deception session has been presented in many countries and is always popular with attendees.  It’s one not to be missed.

Trevor Slater is a highly qualified and experienced commercial mediator, negotiator and experienced trainer.  He holds a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from La Trobe University and a Diploma of Business – Frontline Management from the Australian Institute of Management.
He is the Chief Operations Officer of the Resolution Institute.  Resolution Institute is the largest dispute resolution membership organisation across Australia and New Zealand.  It is a vibrant community of mediators, arbitrators, expert determiners, adjudicators, restorative justice practitioners and other dispute resolution professionals. Resolution Institute promotes and fosters the use of dispute resolution and the work of our members.
Trevor has conducted workshops and training sessions in negotiation, dispute resolution, detecting deception and associated topics in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and South Africa.

Revenue Streams Workshop, Pre-Conference Workshop

Membership Engagement 

Terri van Schooten, CEO, Verve I’m a highly skilled business manager with extensive experience in building engaged communities, stakeholder engagement and developing partnerships. I’ve worked for membership organisations in leadership, advisory and governance roles.  My focus is to deliver value to members through digital and live engagement and develop consistent revenue streams. Alongside my consulting work I manage the creative agency – Verve.  Founded over 20 years ago, we help organisations achieve their goals through creative event strategy and innovative experience design – and then we make it happen!

Group Session, Working together to change perception in Health and Safety in our Sectors - Splitting Industry Sectors. Philip Aldridge, Executive Director and Mike O’Brien, Independent Chair of Health and Safety Association of NZ (HASANZ)

Health and Safety is often seen as a compliance activity and a tick box exercise. However, Covid-19 showed the importance of looking after people, clear guidelines, organisational resilience and mental wellbeing. There is an opportunity to change the conversation around health and safety – making it simple, looking after staff and being more focused on ''Better Business''. This is an opportunity to provide more value to your members.

Mike O’Brien, Executive Director, Health and Safety Association of NZ (HASANZ)Mike has over 20 years of experience as a business leader. He has held executive positions in manufacturing, consumer electronics, technology and supply chain companies in New Zealand and overseas, along with various governance positions. Most recently, He is on the steering group of the Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum and has twice been a finalist in the leadership category of the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. Mike is an active contributor to advancing health and safety maturity in New Zealand, both as the independent chair of HASANZ and in leading industry focused health and safety sector groups that improve system coordination and collaboration.

Philip Aldridge, HASANZ Independent Chair, Health and Safety Association of NZ (HASANZ)
Philip has a broad background in both the public and private sectors with extensive leadership experience across a range of membership, government, industry training and commercial organisations. When Chief Executive of InfraTrain New Zealand he chaired the Built Environment Training Alliance (BETA) and was closely involved in building capability in the high-risk infrastructure construction industry for the Christchurch rebuild. This spurred his active interest in promoting workplace health and safety. He is Executive Director at HASANZ (Health and Safety Association of NZ).