Clock & Welcome

Lucy Brazier welcomes delegates to the first ever ExecSecTech

Lucy Brazier

Banishing Imposter Syndrome - how to talk tech with confidence

Lucy Brazier interviews Michelle Bowditch, C-Suite Executive Assistant and founder of Door20a, who is passionate about educating Executive Assistants how to harness technology and use it to propel their career forward.

Michelle Bowditch

Lucy Brazier

Take your digital skills to the next level with Microsoft 365

Productivity and efficiency are essential factors in the modern workplace.  Microsoft 365 has set the standard for office productivity software and offers a robust collection of innovative tools that allow people to do their work faster, smarter, quickly, and more efficiently.

Learning the powerful features of the Office Suite and developing an awareness of the shortcuts available to you (software features) can make a difference in the way you work and can result in substantial efficiency gains that will boost your career.

In this one hour session, you will learn:

– Practical tips on how to use the powerful features of Microsoft 365 effectively on any device (from your desktop, tablet and mobile device) to make a difference in the way you work.

– How to work with a new collaborative mindset: shift from siloed apps to a single focus in all your activities.

– How to get better results from your software, get out of your comfort zone and distinguish yourself as a power user with the uncanny ability to get things done for yourself, your team and your company.

Lizebeth Koloko-Green

Podcasting: Your Voice. Your Platform.

Have you ever been curious about how to start a podcast? In this review of podcasting basics and a tour of Anchor.fm, Anna Beam – creator and host of The Influential Assistant podcast – will take you through the steps to create your podcast identity, publishing that first episode, and some tips and tricks she’s learned along the way. Your voice is important – rise up and be heard!

Anna Beam

Alexa is stealing your job!

Lucy Brazier interviews Rhonda Scharf: Alexa is Stealing Your Job

In this in-depth Keynote interview with Lucy Brazier, Rhonda Scharf explains where the world has been with artificial intelligence and how it affects the future of work.

Artificial intelligence is taking over. Ask Alexa to call a client or confirm your schedule for the day and she does just that immediately. Ask her a question, give her a command, or just share a joke together, and she becomes your new best employee. Today’s companies must keep up with artificial intelligence to keep their customers, and today’s employees must find new ways to provide value to their companies if they want to keep their job.

Author and speaker Rhonda Scharf explains how a willingness to adapt to the new normal keeps both businesses and their employees relevant in these changing times.

Rhonda Scharf CSP, HoF, GSF

Lucy Brazier

Timesaving (and jaw-dropping) productivity tips using Microsoft Office

Did you know you are one-click away from saving hours in your day? In this engaging session with Vickie Sokol Evans, based on her bestselling “100 Tips” series, learn the secrets of high-performing users and teams. Discover quick and easy tips in Word, Excel, PowerPoint (and more) that will help you deliver better results in less time by using more of the technology you know and love.

Eliminate the most common old (and bad) habits and unessential work. No more wasting valuable hours as you work on an assignment. No more feeling paralyzed by the latest technology. By properly leveraging the important tools at your fingertips, you will have everything you need to execute flawlessly!

Don’t miss this truly jaw-dropping session!

Note: This session applies to PC users but is still helpful for Mac users too!

Vickie Sokol Evans

Leveraging Influence: Making a Portal Pipe Dream a Reality

Lucy Brazier interviews Shelagh Donnelly of Exceptional EA.

In the first year of her decade-long tenure supporting a board of directors, Shelagh Donnelly spent many evenings photocopying confidential documents and building dozens of board packages (“board books”) assembly line-style for each board meeting. She went through the same process for board committee meetings. Late submissions meant inserting colourful placeholders in each package and then storing stacks of agenda packages in a secure manner while waiting for additional documents to photocopy.

It wasn’t long before Shelagh began advocating for acquisition of portal software. She wanted to put a halt to the assembly line inefficiencies and also recognised that a portal could afford advantages and provide value to both the board and management team. However, this was 2009. None of Shelagh’s sector peers in her region worked with a portal, and this represented an unprecedented expense. There was some resistance to long-established practices, and not everyone was comfortable with the notion of preparing for meetings from a laptop or iPad screen. 

To some, a portal seemed nothing more than a pipe dream. Yet, incrementally and in partnership with a board champion, Shelagh made it happen.

Join Shelagh and Lucy for a discussion of how an assistant can deploy strategy, diplomacy, networking and perseverance to overcome obstacles and add value.

Shelagh Donnelly

Lucy Brazier

Diligent: Solutions for Modern Governance Practices

Executive Assistants play a critical role in facilitating good governance for their organizations.  From helping to create board books to ensuring smooth meeting logistics, EAs do it all.  But where is the role heading?  With the introduction of more digital technologies in boardroom, are you prepared for how your board administrative duties will evolve?  What will boards need to “future proof” their organizations, and how can governance professionals help ensure they receive adequate support? Join us to learn more about modern governance practices and how Diligent offers solutions every step of the way, including board portal, secure communication and survey tools.

Jeffrey Revell

Shine with Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a powerful program that allows you to organize your data in spreadsheets. Built-in formulas allow you to turn raw data into useful information. Explore the functionality of this program from the basics of creating spreadsheets to visualizing your data with charts and summarizing it with pivot tables. Learn about sorting and filtering options, data validation tools, and more features. Collaborate with others no matter where they are with this cloud-based spreadsheet program. Use the wide variety of templates available to get started with minimal work. 

There are so many options available for work that others have put together to improve the functionality of this software. Discover some of the time-saving shortcuts that are included with this software which will save you hours! We’ll also investigate some of the advanced functions that manipulate your data to be more useful. You can shine if you take the time to learn more about Google Sheets.

Marie Herman

Exploring Canva: Online Design Made Easy

The key to making any presentation effective is to make it as visual as possible. One of the most frequent mistakes in preparing a presentation is to forget that the slides not only serve as a support for the speaker, but that consistent visuals and style help the audience maintain concentration on what is being said.

But it is not just about presentations: social media thrives on images, videos and stories.  Knowing how to use these elements allows you to get straight to the point and to your target audience.

Canva is a flexible tool that can help you with all your design needs.

In this session, we will cover:

• an overview of the free features
• the different types of communication templates: social media, personal, business, marketing, education
• how to quickly create your finished product using a template
• why you should upgrade to the PRO version

Learning Objectives:

• Simplify your life: one tool covers every design need
• Create stunning pieces of design in a breeze: hundreds of templates ready for you to use and be inspired
• Improve your creative skills: you no longer need a graphic designer to manage your corporate image

Michela Luoni

Virtual Events Masterclass

In a time where our appetite for shared live experiences has never been greater, how do you capture that essence and translate it into an experience-rich virtual event? 

What technology you do choose? Which option will allow you freedom of design and fluidity in planning your virtual events to create compelling, memorable content and push limits in your event design?

This face paced masterclass will guide you through the basics of virtual events: from getting the best out of your speakers, to creating brilliant content and the best brand experience for your organisation, from strategic planning to ultimate delivery, Emma will share a deep understanding of the virtual event and meeting world in this insightful and practical session.

Emma Reynolds

How to use Slack to set your team up for success!

Slack is a channel-based messaging platform. With Slack, people can work together more effectively, connect all their software tools and services, and find the information they need to do their best work — all within a secure, enterprise-grade environment. It’s a powerful tool which enables you to collaborate on projects, communication and planning all in one place. Learn how to use Slack to set your team up for success, using techniques and templates that the EA team uses at Slack. I’ll also cover preferred settings and life-changing shortcuts.

Learning Objectives:
*  Being an EA at Slack
* 4 Ways that EAs Use Slack
– Collaboration, Feedback & Approvals
– Expedited Help
– Centralizing Information &
– Organizing Meetings

* Getting your Executives Involved on Slack
* The Benefits of Executive Assistants on Slack
* Managing Events on Slack
* App Integrations
* Preferences & Settings
* Life-changing Shortcuts

Shelley Trask

20 New Technologies Advancing our Offices Post-COVID

Become the person in your organisation with the  latest technology and efficiency magic! 

Take advantage of new cutting-new technologies to help you succeed now and in the future. See the next generation of automatic dictation tools (not a recording), learn to translate the voices of your international meetings into 100s of languages on everyone’s personal devices with AI, connect with Virtual Reality to onboard new employees, and take a proactive approach to educating yourself on the latest digital apps to assist in travel connections, to schedule meetings and handle expense reports.  You will be on the edge of your seat as we take a look at how the Microsoft Neo and Duo devices change your office workflow. 

Clearly Arthur C.  Clarke was right —“*Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Professor Corinne Hoisington

Ramping up your Adobe InDesign Powers

Abigail Rudner

Mastering Social Media for Your Best Online Presence 

Lucy Brazier, founder of Executive Secretary Magazine, has built a hugely successful business using social media as pretty much her only marketing platform. 

In this session, Lucy will explore the key types of social media and how you can use them to enhance your effectiveness in your role and your personal brand. She will explain why social media is no longer a nice to have, as well as the benefits of each of the four main brands; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. How do you build your profiles and cross-pollinate between platforms? How can you take advantage of the power of connection? What is the best way to minimise time spent but maximise solid results on social media? And with everything changing so fast, what are the latest trends and how can you best use them? Lucy will answer these questions and show you how to build both your business’s and your own presence online. 

This is a must-attend session for anyone that doesn’t understand why social media is for assistants or how you can lead your team to victory once you have mastered it.

Lucy Brazier

Asana: Levering Project Management Software to Work Smarter

Anna Read

Discover Google Docs

Collaborate with colleagues on documents large and small with Google Docs. This program brings ease of access with its cloud-based software that lets you write, edit and collaborate no matter where you are. Real time communication opens the door to more efficient partnerships with your colleagues, with no fear of losing data through redundant files. You’ll be able to integrate your documents, Drive files and email easily to keep information organized.

Whether you are creating reports or preparing proposals, use Google Docs to create your documents, edit and format them as desired, share and collaborate with others and access the rest of the Google G Suite to seamlessly share data across your team, no matter where they are located.

Discover how you can publish your documents to the web or enhance them with the built-in functionality of images, tables, charts and more. We’ll also discuss some of the most common issues you are likely to encounter, especially if you have moved from Microsoft Office to Google G Suite.

Marie Herman

The Assistant's Guide to Taming Microsoft Teams 

Learn about Microsoft Teams and how to make best use of it as an Assistant.

You will discover:

– How to find your way around and understand all the different parts of MS Teams
– Understand what you need to have in place when working with external team members
– How to chat with other Team members
– How to set up and attend meetings
– How to collaborate on documents
– How to add other apps to MS Teams such as MS Forms for feedback or Polly for Polls
– How to share your screen and other things in a meeting

And much more.

Shelley Fishel

Panel Discussion: What is in your tech toolkit to lead from within?

Panel Discussion: What is in your tech toolkit to lead from within?

Michelle Bowditch leads an insightful panel discussion amongst three exceptional professionals from the Asia-Pacific region, looking through their lenses to discuss what is in their tech toolkit.

You’ll gain insights into how they used technology to lead throughout COVID-19 and learn how their best practices can empower you to successfully move forward into 2021.

Panelists:

Laurinda Moore – (EA) Executive Assistant to CEO & Chairman – IAG 

Laurinda is an experienced Executive Assistant having worked with CEOs and Executives for more than 18 years.

Laurinda joined IAG in 2002 to support the Deputy CEO, and has supported IAG CEOs for the past 12 years, and the Chairman for more than 4 years. Prior to joining IAG, she was a Senior Account Manager within the advertising industry for several years. Professionally, Laurinda’s passions include workplace flexibility and role modelling workฉ\life integration, the importance of trust and great communication, networking, and relationships, and embracing new and improved technology. On a personal note, she enjoys spending time with her family, including her two young children, good food, wine and coffee, and spending time by the seaside.

Megan Sloane – (COS) Chief of Staff – Serco 

Megan was appointed as Executive Officer reporting to the CEO for Serco Asia Pacific (AsPac) in September 2016 and progressed to become Chief of Staff in April 2018.

Megan works closely with the AsPac CEO and Executive Team to provide appropriate managerial support needed to execute Serco Asia Pacificกฏs business strategy. Her role is key in ensuring the day-to-day management priorities of the CEO are met to enable smooth companywide operations, governance of strategic projects and delivery of growth initiatives Prior to Megan joining Serco, she was Executive Officer in HR for an Australian State Government agency and has extensive experience in working for organisations in Local Government, Universities and Engineering.

Anneliese Boogerd – (ABP) Administrative Business Partner – Google 

Anneliese is an Administrative Business Partner working in the large customer sales side of the business.   Anneliese joined Google in 2013 and before taking on the role as Administrative Business Partner and currently works across People Operations and Real Estate and Workplace Services. Anneliese is co-lead for Age Engage, an initiative aimed at increasing digital engagement amongst seniors.

Michelle Bowditch

Tame Your To Do List with Trello

Learn how to really get things done with Trello, one of the most accessible (and free) Project Management tools.

Trello can be useful if you:

– manage a team (even a small one – like you and your executive);
– prefer to have the most recent updates always to hand;
– choose to receive and respond to the comments of your colleagues and boss proactively, at your own time.

Learning Objectives:

– learn how to turn your daily routine into a Trello board
– use an agile approach to achieve better results
– reduce downtime and work in progress, in a lean and efficient way
– assess the right priorities and decide how to tackle them
– make use of the new tool and approach in your daily routine

Selvaggia Fagioli

Tell Powerful Stories Using Sway and PowerPoint

Being able to tell stories and communicate them in effective ways using digital tools is an essential skill for many professionals. In this session Ulrika Hedlund will teach you how to use Sway and PowerPoint in Microsoft 365 to create visually attractive presentations. You will learn when to use what, and see in the story-based tutorials how these tools can be used in real life scenarios.

This session includes:

How to use Sway in real life:
– Create a Sway from a document
– Customize the design
– Insert and manage the layout of rich media
– Collaborate on a Sway
– Share a Sway with the rest of the world

How to use PowerPoint in real life:
– Collaborate on a joint presentation
– Apply a design using a template
– Leverage the image tools
– Insert video into the presentation
– Use animations and transitions to add effects

Ulrika Hedlund

Introducing Cabinet: A New Software for Administrative Professionals

When choosing a platform to help organize your day, Trello, Asana, OneNote and other tools prove too generic or too robust for Administrative professionals. In this webinar, we will introduce to you a simple new task management platform designed specifically to help Administrative Professionals work faster and smarter: Cabinet. We will show you how Cabinet will help you plan and execute highly impactful performance reviews, manage multiple Executives’ information in one place, and enable you to effectively collaborate with other Admins inside and outside your organization.  

In addition, Julia Hawkins, the co-founder and CEO of Cabinet, will walk you through how she started her career as an Executive Assistant and why she eventually made the jump to build Cabinet. Founded in 2018, Cabinet began as a free community for Administrative Professionals to connect with thousands of like-minded members, learn from experts, discover resources and opportunities, make friends and much more. With the support of over 2,000 members, in 2019 Julia and her team began building tech-enabled tools to help with specific functions unique to the Administrative profession.

Julia Hawkins

Becoming a Gmail Superuser

Are you using Gmail to its full potential? If the answer is ‘no’ then this is the session for you! Become a Gmail superuser and get more done.  

Topics include:

• How to manage your emails with labels and filters
• How to reply to mail faster with Google AI tools
• How to automate and sync Gmail with 3rd party applications
• Become a Gmail ninja with keyboard shortcuts
• Take your Gmail to the next level with advanced settings 

This workshop is for anyone who is currently using, or about to begin using, Gmail as their email client and wants to improve their skills and productivity.

Simon McCaskill

Excel: Next Level Skills – Power Query, the Data Model and More!

Whether your Excel proficiency has been a proud banner you wave or something for which you always try to change the subject in an interview, you can’t deny the ability to sling data in a spreadsheet is often non-negotiable for a top notch administrative professional. 

For years, Excel stayed pretty much the same. If you wanted to do anything extraordinary, you needed to know how to program macros or create SQL (structured query language) scripts. If you are using the most recent versions of Excel, come and see how Microsoft has put advanced tools directly in your hands, code free. 

In this session, Melissa will introduce you to Power Query, the Data Model and pro secrets for churning out high quality reports and dashboards without needing to  know how to write code or learn a new application.

Melissa Esquibel

Human By Design: Digital Wellbeing At Work

As technology continues to blur the lines between the workplace and our personal lives it is increasingly apparent that technology plays a critical part in most people’s lives. How do we ensure it actually improves our lives rather than distracting from them? In this talk, you’ll discover why a healthy relationship with technology is so important, and how you can become more aware of your own digital behaviours. You’ll also learn about the different tools you can use to help you develop and maintain healthy tech habits.

Learning Objectives:

• What are the benefits of a healthy relationship with technology?
• How digital can support your mental health needs at work.
• The psychological impact of digital hyperconnectivity.
• How to look after your work-life balance, personal health, safety and relationships in digital environments.

Dr Lawrence Ampofo

Using LinkedIn to Find and Secure a New Job

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with 706+ million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The mission of LinkedIn is simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. The vision of LinkedIn is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

Creating a good LinkedIn profile is a great way to introduce yourself to organisations and keep abreast of job vacancies, as well as finding out what is going on in the field that you are interested in. Employers look to social media to find our information about potential applicants.

In this session Jennifer will share top tips on setting up an effective profile on LinkedIn to help you with your job search.

Jennifer will highlight the importance of keywords and branding as first impressions count.
She will also help you to ensure that your profile is visible to your target audience and will touch on privacy & settings.

Once your LinkedIn profile has been fully optimised, Jennifer will share tips on how to lean into your network for introductions and how to use ‘search’ to find the right roles, content, groups, companies and people.

Jennifer Corcoran

Improving Cyber Security for PAs and EAs

Where is the weakest link in any organisation’s cyber security programme?  Every business deploys a raft of technology to reduce the risk of a cyber attack, yet most often, we the users are unwittingly the weakest link.  We inadvertently leak our own confidential information and use passwords which are easy to crack.  The cyber criminals are so clever it is very, very easy to fall prey to them.  

In this masterclass we explore how to improve awareness and what personal actions can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a cyber attack.  Specifically:

• Effective email management (eg spotting fake emails and use of the Out of Office Message).
• Password protection (creating strong passwords and password management technology).
• Personal security (especially when working remotely).  
• Manage and reduce the risks associated with social media.

This forty-five-minute session will contain case histories, best practice from a personal management perspective and available technology.

Dr Monica Seeley

Microsoft Certification: Assess Your Readiness to Pass Your First Exam

Do you use Microsoft Office every single day at work? Have you been using it for at least three years? Are you nervous about taking the steps to pursue MOS certification? Attend this session to assess your readiness to achieve the Microsoft Office Specialist certification in the programs you use every day.

Founder of RedCape and their MOS Study Group, Vickie Sokol Evans is a Microsoft Certified Trainer. She has successfully studied for and passed 25 “Core” and “Expert” certification exams on her first try and has perfected the MOS certification process.

While she is forbidden to tell you what’s on the exams, she and her team at RedCape can shorten the amount of time it takes for you and your entire team to get certified in the programs you use every day. But first, she wants to help you determine your certification readiness. 

Vickie will walk through an overview of the four exams and their objectives and give you tips on how to study for your first exam. You’ll also find out what makes the first exam the most challenging of them  all and tips to overcome that hurdle. 

After passing your first exam, you’ll wonder why you didn’t pursue certification sooner. She did.

Vickie Sokol Evans

Notion: Lego for Your Working Life

Notion is the all-in-one workspace set to revolutionise how you work. Starting with a blank page, Notion brings together the functionality of Word, Trello and Evernote (to name a few) so you can fully customise how you work all from one place. Built with flexibility and collaboration at its core, use Notion to collate meeting notes, manage projects and maintain policies.

In this introductory session, you will discover with Notion is the productivity and collaboration tool set to supercharge your day. 

Learning Objectives

• What it is about Notion that makes it so unique
• How to get started when faced with your first Notion page
• The anatomy of a Notion page
• Basic formatting to give structure to your notes
• Getting started with Kanban boards
• How to personalise your page layouts
• How to create subpages and navigate them

At the end of the session, you will have learnt how to structure your first page and the foundational skills you need to incorporate Notion into your work life. 

Laura Johnston

Get Organized Using OneNote

Digital information that can be saved in the cloud and accessed from anywhere, is a great asset – but, if not organized properly, it can become a burden. In this session you will learn how to effectively use OneNote to organize notes, photos, receipts, tasks, and much more.

Ulrika will give a quick overview of OneNote, including how to set up OneNote to synchronize across different devices.

You will also learn how to use OneNote in real life to:

– Gather and organize various types of information
– Prepare for a meeting
– Take effective meeting notes
– Search and share notes
– Access notes from anywhere

Ulrika Hedlund

Organizing Chaos: The Email Inbox

Dr. Monica Seeley and Melissa Esquibel, MCT, MOSM, will examine the why and wherefore of organization, then take you into the nitty gritty of folders, categories, labels and stars in both Outlook and Gmail. 

There are many ways to organize and process email. Is your method working well or do you find it falling apart midstream leading you into another massive clean-up operation? Perhaps you are hoarding email, squirrelling away messages in folders so you don’t have to see the chaos (organized chaos is still chaos). After this lively session with the authors of 100 Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity (due for release Autumn 2020), you’ll walk away with new insight into why you keep messages, how to find them, where you keep them, and for how long. 

Melissa Esquibel

Dr Monica Seeley

Becoming Your Best Virtual Self: The Ultimate Guide to Being Your Best in Video Meetings

Jumping on to a virtual video call with no preparation is like getting behind the wheel of car without driving lessons. You wouldn’t drive before you’d been taught, yet we expect people to understand how to turn up online and just get on with it. It is no wonder so many people find the process stressful and unsatisfying!

In this focussed 30 minute session, Emma Reynolds looks at the seven best ways to own your space on a video call.  From diffused lighting, to framing, from WIFI troubleshooting to digital etiquette and what your background says about you, Emma will share seven tips to transform your virtual presence and become your best virtual self.

Emma Reynolds

Face Off: Google vs Microsoft 365 PART 1

A panel discussion with Neil Malek,  Melissa Esquibel  and Simon McCaskill

We’ve all heard the debates amongst people we know, declaring their passionate attachment to their chosen productivity platform and dismissing their rival.  But which platform is better and for which jobs? For which types of organizations does each platform accelerate productivity? Which individual apps within these suites really shine and which could use a bit of polishing up.?

Come get the answers from the experts in this lively panel discussion.

Neil Malek

Simon McCaskill

Melissa Esquibel

Finding the meaning in your Google Analytics

“You have the answer sheet, you just need to start asking the right questions.” 

Your website traffic statistics are invaluable in understanding how users are interacting with your business. Are you doing a great job at Facebook marketing? Does Google traffic offer a better return on investment even though, at first glance, it looks the most expensive? 

In this session we will look at building roadmaps to find solutions to problems. We will identify areas for improvement in your sales and marketing processes and discover which are your stand-out pages that you should look to develop further. Most importantly, we will look at translating this into an easily understandable format that everyone on your team will buy into. Take the guessing out of your decision making and make plans based on facts and figures.

Jack Bradley

File Triage: Quick Fixes to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Frustrations

If you’ve ever spent hours – or perhaps days – ‘cleaning up’ a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, this session is for you. There are incredible tools, tricks, and shortcuts in each of the major Office applications that can resolve complex problems in seconds, if you only know how to use them. In this 90-minute block, we’ll handle formatting, layout, and even the dreaded ‘dirty data.’

Topics include:

• Using Styles and Style Sets to control Word formatting
• Leveraging Section Breaks for document layout issues
• Creating macros in Word to automate clean-up
• Tackling problematic data with Flash Fill
• Crushing exhausting requests with Power Query
• Using Tables for automatic updating of data analysis
• Controlling presentations with Slide Masters and Slide Layouts
• Implementing a standard color scheme across the Office Suite
• Converting exhaustive lists into engaging graphics

Neil Malek

Face Off: Google vs Microsoft 365 PART 2

The second part of a lively panel discussion with Neil Malek,  Melissa Esquibel  and Simon McCaskill continues…

We’ve all heard the debates amongst people we know, declaring their passionate attachment to their chosen productivity platform and dismissing their rival.  But which platform is better and for which jobs? For which types of organizations does each platform accelerate productivity? Which individual apps within these suites really shine and which could use a bit of polishing up.?

Come get the answers directly from the experts.

Melissa Esquibel

Neil Malek

Simon McCaskill

The Remote Assistant Toolbox

Managing your manager in a remote environment is not only about tools but also about the right mindset. It all starts with your own self-management, a transparent communication flow and the art of leadership. 

In this session, digital expert Diana Brandl will explore practical new ways of working with and managing your Executive remotely. With useful methodologies and tools to consider and adopt, you will be able to grow into a remote role with confidence, refining your skillset and mastering the art of remote leadership. Diana will be joined by Daniela Leutwyler, a remote assistant who will share how she operates with her Gen X manager and her favourite gadgets and tools.

Diana Brandl

How technology helps you to do more with less and prove yourself as a strategic partner

Join Paige McPheely, founder and CEO of Base, the first-ever tool built for assistants, as she discusses how leading assistants are up-skilling and evolving in their role, proving themselves more than ever as a strategic partner to the executives they support.

Metrics are the key to future-proofing the ever-evolving role of an assistant. Paige and her team built Base to help tie clear ROI to the role of an assistant. Base has helped put 20% more productivity back into assistants’ work weeks, and it’s the company’s belief that automation is crucial to assistants’ having the ability – and time – to upscale and evolve in their role.

In this session, Paige will outline how technology can help you succeed in the following:

1. Set explicit goals and expectations – clearly align yourself with the goals and expectations of your executive and her role.
2. Define clear and predictable communication pathways – you and your executive(s) should know how and where to communicate with one another
3. Position yourself as a trustworthy source – your executive (and the rest of the company) will come to you for information, confidential and otherwise.
4. Determine “the next question”, anticipate its response, and then take action – always think ahead to what your executive may need next, or what may happen unexpectedly, and plan for it.
5. Embrace and own growth – your role will never be fully learned, nor will it ever stop evolving.
6. Let technology make you better – tech-enhanced assistants are irreplaceable. Instead of competing with technology, leverage it to amplify your outputs.

Paige McPheely

From Word to PowerPoint: the art of creating slides from a document

You are handed a document by your executive and asked to turn it into an all singing all dancing PowerPoint slide deck. Attend this session to learn how to shortcut the process and get that word document into PowerPoint without fuss or frustration.

You will learn:

– The importance of Document Styles in Word
– Why having a template is a brilliant thing
– How to set up your branding in PowerPoint and change the colour scheme
–  How to modify the Slide Master in PowerPoint so you are off to a flying start
– How to import the word document to PowerPoint
– How to use SmartArt to tame your bullet points and to create a timeline

Shelley Fishel

Template Mastery - InDesign Magic and Miracles : Leveraging Templates and Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries to Work Faster and Smarter Now

Once you understand the crucial InDesign processes, you are ready to get turbocharged. This session is for people who have been working with InDesign for a little while.

Master designer Abigail Rudner teaches you straight from her own experiences as an Adobe education developer, and an accomplished visual designer. Abigail will show you to show you how to become a Master of Templates using InDesign.

If you understand the ins and outs of Paragraph, Character, and Object styles and you have begun to use Master pages as well as numbering and sections, you are ready to level up!

Here you will become an InDesign power user, learning how:

– To save your frequently used documents as InDesign Templates
– Set up a new template using swatches, grids. text and image placeholders
– Find and evaluate free templates
– Discover the Adobe stock offerings

In addition we will look at creating and working with a style guide, EPUB and Interactive documents.

Abigail Rudner

OneNote for All Things EA

Anna Read

Conquer Your Google Calendar

Become more familiar with Google Calendar, a software that allows you to organize your day effortlessly and better oversee your schedule, so that you can clear the chaos when managing your days. This program integrates easily with other programs like Gmail and has been set up to automatically update your schedule by scanning your inbox for travel details to track on the calendar. It allows collaboration with others through Google’s sharing and video features.

We’ll review how to create recurring events, set up meetings with video, share your calendar with others directly or through webpages and more. Discover what this powerful software can do to help you become more productive as we explore its capabilities, settings, views, and options for customization. Make your calendar easier to read and better suited to your working style. We’ll also briefly review some calendar best practices during this hour-long session.

Marie Herman

Microsoft 365: The Future of Office 365

Be on the front row of the latest reveal of Microsoft 365, the rebranding of Office 365, with powerful new tools for our busy remote and face to face offices.

In light of the pandemic that struck the world, and led to people working from home without any semblance of  distinction between work and personal life, the Microsoft technology world is changing. Be the first in your office to know how, and explore what new features  are now available.  The new user interface will now allow you to move a simplified toolbar to anywhere on the screen as you require, while using progressive disclosure to reveal commands contextually.  Explore the game changers for your office world!

Professor Corinne Hoisington

Technology Leadership - getting your seat at the table

As administrative professionals you possess unique talents and skills that make you valuable member of technology decision-making and rollout teams.

Getting recognized as someone who deserves a seat at the table depends upon how you react to change, whether and how you support it and what positive actions you take in the face of the bumpy road of implementing new tech.

Tech expert and end-user empowerment professional,, Melissa Esquibel guides you to how you can change your thinking and attitudes to secure your very important role as a technology leader.

Melissa Esquibel

Processes Reimagined, Time Regained: How automation could raise your value

The world of software and process automation is a scary place: if computers can do my job, what will I do? Will my job cease to exist? How will I put food on the table?

Nobody knows what this world looks like, but we all know that there are those who will thrive, and those who will be follow on behind. The truth is that the world of automation creates a huge opportunity for anyone who is willing to look at it with fresh eyes.

During this session , Fraser will give an overview of how Uncommon Solutions views the world of process automation, what the Microsoft Power Platform can do, and how Executive Assistants can become even more valuable to the businesses they serve, by enabling their executives to be even better than they already are.  

You could become the linchpin at the centre of it all!

This is a light-hearted but informative presentation with time at the end for Fraser to answer any questions you may have.  It should be fun!

Fraser Nicoll

Asemblr: Smarter Event Planning

Smarter Event Planning will focus on demonstrating the most advanced event planning technology in the world covering pre planning, research, comparison, negotiation and budget tracking.

Asemblr is a free to use system which was designed by Executive Assistants for Executive Assistants and is a valuable tool for users to make themselves indispensable.

David Lovett-Hume

Workplace Technology Distraction: The Future of Employee Engagement

To remain competitive in a hyperconnected and remote workplace, businesses have turned to the latest digital technologies to improve employees’ productivity, collaboration and connection to other workers. While these investments are necessary, employees often pay a heavy price in the form of rampant workplace distractions. As companies attempt to stay competitive, they inevitably introduce technologies that distract their employees and set the precedent that employees should be always-on and always-connected. This creates an environment where employees spend most of their time on low-value activities and less on their actual job duties.

In this session, Dr. Ampofo lays the groundwork for administration leaders to create the technology environment that addresses the crisis of workplace distraction and strikes a better balance between connectivity, focus, productivity and wellbeing.

Learning Objectives

• Building a technology environment that encourages focus
• Ensuring workplace culture doesn’t introduce distraction into the daily employee experience
• Continually assess the impact of distraction in your workplace
• How to work with business peers to drive awareness of workplace distraction

Dr Lawrence Ampofo

Increase Your Productivity with User-Friendly Automation Tools

In this one hour session, you will learn how to automate your workflow and business processes by integrating several automation tools such as Power automate, Flow, PowerApps and others.

With the tools that you are currently using, you can streamline repetitive tasks, make processes paperless, and discover that you can save time and increase your productivity.

Learning Objectives:

– Discover automation using Microsoft Office 365 tools to automize basics tasks and retrieve data.
– Boost your daily productivity using email management, data file management, tasks and other tools.  – Discover a better way to get things done across your organization through digital and robotic process automation for onboarding management.
– Put intelligent workflows to work by automating time-consuming manual tasks with built-in AI capabilities, giving you more time to focus on strategic, high-value opportunities.
– Quickly and securely automate an Excel file to build a business process available and accessible on any device.  

Lizebeth Koloko-Green

The Art of Virtual Communication

How to take virtual communication to the next level to enhance and improve your online learning and collaboration experience. 

In this workshop, we explore everything from the mastering the basics of virtual training and meetings to the more advanced skills involved in not only recreating the face-to-face experience, but enhancing the experience for both the participants and yourself, by creating enjoyable, engaging virtual content that leaves a lasting impression. 

Topics include:

• Reading the virtual room
• Running engaging activities
• The best ‘virtual’ version of you
• Avoiding screen fatigue
• Mastering the tech

This workshop is for anyone who is planning to run virtual meetings or training and wants to improve the experience for all involved.

Simon McCaskill

Farewell

A review and conclusion of our 48 hours plus of learning at ExecSecTech 2020.

Lucy Brazier