AVAC – until next year

Well, by the verbal and written feeback I’ve heard/seen so far, it would seem that the AustralianVAConference (AVAC) has been a success and is definitely something the VA Community would like on the calendar as an annual event.

There was a lot of buzz at the end of each day and it was great to see virtual friendships strengthed by face-to-face meetings and new friendships forged.  A mix of brand new VAs (or those who haven’t yet begun) right through to those who have many, many years of experience behind them; there was something there for all.

The mixture of presentations covered everything from webhosting, and other website services, to SEO, Social Media, benefits of business coaching, electronic marketing, mixing family with business and looking at some niche streams for VA practices such as copywriting, resume writing and bookkeeping. We even discussed do we need niches and what are some of the types of niches out there – and whether they should be service related (wordprocessing, transcriptions) or industry related (real estate, medical) and so on.

Our keynote speaker Shelley Taylor-Smith kicked off the event and set the pace for a fantastic two days.  Our two MCs (Warwick Merry [what a showman!] on Friday and Camille Valvo on Saturday) were just what we needed to keep the day moving and we had lots of entertainment from them as well as our presenters.

Who could not be affected by the infectious enthusiasm presented by Sam Mutimer?  And what about those seat pushups demonstrated by Leanne Sklavenitis? I’ll have to make sure I’m not using my office chair on wheels for that one!  Oh, and I must bring my fit ball into the office!

And for those who have attended OIVAC for the past almost five years (has it been that long already???) we got to meet Rob Anderson from the Green Room in person!  Rob had a surprise guest for us when he demonstrated a live linkup with Sharon Williams from the US who spoke to us about OIVAC.

I was very grateful to our many, sponsors who helped make this event possible and if you visit the AVAC site you’ll see them all listed there.

Next year we look forward to our US and Canadian colleagues joining us for this event and perhaps some from the UK, France, New Zealand and elsewhere too.

I am producing a conference photobook (printed) for those in attendance who would like a copy.  Not too late to order!  But here’s just a glimpse of the event for those who weren’t there – click on the image below.