We caught up with one of our inaugural 2018 AuSAE & NZICC Emerging Leadership Scholarship recipients, Emma Hawke, Senior Events Coordinator at CORE Education, to find out what she gained from last year's AuSAE LINC Conference and asked her to share a few nuggets of wisdom:

Through the scholarship, did you find attending the AuSAE LINC Conference last year beneficial to you and your development?

Absolutely, the takeaways from the conference were so strong, that my notes are still sitting on my desk a year later! Which as an Eco-Warrior, I am thrilled to see that the paper didn't go to waste!

Professionally speaking, the knowledge and insights gained benefited our whole team. I was left feeling inspired to share what I had learnt and motived to implement change within our team.

The benefits for me personally are still impacting my everyday life. My favourite takeaway was “Looking after yourself is a badge of honour”. The event industry can be so fast-paced and it is easy to say that we are ‘too busy’ to eat well, exercise or take time out… but looking after yourself properly is a necessity and should be a priority in the work that we do.

What are you most proud of?

In my career - I'm most proud of my relationships. I work with an awesome team and some absolutely incredible suppliers… in events, relationships are everything! - As the majority of the time, you are relying on an army to execute an event smoothly.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

That culture will eat structure for breakfast every single time!

One of the larger events that we produce takes a team of approximately 100 people to pull off. It is a massive week of hard slog, and on the final event day when the crew are running on empty and there is nothing left in the tank, it is the team culture and a shared rapport that helps you to push through and find that little bit extra.

Your event can have every t crossed and i dotted, however without an incredible team culture and 100% buy-in from everyone… you are simply running up-hill in roller blades…

Best networking tip?

It takes practice to master the art of networking and like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets. Networking does not have to be formal and structured with handshakes and business cards... networking is simply meeting new people, finding common ground and leaving a lasting impression. You are not going to instantly click with everyone, and you don’t need to… build your own professional tribe and fill it with people that you really resonate with. Ironically we do it so naturally in our personal lives, however as soon as it is put into a work context we seem to put this huge pressure on ourselves. Remove the pressure.

Last year, you said the superpower you wanted was power mimicry, which allows you to absorb other people’s skills or knowledge. Do you still feel the same this year or has this changed?

Yes - I am still in LOVE with this superpower!... Although this year I would use my power differently. A slight upgrade from the local quiz night, I would go on The Chase which is a new obsession in our household.

This year, the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) is proud to partner with The Australasian Society of Association Executives (AuSAE) again to offer 9 scholarships to New Zealand's emerging business events leaders in the association industry.

The NZICC is passionate about the development of New Zealand's emerging business events leaders and are committed to the scholarship programme which promotes the professional development of association executives in New Zealand. This scholarship programme represents the opportunity to provide the successful recipients with the tools, the network and likeminded community needed to be able to enhance learning and progression of the individual's career within the association industry.

The NZICC is excited to be on this journey with each of the 2019 scholarship recipients and over the next few weeks will be introducing each of the recipients here.

Congratulations to all of the successful recipients!