VA day at Office* Show 2017 got off to a flying start with BeMyVA.com’s fifth VA Breakfast. With BeMyVA CEO John Palmer introducing this popular ‘early bird’ session, Caroline Wylie presented some extracts from the Society of Virtual Assistant’s survey findings of recent years – identifying areas that Caroline refers to as “Myth Busters”!
Following the Survey points, Caroline was joined by Charlotte Wibberley of VIPVA and Joanne Munro of The VA Handbook as a panel to address the audience’s questions. By the end of the session, almost 120 people were in attendance at the keynote area.
The morning’s core sessions of the day took place in the VA Conference adopted home, “The Bubble Theatre” with learning and development sessions as follows:
Amanda Johnson (VACT) – First steps to your own VA business
Joanne Hawkins (Executive VPA) – The Networking Jungle & how to use your own animal instincts
Susan Moore (Moore Business) – It’s a big world out there: Working with Associates + Internationally
After lunch, the focus of the event became social media skills – with some long-awaited announcements and presentations of Awards!
Awards announcements – presented by Aimee Bateman of Careercake.com:
10th Anniversary VA Quiz – Winner: Caroline McCabe, VA, Essex
pa-assist.com Members Voice Award 2016 – Best VA Training Provider: VACT
| Caroline McCabe | VACT’s Amanda receives their award from Aimee |
UK VA Awards 2017
UK Best Newcomer VA 2017:
Winner – Ruth Dyer, RDVA, Northamptonshire
Runner Up – Imogen Allen Umbrella Digital, Staffordshire
Runner Up – Lucy Tipler, Your Loyal VA, Kent
| Ruth and Aimee | Lucy, Ruth, Aimee and Imogen |
UK Outstanding VA 2017:
Winner – Michelle Smith, ValueAdd, Scotland
Runner Up – Heather Greig, VPA-NI, Northern Ireland
Runner Up – Gwen Backhouse, Curlew Secretarial, England
| Michelle and Aimee | Gwen, Michelle, Aimee and Heather |
The final learning sessions of the day:
Aimee Bateman (Careercake TV) – From Home Office to Global Recognition (with video marketing)
Lilach Bullock (Social Media Consultant) – Getting Lost in Social Media – Top tips + tricks for success
The conference closed at 4:30pm and the super feedback can be seen here: http://www.vaconference.co.uk/testimonials.html
Many thanks to our host office* show 2017
