Connect 2006: Golden Key Asia-Pacific Conference in Melbourne

Published: February 11, 2006

Chris Dunn, Carolina Carlsson and Henrik Wallgren represented the University of South Australia Golden Key Chapter at the 2006 Asia-Pacific Conference, in Melbourne 2-4 February. Our chapter advisor Marianne Huish also attended the conference.

The conference was held at the beautiful RACV Club in Bourke Street. The program was packed with interesting and inspiring speakers and a number of chapter and personal development workshops were offered. There were also great opportunities to mingle and talk to members from other chapters in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and South Africa.

This is an account of our experiences at the conference.

Thursday February 2nd

The conference was officially opened by the Rt. Hon John So, Lord Mayor of Melbourne at Thursday evening and a fun key note speech was then given by Di Yerbury, Vice Chancellor Macquarie University and responsible for introducing and establishing Golden Key to Australia. The night continued with a BBQ dinner and some challenging rounds of trivia.

Friday February 3rd -- Chapter Development

The focus of this day was chapter development and offered the opportunity to attend four different workshops.

Workshops

The Academic Breakfast (Carolina)

This workshop was delivered by the Monash chapter and explained how they had planned and organised a breakfast function for academic staff members to raise awareness by Golden Key. The function had been organised with the support of the Monash University's Vice Chancellor who also provided the funding. Around 50 staff members attended the breakfast. Presentations about Golden Key were held and two Golden Key members sat at each table and acted as facilitators for discussions about Golden Key.

This is definitely an event that the UniSA chapter should consider organising in the future.

Career Events (Carolina)

The Monash chapter delivered another workshop this time on their annual Careers Cocktail Evening. The event focuses on careers in IT, Commerce and Engineering as most of the chapter's members are from there areas of study. This is a very large event that last year had 200 members and 15 different companies attend with a turnover of $8000.

An event of this scale is currently outside the scope of the UniSA chapter as we neither have the manpower or the money to pull it off. But it was an interesting and inspiring workshop and the chapter is looking forward to organising a career event at a smaller scale in the end of March.

Wired up for the 21st century (Carolina)

Again a workshop held by the Monash chapter now presenting their webpage. They talked about the domain registration and web site hosting and presented a number of suggestions for this. The UniSA chapter is fortunate enough to be provided with space for our webpage on the university's web servers so this is not a real issue for us.

They continued by showing some of the functionality of their website and one of the most useful functions that should be considered for our chapter was an online RSVP system for events.

Education outreach activities (Henrik)

This workshop was organised by our chapter at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. They talked out three education related programs they are currently running.

The largest program they are running is a mentoring program that targets gifted and talented students at two primary schools near the campus. The aim of the program is to encourage the love of learning by pairing a talented primary student with a Golden Key member. They met one-hour a week and work on different learning projects, such as chemistry projects and the primary school student has been given the opportunity to conduct research and together with his/her mentor.

The Youth Forum is another program the chapter is running that aims to encourage debate and discussion among high school students. Once a year the forum is organised and a topic is chosen that will attract different opinions and that is of global importance. Genetically modified food and Globalisation are two examples of topics that have been discussed. Academics, journalists and experts within the field are invited to give speeches to the guests and lead discussions with the students. Approximately 100 high school students take part in the Youth Forum every year.

Finally, E-pals is run by the chapter to let international students that have not yet arrived in New Zealand to get contact with a current student. New students are teamed up with current students on the basis of relevant field of study etc. The aim is to make new students more prepared for living and studying in a new country and a completely different culture by being able to ask questions and get advice from experienced students. By collaborating with the University's international division every new international student get information about E-pals and Golden Key.

Key Note Speaker -- Jeff McMullen

During lunch Jeff McMullen, Award winning Journalist and Best-Selling Author held an interesting speech. For the last couple of years he has been a Spokesperson and Director of the Ian Thorpe's Fountain for Youth and as such he as been working towards improving the state of Indigenous health with in the Jawoyn communities of the Northern Territories. He talked about the health situation among aboriginal Australians and the fact that aboriginal Australians have a life expectancy that is 20 years less than other Australians. Moreover he stressed that the key to improved health for aboriginals is education and informed about the 'Literacy Backpacks', a package for the whole family that the organisation has developed to assist aboriginal communities to read and learn as a means of improving the health and wellbeing.

Saturday February 4th -- Personal Development

The conference was attended by around 140 delegates mainly people who are on the Executive Committees for their chapters. The Saturday program however provided the opportunity for general members interested in personal development to attend as one-day delegates and 70 members mainly from Melbourne choose to do so. This day provided all delegates with the opportunity to attend three different personal development workshops, to listen to and ask questions to a careers panel and to meet employer and university representatives at the career and graduate school expo.

The day was started of with an energetic and inspiring speech by Peter Sheahan, Talent Specialist, Consultant and Author. Peter Sheahan was the NSW Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003 and he has shown that he knows what it takes to be successful in the modern business world. Among other things he talked about the importance of not only being good at what you do but also to be able to sell your self and your talent in order to receive recognition.

Workshops

Resume Writing (Carolina)

Annabelle Puddy and Georgina Kiriakakis from Accenture gave some hints about how to put together a successful resume.

They said that an application should consist of a cover letter containing 3-4 paragraphs and the resume which should be no longer than 3-4 pages for a graduate. You should also include a copy of your academic transcript.

The essential details of a resume they said were:

• Name and Address
• Career Objective
• Degree and Major
• Skills list
• Work Experience
• Extra Curricular Activities
• Referees

They pointed out that it is important that the career objective you state is relevant to the position and industry you are applying for. The also stressed the importance of proofreading your resume as spelling errors is not looked upon favourably.

Job Interviews (Carolina)

Bernadette Uzelac from People @Work talked about the job interview and how to get through it successfully. Her main point was the importance of preparation. Do your research about the company and the job you are applying for and prepare answers including examples for questions you might get during the interview.

She said that a lot of the interview techniques are common sense; you are more likely to be successful if you smile, keep eye contact and show enthusiasm. You should be honest and answer all the questions the best you can. She also said that it will make a good impression if you prepare a couple of intelligent questions to ask the interviewer at the end of the interview.

The Career Panel

The Career Panel consisted of Rachel Cornwell, Graduate Recruitment Manager at Hewlett-Packard Austalia, Georgina Kiriakakis, Graduate Recruitment Lead at Accenture Australia, Jams McIlvena, Recruitment Associate at GM Holden, Sarah Roberts, Manager Graduate Recruitment at Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Bernadette Uzelac, Managing Director at People @ Work and was facilitated by Peter Sheahan.

All delegates got the opportunity to ask questions to the panel and the panel shared their wisdom on issues such as the greatest interview mistakes, things they look for in a resume, if age matters, and the preferred style of a handshake.

Key note speaker -- Tony Wheeler

In the afternoon we got the opportunity to listen to Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet talk about his businesses and his travel. He told the great success story of Lonely Planet that started off with the self-published book Across Asia on the Cheap in 1973 and now over 30 years later is the world's leading guidebook publisher. The main point of the speech was that you should do something you are passionate about and enjoy your life.

Gala Dinner

The conference was finished off with a two-course gala dinner during which Professor Ian Chubb from Australian National University held a speech. We enjoyed the food and wine and the good company.

NEXT CONFERENCE: 2006 Golden Key International Conference, August 10-13, 2006, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. Please keep in touch with the website for upcoming details.