NSW & ACT
Newcastle, Bachelor of Social Science (Recreation and Tourism). It was great in that it was a first time they were offering the degree. I was able to basically major in marketing, events, and also research. So my final year study was with Hunter Valley Research and I did a visitor tourism survey through the Newcastle Visitor Bureau. So I got some great experience that way. The beauty of these degrees now is the amount of hands on experience they’re expecting of their students so I just had a final year UTS student who had to do 240 hours of work placement. That’s quite a lot but I think it’s essential for this industry because it means that you are experiencing it first hand and understanding what goes into it.
Coles. I really got a sense for the fact of not for profits, and the value that you can bring to those organisations and those industries with the skills that you have and I really felt that I was now doing something with my skill set that was making a difference. That’s continued to drive me from that point forward. It was at the same time I got my first contract with the New South Wales Farmers’ Association. So the New South Wales Farmers’ Association is the key Agricultural organisation, the largest in Australia. They have over 8,000 farming members and they’ve been a client now for ten years. I manage their annual conference for 500 people every year as well as other food promotional events, education programmes etc. That was when I started to actually work into the Agricultural industry and from there I now have several clients in the sector and it’s just something that is fantastic for me and my staff, and we get a lot out of it. We also do have some other clients outside of agriculture because I do believe diversity is essential. You need to know what other people are doing because you can learn from them as well, but certainly within the Agricultural sector it’s where we really are able to make that difference, and I think that’s where the opportunity is for any students coming into this area.
I then went into my first job. Job disaster one I’m calling it, where I ended up in a bit of a boutique agency. They weren’t doing particularly well and I was writing the managing director’s golf newsletters and he’s looking after his own personal things on the weekend and what he was doing, so I went, “No. I’m out of here”. So then I was able to get a job with another boutique agency where I basically stayed for five years and worked my way up to the role of senior event manager. I worked all over Australia and overseas as well, so I’ve done events in eight different countries, and I was able to experience a lot about the industry and the value of what you need to do to really deliver a strong event and a strong So if your students are looking for a career which offers marketing campaign and communications campaign. diversity, where every day is different, my day is never ever the same, then the industry could be for them. If you I got to the point of going, “okay. This is all nice. This lay that with a diverse industry such as the Agricultural is all corporate. We’re spending millions of dollars on sector, then you really get some endless opportunities as these delegates going out, having a good old time, but to what they can achieve in their career. what are they walking away with? What am I walking away with based on the skills that I’ve got? So I decided This is a little bit of a snapshot of the current clients to leave because I wanted to try the not-for-profit sector. and programmes we’re working with within Agriculture. It was at that point that I was able to get a role with Clean- We’ve got the New South Wales Farmers’ Association, up Australia. I worked with Clean-up Australia and I was relevant programmes with them. Art for Agriculture, I the National Project Manager for Clean Up Australia Day know someone mentioned Lyn before and the education for two years and I also implemented their first plastic programme, so we’re responsible for rolling that out bag reduction programme through stores, so the first to schools and managing all the logistics, all of the time you saw the green bags through Woolworths and programme, all of the material attached to that. The
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