Peace of Mind Organizing

An exciting time for organisers in Australasia

7 September 2009

I just love spending time with professional organizers. I love going to the NAPO conference and the conference of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, which I’ll be attending in just a few weeks. They’re a great way to meet colleagues and become inspired, excited and motivated.

The annual conference of the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers was equally inspiring and exciting. The organization is relatively new (four years or so) and the conference had fewer attendees than I’m accustomed to (75 or so). But what they lacked in numbers they made up for in enthusiasm and wonderful energy.

The conference was well organized and featured terrific presentations. One feature I hadn’t seen at other conferences was that this one had a professional emcee, Sandi Givens, who kept the program running smoothly and on time. She was amazing, offering cogent summaries after each presentation. And she handled each Q&A so well.

Another great feature was built-in time to network. The morning and afternoon tea breaks were each 45 minutes, which really made it easy to talk with folks. I met such wonderful organisers, in varying stages of their businesses. The energy in the room was fantastic. My brother dropped me off at the hotel and came up to the conference to take a look around (which he called “having a sticky beak”) and commented on the wonderful energy in the room.

The two-day conference ended with the presentation of the President’s Award to Wendy Davie my friend and accountability partner (along with Margaret Lukens). Wendy, a founding member of AAPO and past president, richly deserved this honor and I was thrilled to be there to watch her receive it (and hear her gracious speech).

It was really exciting being around organizers for whom professional organizing is so new. I feel so privileged to have been able to attend the conference, let alone speak at it. I left the conference feeling inspired, excited, and motivated. And I’ll have about 24 hours of travel to make plans and brainstorm ideas.

And here’s a little sidenote about the power of intention: back in January, I posted a blog post with some pie-in-the-sky goals. One of them was to be paid to go to Australia. I was paid for my talk at AAPO (even if my trip wasn’t paid for). I do believe that intention came true! The lesson for me? Don’t be afraid to dream big and to put your intentions out there for the world to see.

Tagged with: aapo, australia, goals, wendy davie

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