I’m excited to be able to tell you about my first issue as the Editor of PA Life. It’s great to be here, working with a fantastic team, making sure we bring you, our readers, stories that are interesting, inspiring and helpful for your work as Professional Assistants.
PA Life Club & PA Profiles
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of you already at our recent PA Life Club Meet Ups. The Club is an integral part of what we do. It helps us connect and understand the needs and interests of PAs and EAs. You can read our latest news and discover the not-to-be-missed upcoming events on our Club pages (47-50).
PA Profiles are regular interviews of Assistants and in this issue we talked to two ‘City’ PAs – Anita Payne from Schroders and Ashley Archer from Standard Chartered.
Spotlight on venues
We are thrilled to have a true British institution, Ascot Racecourse, on the cover of this issue. There is so much more to Ascot than its famous royal meeting. It’s a truly unique venue for meetings and events as Rob Paddon, Head of Sales at Ascot Racecourse, explains to us.
This takes me to our main feature for this issue – our spotlight on Venues. The events industry is enjoying pre-pandemic level demand at the moment, so do get your bookings in early to secure the venue of your choice. Turn to pages 27-41 for a wide selection of superb venues across the UK, from city hotels to country estates, to find out what they have to offer.
The right venue can make or break an event according to Liz Taylor, the founder of Lynn Taylor Corporation. Liz has over 30 years of event experience and shares some of her top tips for negotiating with venues as part of our How To guides. We also feature advice from Helen Day, Director of Positive Leaders about How To work with and lead Gen Z.
Our survey on Assistants’ working conditions
The results are in from our recent survey about what Assistants want from their working conditions in this new era of hybrid working. Thank you for everyone who took part! You can read the results of the research on pages 4-5.
Workplace wellbeing & career development
Workplace wellbeing has risen to the top of most companies’ priority lists as it’s found to be, increasingly, the key to employee productivity and retention, as well as essential for good overall health. We’ve got great articles on the topic; Just Eat Business MD, Matt Ephgrave discusses how flexible working can reduce workplace stress while Lucy Eden, Founder of Be in Your Element, talks about one of the biggest challenges of today – connection to others, and to ourselves.
Career development through continued skills training is another important area for any professional. Adam Fidler focuses on the importance of ownership and being in charge of achieving your own career goals as an EA and PA.
We’ll be back in September with our minds tuned to Christmas gifting plus many more great topics. Hope you enjoy the read. Don’t forget to check our latest stories, updated daily, here at our website and follow us on socials at @PALifeMag
Marja-Leena Toseland, Editor
