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Top 10 stories of the week

The importance of optimism at work

Hard to believe as it is, May is here and warm weather keeps โ€˜threateningโ€™ to appear. This month is a busy one for the PA community in London, as celebrations are well under way at the Hippodrome in a series of events surrounding the London PA Awards. Theyโ€™ve had so many nominations that theyโ€™ve decided to extend the deadline until 29 May, so be sure to get yours in if you havenโ€™t already! We interviewed last yearโ€™s winner for our next PA Profile, so be sure to watch out for that early next month. In the meantime, hereโ€™s a look at our top stories of the week.

1.ย The importance of optimism
The idea that having a positive mental attitude will help us at work โ€“ and in our lives generally โ€“ has been with us for decades. There is now a body of evidence that optimism can help us in many ways. Dr Sally Norton, Founder of vavistalife.com explains further.

2.ย App of the week: Recover
With one in four people suffering from a mental health condition, Recover is looking to help us understand how we feel, what is causing it and what can be done to tackle stress, anxiety and depression. Encouraging people to take evolution into their own hands, the app wants to act as a guide to our emotions. While we are naturally programmed for fight or flight in life-threatening situations, our instincts still take over in social situations where our bodies havenโ€™t yet caught up with the times.

3.ย 7 self-care tips for PAs
Tara Jackson, ex-PA and holistic self-care and wellbeing coach, gives us her top tips for taking care of yourself despite a busy schedule.

4.ย Win a five-star all-inclusive trip to the Caribbean with Asemblr
Asemblrโ€™s mission is to use technology to create unforgettable events by making the event planning, design and management frictionless and transparent. The team needs you to help make it even better and is offering new users the chance to win a five-star trip to the Caribbean.

5.ย Celebrity panel to vote on Yorkshire PA Awards
Donna Coulling, Celebrity Assistant to BAFTA Award winners Sir Derek Jacobi and Helena Bonham Carter is leading a panel of judges in the search for assistants who underpin the fundamentals of business development and growth in companies across the Yorkshire region in the Yorkshire PA Awards.

6.ย The other side of a recruitment agency
Recruitment agencies are designed to help connect companies with potential employees, but occasionally they can prove to be a road block for PAs, as Adam Russell discovered first hand

7.ย And the winners of the PA Life Summit competition areโ€ฆ
Following on from the latest PA Life Summit, our partners at meetings and events platform Asemblrย have revealed the winners attending Take Thatโ€™s Wonderland Live at the O2 on Wednesday, 7 June.

8.ย Everything you need to know about MeetingPackage.com
MeetingPackage.com, a site for booking all-inclusive meeting packages and meeting rooms for offsite meetings & events, is the only service to standardise meeting packages of Half-Day, Full-Day, Overnight or 2 Days for a side-by-side price comparison and live online booking. Corporate clients can add their negotiated rates with preferred hotels and get real-time reporting of their meeting spend.

9.ย Avoid being the victim of a credit/debit card fraud while away for business
Business travel, meetings and event specialist Capita Travel and Events is aware of a credit card scam in which fraudsters target hotel guests. Here, its Head of Information Security tells you how to avoid becoming a victim.

10.ย UK schools to enter the events industry
Britainโ€™s top schools are set to be showcased as potential business destinations through venue search engine Beautiful Schools. Opening up schools as venues for meetings, conferences and events, the free app is hoping to become the one-stop shop for businesses looking for unique meeting locations.