appointments  GAMAA  JPE 
At the latest quarterly meeting of Graphic Arts Merchants Association of Australia (GAMAA), the organisation decided to lend a hand to fellow printing organisation Junior Printing Executives Association by sponsoring the business session of the approaching Annual Conference. The conference will be held on May 28-30 at The Hunter Valley Gardens. GAMAA says its generous sponsorship allows the association to continue to provide the highest calibre of speakers for our event and provide unprecedented benefits for the members and delegates.

The speaker for this year’s business session is Catherine De Vrye. Catherine is the author of the #1 best seller, ’Good Service is Good Business’. Past winner of the Australian Executive Woman of the Year Award, she is regarded as an outstanding communicator with proven international management experience in the private and public sectors - speaking on service, change and turning obstacles to opportunities in our professional and personal lives.

One of the most sought after speakers in Australia today, who’s presented on 5 continents, she has worked with business leaders and elite athletes. A keen sportswoman herself, she has cycled over the Andes, climbed 20,000 feet to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.

De Vrye holds a Master of Science degree and has attended short courses at Harvard and the Monash Mt Eliza Business School where she is a frequent lecturer. She will be presenting on:

• Boost your bottom line without increasing cost
• Use service to differentiate you from your competition
• Gain market share through exceeding customer expectations
• Fight complacency.... Success today does not equal success tomorrow
• Increase brand loyalty by turning complaints into opportunities
• Make minor improvements for major impacts
• As stakeholder expectations change, differentiate between adding value or adding cost
• Turn common sense into common practice
• Become victors from change-rather than victims of change
• Focus on the positive to produce professional and personal success

Janine Shepherd has also been confirmed as the after dinner speaker. Shepherd was a champion cross country skier in training for the winter Olympics, before she was run over and almost killed by a truck during a training bicycle ride to the Blue Mountains.

Coming to terms with her shattered Olympic dreams, refusing to believe what expert medical staff were telling her about her chances of any kind of recovery, Shepherd focused on healing her broken body and crushed morale, and turned her attention to becoming a pilot. Within a year she had her private pilot’s licence.

Delegate numbers for the Annual Conference are strictly limited for this event, with registration forms to be delivered in the coming weeks.