In this week's #MEAExpress, MEA CEO Peter McDonald announces the speaker program for Evolve 2022, and encourages everyone to jump aboard the MEA Express – pun intentional – to Melbourne for 29 and 30 June.

"Under the uniting theme of Building confidence through best practice we’ve assembled a cast of speakers from both within and external to the industry who have some great stories to tell and insights to share. One of Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women (as named by the AFR) – Holly Ransom – will lead the event as MC AND deliver a keynote on empowering both yourself and your team. We’ve also engaged a former Royal Australian Navy Commodore; a descendant of slaves who grew to become a mum of 9 (not a typo!) and state Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award winner; and, an intensive care unit senior staff specialist to impart some learnings upon delegates." 

In this week's MEA Express, MEA Chairman Michael Firman comments on the enthusiastic return of events being undermined by the strain of staff shortages, tight turn arounds and high expectations from clients. Late registrations for events have also become the 'new norm'. What's Michael's advice? Read on to find out.

In this week's #MEAExpress, MEA CEO Peter McDonald relates Ian Whitworth's '6 tips to survive the skills shortage' article to the reality facing our industry - that team sizes may have shrunk but the expectations of clients have not.

What's Peter's advice? "Do less but do those fewer things better. Be a domain master, as opposed to a jack of all trades. When we try to be everything to everyone, we end up not doing anything properly. Work smart not hard."