MESSAGE CEO's What a year it’s been! The ECC Conference in Napier was such a success. We delivered an event that thrust about 400 centre managers and teachers, alongside important leaders in business and our industry together – and enthralled them with keynotes and more workshops than people knew what to choose. I found it both exhausting and invigorating. Exhausting because there is just so much going on when you bring so many people and interesting topics together. Invigorating because there is so much innovation and passion driving the people who work in early childhood. Delivering a successful conference was a really important commitment I made as incoming CEO. We are moving deliberately now to establish a regular cycle of ECC conferences each year. This will involve conferences in Wellington for Election Years and in the other years we will rotate between different main centres, where travel and accommodation options can be more plentiful, and to regions to hold smaller conferences (like Napier). We want to deliver conferences to connect people across early childhood – to build them professionally and to enthral our attendees with interesting and engaging speakers and programmes. Conferences can be such great opportunities for networking and to establish connections with people who can support you. I don’t expect everyone to go to a conference every year – but you should give it a try and check out an ECC conference at some point. It’s a good investment in you and for your team. And of course I’d say that you’ll love it too – as I was a newcomer to this year’s conference I found it a good mix of fun, interesting and educationally extending. The famous ECC gala dinner is especially good fun. See page 13 for details about Conference 2023! We’ve got even bigger plans! I’m about to announce our international keynote speaker. Stay tuned for more updates. Simon Laube with Tupe Solomon Tanoa’i, keynote speaker at the ECC Conference December 2022 { 8 }
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