Member Article

Birthday celebrations for the PA Hub

The PA Hub, Yorkshire’s premier network for personal, executive and virtual assistants, has celebrated its first year of business with an action-packed charity evening at Radisson Blu Hotel in Leeds.

The event, which was sponsored by British Airways and Leeds Bradford Airport, was the culmination of a fantastic year for the local business, which is the brainchild of husband and wife team Marion and Jon Lowrence. In its first year the PA Hub has gained over 100 members, and has held monthly events at some of the region’s top venues.

Images courtesy of www.photographymilestaylor.com

Tony Hallwood, ‎aviation development and marketing director at Leeds Bradford Airport, attended the event: “Leeds Bradford airport was pleased to join in the celebrations of the PA Hub’s first birthday. Marion and her team deserve great credit for arranging a fantastic event supported by key partners from across the city region. We wish her continued success and look forward to working with her and all her members in 2014.”

To reflect the PA Hub’s Yorkshire roots, two local charities were chosen as beneficiaries for the evening’s festivities; Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, and the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust. The evening included a charity auction, raffle, and goody bags, with the 100 guests and members in attendance raising £1448 over the course of the event. One of the highlights of the evening was a Mr and Mrs-style game show, pitting bosses from Garbutt and Elliott, Logistik and Grant Thornton against their assistants.

The PA Hub was set up by Marion in 2013, when she was PA to the CEO of Yorkshire Universities. She had seen similar networks in the capital, and was disappointed to find a sore lack of opportunities in Yorkshire to meet other assistants, share experiences, and develop new skills. The PA Hub was born, and is now home to members associated with over £5 billion turnover through their respective organisations.

Member Victoria Pearce, personal assistant to Leeds Metropolitan University vice-chancellor, professor Susan Price, said of her involvement in the network: “The PA Hub is a vital asset to all Yorkshire PAs. Considering the membership has gone from strength to strength, this clearly proves that the PAs of Yorkshire were crying out for this type of local network. Because the meetings alternate between development and networking sessions, the PA’s get a great balance and the best of both worlds.

“Each speaker has been incredibly informative and inspirational and there are always several learning tips to take away from these. However, and just as important, the networking sessions have been a real learning curve for many – moving from being out of their comfort zones to now being confident and competent networkers – the positive buzz in the room is very infectious.”

Commenting on her business reaching such a milestone, PA Hub director Marion Lowrence said: “We are absolutely delighted to be celebrating the end of an excellent first year and we are looking forward to the next 12 months with great optimism. We will aim to continue the success and give more assistants the chance of networking with their peers and acquiring better skills.

“We couldn’t have wished for a better way to ring in the second year of the PA Hub than by raising money for two local charities which are close to our hearts, with our members and guests who have been absolutely fantastic over the course of our first year.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .