Friday 31 May 2019 was a monumental day for Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney as it pioneered our very first all-staff company conference which has been named “Team Day 2019”. The conference was appropriately held at The Grace Hotel, a historical Sydney landmark which was originally built by the Grace Brothers in 1920. The hotel has since been refurbished but still maintains its neo-gothic architecture which our staff members were able to appreciate on the day of the conference. Conveniently, it is also only a couple of minutes’ walk from our Sydney office.

The one-day conference was organised with a great line up of external and internal speakers and included various team activities. This event brought all of our Sydney staff together including those who work remotely or are based in other buildings; it was great to see all our staff in one room.

Everyone arrived bright and early in the morning and settled in with a cup of coffee or tea, and in anticipation of what the day ahead had in store.

Sammy Preston, Urban List

Our first speaker was Sammy Preston, Sydney Editor for the Urban List which is Australia’s largest youth-focused brand and fastest growing lifestyle publisher. As we have recently been focusing on growing Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney’s social media presence, Sammy was the perfect speaker to give us tips, insights and answer our burning questions. Sammy spoke to our team about how Urban List makes the most use out of their social media channels and how they create content that effectively targets their audience’s interests. She touched on the effectiveness of content that is reactive to major events and the importance of knowing the different audiences on each of our social media channels.

Tony Moussa and Priyanka Dean, KPMG

Our second speaker was KPMG’s Director Tony Moussa. KPMG is one of Australia’s leading companies in audit, tax and advisory services, and has the country’s largest debt advisory team. Our Managing Director Greg Preston was impressed when he heard Tony speak at other industry events and wanted to invite him to join Team Day’s panel of speakers and share his knowledge on debt and equity with our team.

Tony spoke about the changes in banking as of recent and the non-bank and alternative lending markets which have re-emerged in the post-Royal Commission environment. Tony spoke thoroughly about the major types of alternative debt funders including the returns and risks involved for each and their past and current trends.

Tony was joined by KPMG Executive, Priyanka Dean. Priyanka spoke about how KPMG assists its clients.

Kim Ambor, PD Training

We also organised for life coach Kim Ambor to come along and give advice to our staff on how to successfully handle complex situations with communication hints, tips and tricks. Kim hosted small activities throughout her session where our staff paired up to play out scenarios and practice communication techniques. The activities were extremely informative and got everyone talking and laughing.

After enjoying a delicious lunch buffet, everyone came back for an afternoon session.

Greg Rowe, Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney

Our Managing Director Greg Rowe kicked off the afternoon’s session with a presentation on Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance. He talked about how one can obtain PI insurance, why it is important and how to claim it. Greg then went into detail on Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney’s PI insurance policy for the next two years.

Group activity

Then we moved onto the group activity of the day. Each group was given one of our major client types which we had to profile.

These major client types are:

• Listed public companies;
• Real estate investment trusts – listed and unlisted;
• Developers;
• Banks and non-bank lenders;
• Government – local/state/commonwealth;
• Family offices

After thorough team discussions, one member was nominated to practice their public speaking skills and present their findings to everyone else.

This was a great way to refresh our knowledge, share our thoughts and learn more about our client types.

Selena Chew, Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney

Our Marketing and Social Media Coordinator Selena Chew took the team through a brief session about LinkedIn. Selena talked about the benefits of using the business social media platform and ran everyone through a quick demo on how they can easily make the most use out of it.

Kylie Blackwood and Muoi Yao, Preston Rowe Paterson Sydney

Our Finance and Operations Associate Director Kylie Blackwood and Personal and Administration Assistant Muoi Yao talked to our team about updates that have been made to our internal system. This included a demonstration on what the changes include, the new process and how to use the system moving forward.

Team Day 2019 came to an end with closing remarks from Greg Preston. After that, everyone headed to SILY (Since I left you) a bar in the Sydney CBD. It was great to unwind and catch up over some drinks and nibbles.

The conference was a great success with the outstanding participation and enthusiasm from all staff members. The day was extremely valuable to our team, purchase tramadol cod fedex with special thanks to our fantastic panel of speakers that shared such great information with us all. We also want to say a big thank you to our internal staff members who worked tirelessly to make the day such a success.

It was a great day and we all look forward to doing Team Day again next year.