Perth announces winners of its 2018 Aspire awards

Eleven awards were up for grabs and 50 nominees at the annual Perth Convention Bureau (PCB) Aspire awards ceremony, 6 June. The event was held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre and, as well as recognition, on offer were opportunities for professional development funding to attend and attract conferences to Western Australia. City of Perth (COP) sponsors the Aspire Awards City of Perth Convention Scholarship in recognition of the importance of business tourism and its role in underpinning the development of the city’s accommodation and venue infrastructure. PCB CEO, Paul Beeson commented: “The programme has been responsible for contributing more than A$110m in delegate spend to the WA economy. The programme profiles the State’s broad expertise and knowledge base in a wide range of sectors”. Sally Male, the winner of the 2018 City of Perth Convention Scholarship is the chair in engineering education at The University of Western Australia. The scholarship will assist in her attending the Research and Engineering Education Symposium (REES) 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa. With PCB’s support Male plans to bid for Perth to host a combined Research and Engineering Education Symposium (REES) and the Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE) Conference in 2021.
Other winners included: Esther Irvine (The Esther Foundation) winner of the City of Mandurah Convention Scholarship; Nicole Haberley (Reach for Life) winner of Giving West Scholarship; Dr Amy Finlay-Jones (Telethon Kids Institute) winner of the Telethon Kids Institute Conference Award; Paige McNeil (Western Australian Primary Principals Association) winner of the Australian Institute of Management WA Conference Award; and the University Professional Development Award Winners; Ferry Jie and Dr Justine Dandy (Edith Cowan University), Dr Polychronis Koutsakis (Murdoch University), Vincent Wallace and Dr Peter Mark (The University of Western Australia), and Dr Ahmed Abu-Siada (Curtin University) The Aspire Awards were presented by Master of Ceremonies, Karen Tighe and winning applicants and finalists joined a number of prestigious guests including The Hon. Paul Papalia CSC MLA, minister for tourism and the City of Perth chair of commissioners Eric Lumsden. Pictured: The 2018 Aspire Award Winners with The Hon Paul Papalia, Kevin Skipworth, chairman Perth Convention Bureau and Paul Beeson, CEO Perth Convention Bureau.