8h00-8h45: Registration and accreditation

8h45-9h00: Welcome and introductions: MUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal

Theme 1 | Become a change-maker

9h00-9h45

Setting the tone: Don’t shoot your mouth off without understanding context.

Office professionals are seen as being in the inner circle. They have access to very important information but need to manage that information professionally and strategically. Administrators need to know when to disclose or not to disclose information. There is power in understanding context and there is power in proactive communication.

This session will expose office professionals to the importance of understanding the context and limitations of what should be communicated, or not communicated, and to whom.

9h45-10h30: Which stakeholders matter and why do they matter?

In today’s busy office climate where the communication channels have grown out of proportion, it is easy to lose sight of stewarding relations with stakeholders. Failure to do this could result in stakeholders having negative perceptions towards a particular office. Unless there is a certain intentionality in nurturing relations with stakeholders, an organisation may lose out on optimising its relations with stakeholders.

This session will empower office professionals in developing different stakeholder databases to help improve communication with stakeholders. This is a key component of creating positive stakeholder relationships and perceptions. Sit back and relax as you listen to a renowned database management provider take you through a database management process and see how this could relate to your office management processes.

10h30-11h00: Tea break

Theme 2 | Taking control of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

11h00-12h00

There have been a lot of debates surrounding the effectiveness of AI, and how the work of office professionals is continuously becoming redundant because of the AI takeover. This session will focus on how AI could assist office professionals to reach their daily goals. The session will cover aspects on how AI could augment the work of office professionals in ensuring that they can work smarter, not harder. The session will focus on the following:

• Designing chatbots and virtual office assistants;
• Assistance with bespoke emails;
• Assistance with translations;
• Assistance with creating error-free documents; and
• A look on IA legislation and policy implications.

12h00-12h45

Many office professionals are tasked with preparing PowerPoint presentations for their line managers. The time has come to show that you can meet the GenZ skills. This session will focus on how AI could help generate professionally designed presentations that are well formatted and have slide shows that include a mix of still, moving, and animated images. Delegates will learn how to customise the look and feel of the presentation, as well as how to make a PowerPoint presentation come to life, using AI images.

12h45-13h30: Lunch

Theme 3 | Resource optimisation

13h30-15h30

The office professional has wide-ranging resources that they should tap into to improve efficiency and productivity in the office. This workshop will focus on using Office 365 and will have the following key components:

• How to create Microsoft forms for surveys, registrations, and questionnaires;
• How to create lists of contacts, assets, and inventory;
• MS Planner: How to optimise teamwork, create new plans, as well as organise and assign tasks;
• Microsoft Stream: Focusing on how to upload, view and share videos securely; and
• Microsoft To Do: This section will enable office professionals to learn how to share lists, and to sync tasks across Outlook and Teams.

Gala dinner: 18h00-21h00

Theme 4 | The Office we want

8h30-9h00: Reflections on the previous day’s proceedings

9h00-10h30: Creating the ideal office ambiance

Office professionals are the first port of call and custodians of their departments, divisions, and offices.  They carry the responsibility to create an inviting and customer-centric environment. This session will allow office professionals to design a prototype of the office they want while adapting the existing furniture. To what extent can office professionals rearrange, restructure, and reorganise their spaces? What should be discarded or what should be procured on a tight string budget? An expert will take delegates on a crash course on office ergonomics.  Working in groups of 10, office professionals will use the provided resources to create an ideal office environment that will make them more productive and comfortable; even during the times of virtual communication, offices still need to be beautiful, and welcoming.

Tea break: 10h30-11h00

11h00-12h00: Understanding Policy and Accountability

As part of risk management and improving the effectiveness of their office, office professionals need to play an important role in compliance with policies. The office professionals need to be well-versed with policies such as procurement policies, social media policies, HR-related policies, and the code of conduct of their organisations. The rationale for this is that most of the challenges managers face usually stem from a lack of compliance with these policies. This session will explore challenges faced by office professionals in the execution of some of these policies and will also demonstrate how office professionals could be empowered to challenge any decisions contravening their organisation’s policies, both by internal and external stakeholders.  

12h00-12h45:  Emboldened and empowered voice training

An empowered office professional should be able to speak with authority to legitimise communications coming from the office they represent. This session will involve teaching office professionals how to use their voice, speech, and body, and general body language, to communicate effectively. These vocal lessons will work to improve your speaking voice and stage presence, so you can speak well in front of any audience. This session will help you use concise language, as well as employ different communication styles and techniques to build rapport with others.

12h45-13h30: Lunch

Theme 5 | Taking “initiative” to its height (concurrent sessions)

13h30-14h30: Communication support for the line manager, office events, and budget

There is no office without its events, be it small or large events. An office professional is expected to play a key role in the planning, management, and administrative functions of such events. This session will focus on planning an event on a tight budget, and to allow office professionals to ask themselves if there is a need of such an event. Three key elements will be discussed:

• Event rationale, budget, and plan;
• Event theme and rationale;
• Event plan and scheduling;
• Contacts’ database; and
• Event evaluation and monitoring.

13h30-14h30: Project management (Case study – serving multiple bosses)

Several office professionals have previously reported how difficult it is to serve multiple bosses. This session will focus on how to integrate projects. Some key competencies to be discussed include:

• Prioritisation and delegating;
• Optimising your time, energy, and resources;
• Avoiding unnecessary stress and burnout;
• Being flexible and adaptable; and
• Evaluation of your strengths and skills.

14h30-15h30: Plenary session

Resilience breeds success.  Taking charge of problems and solving them before escalating them. This section will allow office professionals to discuss case studies brought up in the evaluation forms. Most of the responses to the evaluation forms dealt with a need for improvement on how they could be more resilient and be able to overcome those challenges.  Practical solutions to make the life of your line manager easier. This session will be presented by a panel of office professionals and facilitated by a seasoned HR practitioner.