New Zealand BEIA Members Awarded PCMA DES Scholarships

Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) has partnered with the Professional Conference Management Association to award PCMA DES (Digital Events Strategist) Certification scholarships to several of its New Zealand members.

The recipients are Kate Blewett - Avenues Event Management, Drew Matheson - Conferences and Events Ltd, Tara Daly - The Conference Company, Jake Eastwood - Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, and Amy van Eerden – Auaha.

Nicky Tilsley, BEIA Member Relationship Manager says graduates of the course become global experts at connecting people to brands, ideas and opportunities through business events in a digital world.

The BEIA scholarship recipients began their six-week course last week. The online programme includes live sessions with experts, and each graduate receives a globally-recognised DES Certificate.

“This has been an exciting opportunity to gift five members with scholarships for the PCMA DES Certification,” Tilsley says.

“Each scholarship is worth US$895 each, and we were thrilled with the level of interest from our members. It was extremely difficult deciding on who would receive them.”

APAC PCMA Managing Director, Florence Chua says the PCMA is deeply committed to the APAC region.

“We are delighted to partner with BEIA on creating access to the Digital Events Strategist (DES) Certification through APAC scholarships gifted by the PCMA Foundation.

“We look forward to collaborating further with BEIA to offer more education opportunities to the New Zealand business events community,” she says.

One of the New Zealand recipients, Drew Matheson of Conferences and Events Ltd says receiving the DES Scholarship from BEIA has really motivated him to engage with other event professionals around the world, learn from them, and upskill as much as possible in this area.

“I look forward to applying the new knowledge and skills immediately to enrich the hybrid and virtual events we are working on.

“I am very grateful to receive the scholarship from BEIA - it certainly makes me feel supported, and that there is a commitment to raising the bar of professionalism for me individually and the industry in Aotearoa,” he says.

Nicky Tilsley says BEIA is working with PCMA on offering more exciting educational opportunities for members in 2022.

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