News location:

Canberra Today 15°/19° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra Confidential / Organisers organise non-organiser

Jen seated Nov 2015JENIFER Dwyer Slee, pictured, is the first amongst us to be gonged with a Lifetime Award from the Professional Conference Organisers Association. And she’s not even a conference organiser! She’s the director of sales and marketing at the National Convention Centre.

“Jenifer truly cares about bringing business to Australia and to Canberra and has been open and generous in sharing her knowledge in how the hotel sector operates with PCOs, to help with their professional development and upskilling,” says Barry Neame, president of the PCO Association. “This includes helping young people entering the industry acquire quality skills and quickly. Jenifer has always been open to being a mentor.”

Groundhog Day development

DESCRIBING the Federal Golf Club’s seventh attempt to build 150 houses and apartments as “Groundhog Day”, president of the Red Hill Regenerators Ross Kingsland says the conservation group is “bitterly disappointed” that the cash-strapped club has dusted off failed development applications to yet again seek “inappropriate development on their lease”.

However, he says, this time it’s bigger than before and would require tens of hectares of clearance within the adjoining Red Hill Nature Reserve for fire management, roadworks and other infrastructure.

“It would also require bulldozing at least 300 native trees and nationally important endangered woodland,” he says.

Happy knight for Gail

Sir Bob and Gail Freeman.
Sir Bob and Gail Freeman.
FORMER London coffee-lounge folk singer and latter-day Canberra accountant Gail Freeman is often to be found in the merch queue after concerts to share a fraternal word with a visiting star or two.

CC is therefore unsurprised to see her flashing this snap around Facebook of her chumming up with singer Sir/Saint Bob Geldof, who was at the Press Club on his best behaviour the other night.

The one-hit-wonder (“I Don’t Like Mondays”) and global human rights campaigner was improbably in town to give the keynote speech for the Leadership in Government Awards. According to one snout, despite some gentle pressure not to swear, the Irish knight dropped a few eff bombs through his well received discourse and shared some frank views of leadership. Apparently, he doesn’t think much of it. Despite that, he brought the house down.

Moving House

WITH a looming pokie grab by the casino, it isn’t the time for ClubsACT to lose the sharp political nous of its CEO Jeff House, who is heading to the local bureaucracy as deputy director-general Arts, Business, Events, Sport & Tourism, where he will doubless see the casino from a different angle.

And long-time breakfast host Mark Parton leaves 2CC on December 18 to cultivate his marketing and social media business business.

No more Mr Nice Guy

DID local Liberals’ media flack Joe Prevedello cross a line by playing nice guy and distributing a media release on behalf of the Speaker?

Vicki Dunne’s announcement of the Legislative Assembly prizes for art strangely came from the Liberal press office.  

“Joe, is the Speaker required to clear her communications with your office or is her office unable to send a media release?” we waggishly wondered.

“Usually these Speaker releases get sent out from the Assembly, but the person who usually does it was away,” Joe replied.

“That particular release needed to be sent out on Friday so I did them a favour and put it out for them. I never clear these releases, they are for the Speaker.”

All of which is a sad reflection on Assembly resources that no one in the Speaker’s office was capable of circulating a little news.

Rouge with anger

AS factionally challenged Environment Minister Simon Corbell joins the other 39,999 junketeers to the Paris climate change conference, one exasperated Canberra ratepayer has written to declare the trip a “rort” and urging “CityNews” to lodge an FOI on the travel/accommodation expenses when he gets back.

“Apart from the cost and self-indulgence, none of us exist in a bubble… the ACT could put in place the best, greenest environmental policies and processes in the world, and they would count for little if the major manufacturing states either side of us kept chugging away in full-bore industrial mode,” our correspondent harrumphs.

“The only consoling thought about Corbell’s trip is that all the famous five-star hotels in Paris will be booked out for genuine VIPs, and Simon could be staying in a dodgy motel in the distant outer suburbs, where life is pretty challenging these days.”

 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Lifestyle

Two words and you may be off to Jamala Lodge

Here's a special advertising feature with a twist of April Fool's Day fun and the chance to win a free night's accommodation for two, valued at $1850 at the award-winning Jamala Wildlife Lodge at the National Zoo and Aquarium.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews