Why Virtual Assistants Need Their Own Space to Connect

When we first contacted Louise about our East Anglia conference for Virtual Assistants, Executive Assistants and Personal Assistants, her reaction told us something important.

She bought a ticket almost immediately.

Why? Because in several years working as a Virtual Assistant, she hadn’t seen anything quite like it before.

“That’s me. That’s what I do. That’s where I live.”

Louise has been a Virtual Assistant since 2019 — working remotely before the pandemic suddenly introduced much of the rest of the working world to life outside the office.

But flexibility and independence come with another side to them.

When your working world becomes smaller

For Louise, one of the challenges of being a VA is the potential for your professional world to become quite narrow.

You might work with lots of different people and businesses, but much of your working day is still spent alone.

As Louise explains:

“I generally work on my own all day… I always worry that my world can become a bit narrow if I don’t make the deliberate effort to step out and explore new systems, new ways of working, new ideas.”

And we suspect she’s far from alone.

When you’re busy looking after clients, keeping businesses organised and being the person everyone else relies upon, your own development and professional network can easily slip down the priority list.

There are peaks and troughs. When work is busy, you’re focused on everybody else’s business.

Every so often, though, it’s important to focus on yours.

Networking is useful. Finding your people is different.

There are plenty of networking events.

But there’s a difference between walking into a room full of businesses and walking into a room of people who understand what you actually do.

That’s one of the things we want to create with this conference.

A chance for VAs, EAs and PAs from across East Anglia to meet people facing similar challenges, share what they’re learning and discover how other people are approaching their work.

Not just another networking event.

A professional community.

New systems. New ideas. New ways of working.

The world of work is changing extraordinarily quickly.

AI, automation and new digital tools are changing what’s possible. Businesses are reconsidering how they build teams and where expertise needs to sit. And the opportunities for people providing high-quality outsourced support are changing with them.

That’s why Louise’s answer to the question “What are you most looking forward to?” struck us.

It was very simple:

“Hearing new ideas.”

That’s exactly what we want the day to create.

New ideas. New connections. New systems. New ways of working.

And perhaps most importantly, the beginnings of a stronger local community of people who understand one another’s work.

Because sometimes you need to get out of your own working world to see just how much opportunity there is beyond it.

Watch Interview

We caught up with Louise Bradley on the day to find out what had brought her along and what she was hoping to get from the conference.

Here’s a little snippet from our chat about the realities of working as a VA, the importance of finding your people, and making time to step outside your day-to-day work for some new ideas.

And please excuse the slightly homespun video quality! We’re doing everything on a bit of a shoestring this year while we prove the idea works — polished film crew next year, perhaps. 😉

Have a watch — Louise puts it rather better than we could.