EA/PA Leadership Summit Aotearoa 2026

Melanie Unstead is one of New Zealand's leading voices on leadership development and executive partnership. As an executive coach, founder of Exec Assist, and experienced leadership facilitator, she has worked alongside leaders and executive assistants across a wide range of organisations to build stronger partnerships, develop leadership capability, and create high-performing teams.

Over the next two days, Melanie will guide delegates through the summit, connecting the key themes, facilitating discussions, and helping translate powerful ideas into practical leadership insights.

Many Executive and Personal Assistants spend their careers striving to become more strategic or influential, believing influence is something that must be earned or granted. But what if you're already influencing outcomes every day without realising it?

In this engaging and practical session, we'll explore The Three Circles of Executive Partnership Tasks, Operations, and Influence to uncover how EAs and PAs shape decisions, mitigate risks, strengthen relationships, and drive better outcomes through their judgement, insight, and everyday actions.

Through real-world examples, audience interaction, and personal stories, we'll challenge common assumptions about influence, examine the difference between visible and invisible impact, and discuss how to contribute with confidence without feeling like you're overstepping. Attendees will also learn practical ways to make their thinking, observations, and professional judgement more visible.

You'll leave with a fresh perspective on your role, recognising that influence isn't defined by a title or a seat at the table it's built through the value you bring, the decisions you shape, and the conversations you choose to have every day.

Artificial intelligence is changing the workplace faster than any technology we've seen before, creating new opportunities for Executive Assistants to elevate their role and increase their impact.

In this engaging and practical session, we'll explore how AI is transforming the way administrative and executive support work gets done. Through real-world examples, stories, and practical use cases, you'll discover how leading EAs are using AI to save time, simplify complex tasks, improve decision support, and create more value for the leaders they support.

This session isn't about becoming a technology expert. It's about understanding where AI can make a meaningful difference in your day-to-day work and how EAs can position themselves for success in an increasingly AI-enabled workplace.

The EA role demands constant adaptation. But resilience isn't just pushing through sometimes it means questioning the habits you've leaned on, even the ones nobody else notices.

Monique spent years as an Executive Assistant before founding her own business, a path shaped by staying curious about what wasn't working, even when it looked fine from outside.

In this candid session, Monique shares her journey of reinvention and the personal turning point that reshaped how she thinks about pressure, performance, and what genuinely sustains people in demanding roles.

You'll leave with a fresh lens on resilience: less endurance, more curiosity and permission to question what you've always assumed you needed to cope.

The most influential EAs do more than manage logistics, they build systems, anticipate what's needed, and move priorities forward before anyone has to ask. Valerie knows this from two directions at once: as a Senior Executive Assistant supporting a CEO day to day, and as a business owner running two ventures of her own alongside that role.

In this session, Valerie shares how the same skillset anticipating problems, building efficient systems, and keeping multiple priorities moving without dropping the ball, shows up whether she's managing an executive's calendar or running a business behind the scenes. She'll unpack what it actually means to "think like an executive" from someone doing it in real time, not in theory.

You'll leave with a practical view of how operational thinking becomes strategic value and how the discipline you already bring to your EA role can extend further than you think.

No two Executive Assistant and executive partnerships are the same. The most successful ones are built on understanding both your leader's needs and your own strengths.

Knowing your value and saying it out loud are two different things. In this practical, engaging session, Alicia explores what gets in the way, from the inner voices that keep us quiet to the ways we hold back. You'll learn how to articulate your value and ask for what you need. No personality transplant required!

You'll walk away with greater confidence in your self-advocacy, allowing you to build stronger partnerships, and work with more enjoyment and ease.

For many people, success looks like reaching a goal and staying there. But some of the most rewarding opportunities come from having the courage to evolve, take risks, and embrace new challenges.

From dietitian to MasterChef winner, entrepreneur, author, television personality, and farmer, Nadia Lim has built a career defined by growth, reinvention, and a willingness to back herself in unfamiliar territory.

In this inspiring keynote, Nadia shares the lessons she has learned from stepping into the unknown, navigating change, and redefining success at every stage of her journey.

You will leave with practical insights into trusting your instincts, embracing new opportunities, and having the confidence to pursue a path that is uniquely your own.

The best Executive Assistants don't wait for confidence to arrive before stepping into bigger opportunities. They develop the habits, mindset and self-leadership that allow them to perform consistently, even in complex and demanding environments.

Drawing on her work coaching Executive Assistants and leadership teams across New Zealand, Melanie Unstead explores how personal leadership shapes professional success. Discover practical ways to strengthen your confidence, manage self-doubt, stay adaptable through change and take greater ownership of your career.

Working closely with senior leaders requires the ability to communicate openly and constructively, even when conversations become difficult. Whether managing expectations, raising concerns, or addressing competing priorities, the ability to manage up effectively is a critical leadership skill.

In this practical session, explore how to approach challenging conversations with professionalism and confidence while maintaining trust and strong working relationships.

Knowing your value is the foundation for making confident decisions, setting healthy boundaries and pursuing opportunities that reflect what you truly bring to the table.

This seminar will help you recognise and acknowledge your strengths, articulate your contribution, advocate for yourself with clarity and ultimately strengthening the trust and efficacy of the partnership you have with your executives and ultimately your sense of purpose.

For much of our careers, we are encouraged to fit a particular mould. To be more polished, more confident, more authoritative, or more like someone else. Yet some of the most successful and influential people are those who have learned to embrace who they are rather than trying to become who they think they should be.

Over a career spanning journalism, television, radio, and some of New Zealand's most recognisable media organisations, Hilary Barry has built a reputation for authenticity, resilience, and an ability to connect with people from all walks of life. Along the way, she has learned that confidence does not come from perfection. It comes from self acceptance, perspective, and having the courage to show up as yourself.

In this inspiring and highly entertaining keynote, Hilary shares stories from her remarkable career and reflects on the lessons she has learned about confidence, criticism, resilience, and staying true to yourself in a world full of expectations.

Because leadership becomes far more powerful when you stop trying to be someone else and start backing who you already are.

As an Executive Assistant, your value goes far beyond the tasks on your to-do list. Your judgement, strengths, perspective and ability to influence can make a significant difference to the people and organisations you support — but recognising that value and confidently owning it is a skill in itself.

In this empowering session, Natalie Tolhopf will explore how self-doubt, perfectionism and the stories we tell ourselves can hold us back from stepping fully into our capabilities.

Discover how to recognise and back your strengths, build greater confidence in your contribution, and take action with more clarity and conviction. Learn how to move beyond simply supporting others and embrace the influence, capability and value you bring to your role.

Walk away with a renewed belief in what you bring to the table — and the confidence to make your impact known.

As the summit draws to a close, take a moment to reflect, reset and refocus. In this energising closing session, we'll guide you through the key insights of the past two days and help you turn inspiration into practical action. Identify your next steps, clarify your priorities and commit to the changes that will elevate your impact. Leave feeling focused, confident and ready to step forward as a trusted, capable and future-ready executive partner.