Navitas recently concluded its annual Business Partners Conference, celebrating its 30-year anniversary. The theme for the conference was Pathway to Success: Celebrating the Journey. This theme aimed to showcase stories from across the Navitas organisation and global community, highlighting the contributions of its partners over the decades. Over 150 attendees from around the world travelled to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Day 1 of the conference began with a very special session delivered by Navitas Group CEO Scott Jones and Tony Cullen, Executive General Manager, Global Engagement, GSM. Rod Jones, Founder of Navitas, was invited to the stage for a surprise reflection on his life and career. Rod co-founded Navitas (then IBT Education) alongside Peter Larsen in 1994, and together, they pioneered the innovative university pathway concept we know so well today. The morning’s session combined on-the-spot reflections from Scott Jones and longstanding partners with audio and video recordings from many of the important figures in the history of Navitas.
It was an impressive display of the impact Rod and Navitas have made in the world of international education, from university partners to business partners to the impact Navitas has had on individuals building their lives and careers.
As part of this year’s 30-year celebrations, stories were collected from the people who helped bring Navitas to where it is today. Recruitment partners, university partners, alumni, staff, and Navitas Education Trust (NET) partners all participated, and their stories were displayed in the conference venue, allowing guests to scan QR codes and hear stories from each individual.
The first NED Talk – Navitas Education Talk – was ‘Mediations on media planning’ delivered by Charlton D’Silva, CEO, Publisher’s International, also a sponsor of the event. This insightful talk was followed by a dive into the industry future delivered by Jon Chew, Chief Insights Officer, Navitas, titled The Next Era of International Education. A second NED Talk, presented by Rod Hearps, Vice President, Oceania, ICEF, a conference sponsor followed, exploring education agency regulation and quality assurance, with perspectives and insights from around the world.
The first panel of the event was titled: Navigating the new path to a student visa. The panellists included Ganga Dandapani, COO, CANAM; James Kon, CEO, AUG Student Services; Tom Nault, Registrar, Simon Fraser University; Marko Remes, Dean, International Business Operations, Edith Cowan University; and Navitas’ own Pauline Bedford, GM Marketing, UPE.
Jon Chew was on stage once more as he shared results from the latest Global Survey of International Education Leaders (GSIEL). The first official day of the conference finished with a presentation from Scott Jones, reflecting on our past thirty years and looking ahead to the next era for Navitas.
Later in the evening, attendees gathered by the poolside courtyard to celebrate together at the Welcome Reception. After a day of fascinating insights, the Reception allowed delegates to talk, exchange ideas and reflections from the sessions, and catch up with the friends they have made over the past thirty years of Navitas.
Day 2 of the conference started with a warm welcome from the MC, Sally Waite, EGM, UPA. The first session of the day was an important presentation titled, ‘The importance of education in the fight against child trafficking’ by Sarah Rogers, Program Manager with Free to Shine. Free To Shine is a child protection organisation that prevents school-aged girls from being trafficked into the commercial sex industry in Cambodia. As members of the global international education industry, it is more important than ever that we remain educated on the risks and ramifications of human trafficking and modern slavery. Sarah’s session was an inspiring reminder of our duty to protect students at every step of their education journeys and to educate ourselves on the places we travel to and conduct business.
After the morning’s session, the delegates were split into teams for the afternoon’s team-building activity! In the Amazing Race style, teams travelled around Siem Reap, accompanied by a guide, to learn as much as they could about the city and its history. Tasked with completing a set of questions at each stop they made, teams visited markets to try a local sustainable food source – insects – before visiting Cambodia’s famous Hero Rats. Hero Rats are rats that are trained to detect landmines. It’s believed the rats have saved many people, especially children, from severe injuries by sniffing out the landmines. Teams also visited one of the incredible Khmer temples at Angkor, the Bayon Temple. At each stop, the teams had to complete activities and collect answers to questions about Siem Reap and Cambodia.
The teams then returned to the hotel for the final challenge in the team-building exercise: lotus flower folding. The teams learned how to fold a simple lotus flower, and together, they built bouquets of lotus flowers to present to the judges.
The final session of the day came from one of our conference sponsors, Ingenuity Partners. Hosted by Kyle Dunsire, Founding Director of Ingenuity Partners, and Charlsey Pearce, Chief Growth Officer of Ingenuity Partners, the session explored pathways to innovation through an industry-aligned data standard.
The third and final day of the 2024 BPC was Partners Day. Delegates gathered in groups – agent partners, university partners, staff – to attend sessions designed for each partner type. The attendees experienced a diverse array of panels, presentations and activities to tie together everything we learned from each other over the previous two days.
The day ended early, allowing attendees to get ready for the conference’s final celebrations: the Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner. The Navitas BPC Awards are announced each year to recognise the outstanding work of our partners and global teams, from outstanding leadership to innovative ESG initiatives.
Once the Awards Ceremony was complete, guests boarded buses for a trip to the surprise location for the Gala Dinner: the famous Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a large temple complex spanning over 162 acres, in the ancient Khmer city of Angkor. What a way to conclude the conference.
The Koala congratulates Navitas on a successful conference and its 30th-anniversary celebration and thanks its media team for permission to utilise copy for this story.
