Australians Abroad

The idea was to bring together Australian professionals living overseas who shared a commitment to advance the profile of Australia and Australians. Members include Hillary Clinton's press secretary Nina Blackwell and lipstick queen Poppy King.

In early 2008 Douglas moved to the Advance board and Serafina Maiorano took over as Chief Executive. Maiorano had spent three years in Dubai where she ran a human resources and project management consultancy. She says: "I have learned from working overseas that Australians are highly skilled and well regarded globally."

Advance is a not-for-profit organisation and membership is free. Maiorano says: "We receive funds through donations, corporate sponsorship and Australian federal and state government fee-for-service funding." Advance has more than 11,000 members spread across 63 countries.

The Challenge

Staying relevant to a growing membership base.

The Solution

Advance's membership has grown so rapidly over the past six years that the challenge has been to ensure the organisation remains relevant to its members. As a global organisation with a very broad remit - Australians working overseas - Advance find ways to add value for members. One successful method has been Advance's industry-specific networks for members.

Maiorano says: The industry networks were part of the original formation back in 2002. Seven industry networks have been developed over time. They allow us to cater to specific professional areas such as academic, the arts, financial services, media, and professional services."

Advance holds more than 150 events worldwide each year. These cater for specific member networks with key speakers from the industry. Maiorano says: "This week [mid May] we held an event for the media, communications and technology network in New York. Our guest speakers included Brad Blanks [on-air comedic personality for the New York radio station WPLJ], David Droga [founder and creative chairman of the ad agency Droga5] and Jennifer Nason [global head of technology, media and telecom investment banking, JP Morgan]."

When it started in 2002 most Advance members were in the US. In 2006 it opened an office in London to cater to its growing membership in Britain and Europe. Maiorano says: "It is important to expand strategically. We are looking at opening an office in Asia and the success of the organisation depends on employing the right people - those who can build and motivate membership and work cross-culturally."

Advance has established local chapters in nine cities to cater for its globe-trotting members: Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington. Maiorano says: "We have volunteer committees in these cities; we don't dictate how often they meet. This model has grown from the membership: they meet, have discussions regularly and create events around their interests."

Live events are often held in the chapter cities and Advance's website has plenty of content to service its global community. Maiorano says: "Our virtual platform is really important; we podcast events and send regular newsletters to keep our global members informed."

In late 2005 Advance conducted an online survey of members that showed more than 25% would be interested in returning to Australia. In response Advance has developed a talent-mobility program to assist this process. Maiorano says: "It is about creating that bridge back home. We have held events in New York, London and Hong Kong with Russell Reynolds Associates; they wanted to tap into the market and meet with Australians wanting to return home."

In 2006 Advance produced the Advance 100 Global Australians Summit. This two-day event was held in Sydney and brought together 100 of the most influential Australians living overseas. Maiorano says: "There are more than one million Australians living overseas; our role is to engage this global talent as a brains trust and avoid any brain drain away from Australia."

Advance runs an ambassador program. The ambassadors spot international business opportunities for Australia. Maiorano says: "For example, we are working with the Victorian government to build its database of Victorians abroad with the aim of keeping Victorian's living and working overseas connected with each other and with home."

The Result

Advance's membership has grown from 500 in 2002 to more than 11,000 in 2008. Its membership sectors include:

• Academic and research (2,095 members)
  
  
• The arts (3,599 members)
  
  
• Financial services (3,545 members)
  
  
• Life sciences (1,807 members)
  
  
• Media, communications and technology (4,435 members)
  
  
• Professional services (3,114 members)
  
  
• Public and charitable (1,591 members)
  
  

Maiorano says: "Our aim this year is to open an office in Asia, expand our membership and our talent mobility program and to build our online presence."

Unique visits to the Advance website have grown from 20,000 in May 2006 to 75,000 in May 2007 and 160,000 in May 2008.

Advance has established two new awards: the Australian Woman in the UK award and Advancing BioBusiness award in the US.

Recently a chapter was established in Sydney to cater for the members who had returned home after living overseas. "Our mission is to galvanise the global community of Australians who are living abroad for the economic, cultural and social advancement of Australia."

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