Lisa Roberts

Managing Director

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Lisa (AKA "Lisa-Maree") is highly regarded as an industry leader & expert when it comes to venues & events. Lisa has an extensive background assisting a broad clientele from individual facilitators to major corporates, PAs, L&D teams to GMs, in sourcing appropriate venues & services for a wide range of successful conferences & functions. Possessing qualifications in Public Relations, Hotel Operations/Catering, Tourism & Office Management, she spent many years with the hotel industry including Conference Management & Director of Sales roles prior to taking over the reins at Ultimate Conferences & subsequenly founding Ultimate Performance+Recruitment & TheVenueShop.com. Diverse experiences span time within Accor Hotels along with independent regional properties... plus early in her career with Australian Resorts/P&O Resorts in QLD (Front Office Manager/Trainer) & Radisson Hotels both in Melbourne & Queensland (F&B Operations/Administration, Reception & Night audit).

With 10 years working as a Senior Consultant/Account Manager in Recruitment to complement her hotel experience, Lisa has strong negotiation skills, prides herself on her resourcefulness, attention to detail, warm & highly professional approach which has ensured she forge many long-lasting relationships in the C&E sector. Most importantly, her passion for the industry & genuine interest in helping people achieve is infectious, with a strong commitment to providing the best possible service in support of both your business & individual career development!

Working so closely over the years with an incredibly array of MICE sector professionals & associated suppliers, Lisa has developed a tremendous network of contacts with relationships at all levels. She understands both the opportunities & challenges faced in this market & sees the establishment of Ultimate Performance+Recruitment as the ideal way to assist in providing solutions for individuals & organisations alike to achieve their own personal & business goals, extending on the same approach Ultimate has always taken in supporting their conferences & events clients. 

"Ultimate always provide fantastic options for us. Reports are detailed, varied & affordable. Nothing ever too much trouble. Cheerful, accommodating, always going the extra mile & takes all the stress out of organising conferences & events"

"You rock!! Thanks so much for your help with our off-sites - professional & lovely assistance as per usual!!

"Lisa makes the challenging task of researching & sourcing appropriate training & function venues a 'tick & flick' activity. Skilled in capturing client needs & matching appropriate solutions. She's also great at identifying opportunities if something doesnt fit in a certain box & presenting alternatives. What a great service!"

"I have utilised Ultimate on numerous occasions for many years & have found them always be on time, reliable, efficient & really understand my needs. I prefer to have Ultimate recommend me a venue as they are up to date with all the happenings of the industry & can put forward the best venues & deals. I have no hesitation in recommending to any organisation."

"The people to go to first when you need conference bookings, so reliable & very cost effective."

*Click through for further CANDIDATE + CLIENT testimonials

Rebecca Day

National Key Accounts Manager - Conferences & Events
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Joining us in early 2012, Bec brought with her over 10 years' experience in the hospitality/events industry. Her career began in her native England, where she worked as a Business Development Manager for the UK's largest full-service Events & Conference Management company.  

After moving to Melbourne in 2005, Rebecca spent the ensuing 7 years in Hotel Sales (MICE) roles - including with Marriott Hotels as National Sales/Market Manager, group Sales Manager across a portfolio of highly regarded regional Victorian dedicated conference venues, plus, BDM (MICE) with the stunning Langham Hotel Melbourne.

Excited to be in a position now to apply her extensive venue knowledge & significant conference experiences, assisting our clients with their residential retreats, conferences, training programs & corporate events, not just around Australia, but across the world.  Rebecca possesses am incredibly well-rounded skill set, is unflappable, dedicated, extremely approachable & helpful - an ideal complement to the team, always with her clients' best interests at heart.
 

Sara Cleary

Office Manager, Sales Consultant/Account Manager
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With her fantastic attention to detail, pride in her work & ability to prioritise (& constantly re-prioritise) a significant, often rapidly changing workload under tight timeframes, Sara commenced as a highly valued member of the support team at Ultimate!  Joining us in September 2010, we were so pleased to entice her across during a phase of signifcant growth & rebranding of the business.

Sara has a Certificate in Recruitment & Selection from the RCSA, a Certificate in Office Practices plus completed training courses in psychometric profiling. Sara has held various office management & senior support/para-consulting roles within executive recruitment, labour hire & generalist companies for 16 years, prior to taking a change of direction - moving into the C&E sector for a new challenge & is absolutely thriving in this environment. Consistently building on her knowledge, Sara has since also become part of our "client-facing" team, account managing the needs for many of our regulars, with particular focus on training/development, or for those special milestone events & end-of-year celebrations.

Sara loves the diversity given one day is never the same as the next, dealing with so many lovely people in the conference industry & thinks the people she works with "aren’t half bad either!"
 

Azni Taylor

HR Consultant / Psychologist

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Azni is an organisational psychologist, qualified coach & councillor with a strong commitment to enabling individuals develop self-awareness & change behaviours thus leading to the alignment of personal & organisational vision. She is a proponent of the tenets of Positive Psychology which is ‘founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful & fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, to enhance their experiences of love, work & play.’

Azni works in partnership with the organisation & the individual to enable sustained behaviour change. She uses her understanding of human motivation from a psychological point of view & applies it in a business context understanding the imperatives of a commercial environment with a goal of building workplaces that foster satisfaction & high productivity.  Specialties include Executive Coaching, Leadership Assessment, Career Transition, Team Relationship Building, Psychometric Assessment, Recruitment & Selection.

Samantha Dove

Looking for Sam or Venue Selector?

Sam, moved her business (Venue Selector) into the Ultimate group in early 2014. Having established Venue Selector in 2003, juggling the demands of raising a young family was the catalyst for Sam originally to set up her own business. At the time, it was also a fabulous way to put the experience she had gained from almost 20 years in the industry across F&B, conference/banquet operations & Hotel Sales to good use. 

Sam's success in building the former Venue Selector client base (which included multi-national companies such as Dulux & Amcor) is testament to the level & standard of service she provided to her customers. Keen to stay in some way connected to the industry, but ideally now move into a more in-house events or project based role, we are pleased to work with Sam to create a new home for her clients whilst she focuses on a new direction moving forward.  Sam says... 

“I am thrilled to transition my business to Ultimate - where I am still able to offer my loyal clients the expertise & venue knowledge they have come to rely on when making the decision of which venue to choose!  I can now also introduce them to additional services, suppliers, new & exciting offers for which the fabulous Ultimate team are industry leaders. I have known the Owner/Director Lisa for many years, so it's been a very smooth transition. It's exciting to be working with a team of such amazing people. Supporting their clients in so much more than the standard venue-finding model, combined with such strong partnerships & communication with venues/suppliers alike, really sets them apart from the rest.  I know my former clients are in great hands!”