Visits from the Governor General, Victorian Premier, Vice Chancellors and Presidents plus our biggest event of the year, the 2013 Australia China Alumni Awards.

The ACAA has been working hard over the last few months collating and highlighting the many success stories amongst Australian alumni living in China. This has culminated in our event of the year – the Australia China Alumni Awards – our flagship annual event.

We congratulate all of this year’s outstanding Finalists and Award winners. Australian alumni are truly a talented bunch! We’ve also recently grown to 34 university partners strong, with Victoria and Bond University recently joining as our newest partners. We’re now proud to work with universities from across seven states & territories as well as all of the Group of 8 universities. Over the past few months we have grown to engage some 9,750+ alumni and are on track to be 10,000 strong by the end of the year. We are also on track to engage 20,000 alumni by the end of 2017. That’s some incredible growth for a small not for profit start-up formed just six years ago!

Visits from the Governor General and Victorian Premier

The ACAA was pleased to invite some outstanding young alumni to attend a reception held in Beijing at Capital M as part of the State Visit to China by Her Excellency the Hon. Quentin Bryce AC CVO, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Alumni from the University of Melbourne, Western Australia, Newcastle, Griffith, New South Wales, Curtin, Victoria and South Australia attended this exclusive alumni reception and were very pleased to be introduced to the Governor General as well as having the chance to meet their fellow high achieving Australian alumni.

In Shanghai, the Victorian Premier and some of his senior ministers had a reception for alumni from Victorian universities at the Shangri-La Hotel in Pudong. University of Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, Victoria University, La Trobe University, Deakin and Swinburne Universities all had attendees at this special event where they met with delegates travelling as part of the Victorian Government Trade Mission to China and also mingle with other Victorian university alumni.

ACAA/IELTS 2013 Australia China Alumni Awards

The 5th Annual Australia China Alumni Awards were held on the November 2 at the Conrad Hotel Beijing. A group of 200+ alumni and friends attended the gala dinner where eight awards were presented in categories ranging from Alumni of the Year, ICT and New Media, and Banking and Finance. The ACAA would like to thank all sponsors, finalists and judges for the making the ACAA/IELTS 2013 Australia China Alumni Awards possible. We look forward to bringing you the 6th awards next year in Shanghai, and hope with your continued support, the prestige and reach of the awards will continue to grow.

ACAA Shanghai

What a busy few months it’s been in Shanghai! Vice-Chancellor and President’s of the University of Canberra, Australian National University and the University of Newcastle as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics from the University of Melbourne all hosted events for their alumni in the past few months. University of Technology, Sydney’s Professor Sam Bucolo spoke on design-led innovation within business to a packed audience at an event run jointly with CPA Australia, and young professionals were given the chance to let their hair down and meet and mingle with their peers at a drinks held with AustCham and ACYA.

ACAA Beijing

The ACAA in Beijing was kept busy in the lead up to the Awards with a packed schedule of events. University of Melbourne, Curtin University and University of Sydney alumni got together over food and drinks at various gatherings across the city. Moreover, the University of Melbourne’s Professor Ross Garnaut and the University of Sydney’s Professor Kerry Brown both gave public lectures during their time in the Capital. Griffith alumni got the chance to meet their Vice-Chancellor and President at an alumni function as well as to meet with education, law and business professionals at a networking function as part of the Griffith / Peking University Emerging Leaders Dialogue. ■

*To learn more about the Australia China Alumni Association, visit us at: www.austchinaalumni.org