The PA Hub Liverpool Conference
Friday 16th May 2025 - Delta Hotels By Marriott Liverpool City Centre Hotel in Partnership with TransPennine Express
OUR PREVIOUS CONFERENCE IN LIVERPOOL
We had an unforgettable day of learning and development at our 16th PA Hub Conference on Friday, 16th May 2025 in Liverpool!
Designed with assistants in mind, this full-day event was packed with engaging sessions, practical takeaways, and opportunities to connect.
We were inspired by top speakers and trainers, gained valuable insights to enhance the role, and collaborated with like-minded professionals. The day was bookended by fantastic social events, including a pre-conference evening gathering and post-conference drinks, making this more than just a conference—it’s an experience.
Headline Partner - TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express Business Travel, the route to success.
We’ve invested £500 million to transform our services, introducing modern trains, free Wi-Fi and more benefits to match your business needs and it couldn’t be easier to book your train tickets.
Our online portal allows companies to book rail travel 24 hours a day, providing the lowest fares and a tailored reporting package to help keep an eye on overall spend.
The system also compares emissions data for rail v car. helping your company champion more environmentally friendly benefits of rail as a green means of travel.
Simply create an account for your company, add your colleagues, set and control their spending if needed – and away you go. It takes just a few minutes to get started.
TransPennine Express is an intercity rail provider with a vision to Take the North Further. We are continuing to transform rail services through high level of performance, investment in stations, enhanced accessibility, measures to improve sustainability and even more investments.
We have a vital role in connecting the North to make it greater than it has ever been, bringing people, businesses and cities close together.
Our Partners and Exhibitors
Photo credits to Roth Read Photography
As always, our goal was to deliver top-tier, industry-relevant training to empower assistants.
Photo credits to Roth Read Photography
You will learn how to....
- Assert yourself within your working life and beyond.
- Build confidence in your role.
- Build practical skills to develop your leadership and self-advocacy skills.
- Learn strategies for an ever-evolving workspace.
- Create an action plan for your professional career development.
- Learn to shift mindset with technology.
- Find balance and double your productivity when working in front of a screen.
- Use your screen time wisely.
- Have a 3-step strategy to recognise your leadership potential.
- Increase your leadership capacity.
- Identify ways to build credibility and boost visibility.
- Achieve your future goals.
- Learn how to harness your imagination and make dreams come true.
- Recognise and capitalise on your strengths.
- Understanding that achieving your goals may not happen in the way you planned.
- Gain practical tools to sharpen your adaptability muscle.
- Find proven methods to build resilience and navigate change.
- Gain a fresh perspective that empowers you to see challenges as stepping stones to growth.
- Believe in yourself and learn how to grow your self-confidence.
- Feel motivated to change your outlook and reach your goals.
- Live in the present.
- Balance work and life.
- Understand your impact as an assistant.
- Equip yourself with strategies and insights to enhance your potential.
- Be inspired and motivated on your return to work.
OUR SPEAKERS
Marion Lowrence
Conference Host
Director - The PA Hub
Headline Partner - TransPennine Express
Darren Higgins
Headline Partner - Welcome from TransPennine Express
Commercial Director
Lucy Brazier OBE
OPENING KEYNOTE - The Courageous Assistant: Bravely Stepping into Your Power and Career
CEO of Marcham Publishing / Executive Support Media
Alexander Bell
Why switch off in a World that's always on?
Keynote Speaker and Creator of Tech Rules
Jasmine Mbye
Recognising the Leader in You
Keynote Speaker, Lead Trainer & Coach
Merryl Futerman
Dare to Dream
Ex Celebrity PA and Author
Rob Hosking
Adaptable is The New Sexy
Former Police Officer turned TEDx Motivational Speaker, & Adaptability Expert
Adam Corbally
CLOSING KEYNOTE - Make It Happen
Motivational Speaker & Finalist from BBC's The Apprentice
Agenda
| 08:30 | Registration |
| 09:00 | Introductions from Host and Headline Partner - TransPennine Express |
| 09:25 | Speaker 1 - Opening Keynote - Lucy Brazier OBE |
| 10:15 | Morning Break |
| 10:45 | Speaker 2 - Jasmine Mbye |
| 11:35 | Speaker 3 - Alexander Bell |
| 12:25 | Lunch Break |
| 13:25 | Speaker 4 - Merryl Futerman |
| 14:15 | Speaker 5 - Rob Hosking |
| 15:05 | Afternoon Break |
| 15:35 | Speaker 6 - Closing Keynote - Adam Corbally |
| 16:25 | Summary |
| 16:30 | Conference Close |
| 16:45 | After Conference Drinks Hour |
FULL SPEAKER INFORMATION BELOW
Headline Partner - TransPennine Express
Darren Higgins
Commercial Director
Darren Higgins, Commercial Director of TransPennine Express, will be welcoming our audience to The PA Hub Conference.
Conference Host
Marion Lowrence
Founder and Co-Director - The PA Hub
Marion will be your conference host for the day.
Read moreAbout Marion
Marion is a multi-award winning former PA, winning Yorkshire PA of the Year in 2011 and Pitman Super Achievers International PA in 2012. Marion worked in various administration and management roles for over 30 years building up her expertise and networks throughout this time including working for the Civil Service and NHS before joining Yorkshire Universities as a Senior EA in the higher education sector.
Marion has presented to various groups of PAs throughout the UK and overseas and loves to network both in person and through social media.
Marion was the Founder of Yorkshire Universities Internal PA Network which led her to set up The PA Hub with her husband and business partner Jon Lowrence. They now run 4 independent networks in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle running over 40 PA events a year including networking meetings, training and development sessions, digital events, conferences, showcases and PA Awards.
Marion was previously Events Director for Executive Support LIVE team, having run events internationally in London, Johannesburg, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Washington DC, Atlanta, Silicon Valley & Seattle.
Marion was the lead delegate representing the UK at the World Administrative Summit in Frankfurt in October 2018 and digitally in 2021 and 2023 and continues to support and promote the profession internationally.
OPENING KEYNOTE - The Courageous Assistant: Bravely Stepping into Your Power and Career
Lucy Brazier OBE
CEO of Marcham Publishing / Executive Support Media
In this inspiring keynote, we will explore the unique challenges and opportunities that today’s assistants face. You will learn how to assert your role within your organisation, harness your inherent strengths, and develop the confidence needed to lead up from your position.
Embrace the courage to redefine your role and impact as an Assistant. This session will inspire you to step forward bravely, armed with the knowledge and tools to flourish in your career and transform your workplace.
Learning Outcomes
- Build enhanced confidence to assert yourself in your role and beyond.
- Take away practical tools for developing leadership qualities and self-advocacy skills.
- Learn strategies to manage and exceed expectations in the evolving workspace.
- Create an action plan to take charge of your professional development and career trajectory.
About Lucy
Lucy Brazier, OBE is one of the world’s leading authorities on the administrative profession. Author of ‘The Modern-Day Assistant: Build Your Influence and Boost Your Potential’, she is the CEO of Marcham Publishing, a global force synonymous with world-class conferences and training, including Executive Support LIVE and Modern-Day Assistant, and home of Executive Support Magazine, the gold standard of training in print for administrative professionals. Lucy is passionate about ensuring the Assistant role is truly recognised as a career and not just a job and is dedicated to supporting the development of both senior and aspiring administrative professionals. She has keynoted at almost every major conference for Assistants in the world and has a unique overview of the role and where it is heading.
The Modern-Day Assistant: Build Your Influence and Boost Your Potential
Buy Book HereWhy switch off in a World that's always on?
Alexander Bell
Keynote Speaker and Creator of Tech Rules
Inspired from his experience as a serial entrepreneur, working with clients including Google, IBM and Warner Brothers, it was a conversation with his 7 year old son that led him to discover the truth about business, technology and performance.
He is here to share his Tech Rules philosophy, showing us how we can unlock an immediate 30% boost to our productivity, restore focus, and feel more connected than we have ever felt before.
Learning Outcomes
- Never feel guilty about your screen time again.
- The simple mindset shift that will change your relationship with technology forever.
- Find balance and double your productivity when working in front of a screen.
About Alexander
Alexander Bell is a global keynote speaker, upcoming author, and thought leader in technology, productivity and human connection.
Inspired by his experiences as a serial entrepreneur and through raising three boys in a world dominated by technology and digital content, Alexander helps people and organisations explore the role that technology plays in our daily lives. In his keynote talk and upcoming book; ‘Tech Rules’, Alexander blends humour, history and science to identify the 7 rules that define our relationship with technology: Attention Intelligence™, Influence, Independence, Power and Performance, Presence, Contribution and Connection.
Alexander started his first company at age 20, growing it into a million-pound turnover PLC, before leading on to work with international technology charity ‘Practical Action’, helping to lead a collaboration between IBM, His Royal Highness King Charles III and Business in the Community. He worked with Google to take Street View indoors and later founded his second startup, all before turning 30.
After spending a decade immersed in Virtual Reality projects as Managing Director at Reality Media Group, working with clients including Warner Bros, where he famously captured Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley in a 360 degree VR experience, it was a conversation with his 7 year old son that led him to discover the truth about technology, people and performance.
Alexander now travels the globe speaking with audiences and working with clients to help them implement his Attention Intelligence™ and Tech Rules® principles to improve internal mindset, boost performance and promote a healthy relationship with technology for overall digital wellbeing.
Recognising the Leader in You
Jasmine Mbye
Keynote Speaker, Lead Trainer & Coach
Leadership potential and capacity lies within each of us, the challenge is to firstly recognise it and next to develop it and then showcase it. The question is, how? How do we recognise the leader in ourselves? And how do we develop and showcase it?
Join Jasmine for an engaging session where these critical questions about our leadership potential and capacity, along with other key leadership questions, are answered. Leave this session with a 3 step strategy to recognise your leadership potential and 7 ways to develop your leadership capacity, building credibility and boost visibility.
Learning Outcomes
- Have a 3 step strategy to recognise your leadership potential
- Have found one way to increase your leadership capacity
- Have identified a way to build credibility and/or boost visibility
About Jasmine
Jasmine is a multiple award-winning, TEDx International Keynote Speaker, Lead Trainer, Coach and Co-author, who has been featured on the BBC news and whose work has been recognised as outstanding. Jasmine combines over 15 years professional expertise of developing others, with business failure and her personal experience of overcoming abuse, to work with organisations delivering talks and training to empower and inspire women and the ethnically diverse to overcome obstacles; like imposter syndrome, fulfil their potential and advance in their careers’, businesses and lives to become empowered, effective leaders who flourish. Working with organisations, like Greenwich University, Sussex & Surrey Police, and the PA Show to champion diversity, retain talent, improve productivity and save money by developing leaders, enhancing employee empowerment and improving wellbeing because of the high cost to all when this isn’t achieved.
Dare to Dream
Merryl Futerman
Ex Celebrity PA and Author
Drawing on my own experiences of starting things from scratch and making a success of it, talking about how to make your dreams and ideas a reality.
Learning Outcomes
- How to harness your imagination and make dreams come true
- Recognizing and capitalising on your strengths
- Understanding that achieving your goals may not happen in the way you planned
About Merryl
After twenty five years as a Celebrity PA to some the UK’s biggest TV stars Merryl Futerman published her debut novel. Coming from a background in the film industry, she worked as a freelance, part-time PA for people including Jonathan Ross, Julian Clary and Anne Robinson. These years inspired her book, Don’t Make a Scene, which is fictional but set in a world she knows well, taking the reader backstage, following Maddy Sparks – a young woman struggling to wrangle big egos as well as challenges in her personal life in a fun, fast-paced romp around London.
Merryl was delighted to have her book optioned not long after publication by an independent film director who is working on a script and has wonderful ideas for casting. She is working on a follow up novel, staying with some of the same characters, that continues on from where Don’t Make a Scene left off.
Don't Make a Scene
Buy Book HereAdaptable is the New Sexy!
Rob Hosking
Motivational Speaker
Just how adaptable are we?
Adaptability is the key to success. Rob knows this better than most. As a former frontline police officer, adapting to the unexpected wasn’t just part of the job, it was essential. In this transformative talk, Rob shares raw, real-life stories from his time on the frontline, offering practical tools and strategies to help you face challenges head-on, embrace change, and come out stronger.
By weaving powerful storytelling with lessons in resilience, Rob will show you how to foster an adaptable mindset as he empowers individuals and teams to not just survive change but thrive through it. Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and equipped to take on whatever comes next with confidence and clarity.
Learning Outcomes
- Practical tools to sharpen your adaptability muscle.
- Proven methods to build resilience and navigate change.
- A fresh perspective that empowers you to see challenges as stepping stones to growth.
About Rob
‘The Mighty Motivator’, Rob Hosking, is a former front-line Police Officer turned international motivational speaker and mental health advocate. After witnessing the challenges of high-pressure environments firsthand, Rob now dedicates his work to helping individuals and teams build resilience, embrace adaptability, and prioritise mental wellbeing. Through powerful storytelling and practical insights, Rob shares his journey from the front lines to the stage, offering tools to manage stress, navigate change, and support others. His engaging and relatable talks inspire audiences to create positive, thriving environments, whether in the workplace or their personal lives
CLOSING KEYNOTE - Make It Happen!
Adam Corbally
Motivational Speaker and Finalist from BBC's The Apprentice
Adam’s keynote presentation focuses on his story: from leaving home and school at 16 years old with little hope, then managing to turn his life around to become a financial success, and more importantly, accomplish happiness and fulfilment in his own life.
Learning Outcomes
- Self-confidence
- Motivation
- Life lessons
- Fun and engaging
About Adam
Adam Corbally has been delivering his motivational talks for over 12 years to over half a million people which has made him one of the most in-demand speakers in the UK today. A brilliant speaker who is loads of fun and gives us the energy we need to take action.
OUR PARTNERS AND EXHIBITORS
Your ticket includes refreshments at the breaks, sit down networking lunch and after conference drinks. There will also be an optional pre-conference event the evening before from 5:30pm – 7pm.
Conference Prices
THE VENUE - Delta Hotels By Marriott Liverpool City Centre Hotel
Situated in the heart of the city, our hotel in Liverpool city Centre offers contemporary comfort in a coveted location.
Explore attractions like St George’s Hall, Albert Dock, Aintree Racecourse, Knowsley Safari Park and the shops of Liverpool One, as well as both Anfield Stadium, home to Liverpool Football Club and Everton Stadium. Retreat into spacious accommodation with premium bedding, flat-screen TVs, large desks, free WiFi and natural light. Upgrade to an expansive family friendly hotel room or suite for enhanced amenities and extra space to unwind. Delight your palate and sample Liverpool Gin at The Brew Bar Lounge. For those planning events in central Liverpool, our function rooms can accommodate everything from an executive board meeting to an exclusive gala dinner.
Experience the comfortable style, superb service and deluxe amenities that earned Delta Hotels by Marriott Liverpool City Centre a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence.
Photo credits to Roth Read Photography
TESTIMONIALS
See what previous attendees said about our conferences:
I really enjoyed the conference on Friday and took so much away from it - one of the best conferences I have attended and so relevant to the role. Thank you to all the team for a great day. I will definitely be attending the one in Liverpool next year.
Office Manager - Leeds
The conference focussed on the value of PAs and who we are, as people and professionals. It was one of the most inspiring conferences I have been to and at the end of the day I felt empowered with enriched confidence, with key skills to take forward.
PA - Newcastle
Was a fantastic experience not only on the day but all the communication and events leading up to it. Thanks for an inspirational and collaborative day.
EA - Manchester
Content amazing and excellent topics with fantastic takeaways. A great day for networking and very inspirational.
EA - Leeds Charity
Really enjoyed the conference with excellent content and venue!
PA -Liverpool
It was my first conference this year and was so pleased it was in my home town! The day was very well thought out and full of content and I came away buzzing with ideas and motivation.
Secretary - Newcastle
The PA Hub Conference is always a worthwhile investment in your development and career as an EA/PA. Last year's conference was no exception; the speakers were engaging, fun and relevant. I came away empowered and energised. Thank you to all the speakers and to Marion and Jon for organising.
EA - Leeds
This was my first event hosted by The PA Hub and it was brilliant! From the selection of speakers to the venue and catering, the whole day had such as great atmosphere! Thank you!
Executive Projects Officer - Newcastle
Another fantastic conference organised by the PA Hub with insightful and interesting speakers. Also a fantastic pre-conference networking event the night before.
PA - Liverpool