Third Sector Expo, the free two-day professional development conference and exhibition for not-for-profits, is being held 16 – 17 April at Hilton on the Park, Melbourne, and registrations are filling up quickly.

Third Sector is pleased to announce Drake International as the Platinum Sponsor for Third Sector Expo 2012. Drake International is in the ‘people’ business, and specialise in solving clients’ human capital issues. Drake International’s philosophy is that organisations achieve the highest level of performance when they are staffed with the right people, working with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours. In Australia, Drake International has been partnering with organisations for over four decades to understand their human resource needs, and help them achieve their best return on human capital investments.

At Third Sector Expo 2012, in the session Strategic Management, Drake International will explain the key to effective staffing solutions including orientation, training and development, performance management, team building, employee retention and more.

Two new speakers at Third Sector Expo have also been announced:

Linda Lavarch – Chair of the Australian Government’s Not-For-Profit Sector Reform Council

Lavarch currently holds the position of Chair of the Australian Government’s Not-For-Profit Sector Reform Council which has been influential in the development and implementation of the Not-For-Profit Reform Agenda. Lavarch is also a Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT where she is currently co-ordinating a Nonprofit Model Law research project.

As a former State Member of the Queensland Parliament, Lavarch served as Queensland’s first woman Attorney-General. She currently serves as a Director on the Boards of The Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation and Hockey Queensland, and also is the Chair of the Coast2Bay Housing Group, a not-for-profit social and affordable housing company.

At Third Sector Expo 2012 Lavarch will be reflecting on the future of the not-for-profit sector and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss what the sector should look like and what improvements need to be made to get there.

John Brothers – International not-for-profit expert

Brothers is an international leader in the not-for-profit sector with over 20 years of experience. He is an expert in the field of executive leadership, Board development, not-for-profit effectiveness and organisational growth. Some of Brothers’ most interesting work involved helping to establish a new not-for-profit sector in Trinidad.

Brothers is a professor in not-for-profit and philanthropic studies at New York University and has a Masters of Public Administration in Non-profit Management and a Doctorate in Law and Policy. He is also the Editor of the American Journal for Nonprofit Management in his role as a Senior Fellow with the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, as well as author of the newly released book Building Nonprofit Capacity.

Look out for Brothers’ article about how to understand your not-for-profit organisation’s growth in the upcoming edition of Third Sector magazine. Don’t have a subscription to Third Sector? Visit www.thrdstaging.wpengine.com/subscribe