e-Kiddna Event Management

Merry Christmas to everyone whose lives were privileged to be touched by Jayne Caswell & e-Kiddna Event Management. 🎄♥️

Written by Jennifer Reeves, Jayne Caswell’s sister……….

Today marks one year since our darling Jayne Caswell passed away so suddenly and tragically. We still can’t understand or believe it. We have done so much reflection over the past year and our hearts still ache.

I have made the sad decision to downsize e-Kiddna Event Management. Words can’t possibly describe this journey, on the business front but also personally. The business no longer manages large scale conferences, yet it remains open for smaller work.

Heartfelt thanks to all the dear clients, suppliers, contractors, friends & family who have been so kind & supportive over the last year.

Today was a quiet one spent at home with close family. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve polished off a bottle of fine French champagne in tribute to the most gorgeous soul that surrounds us each day…..….. our Jayne. 💜

This post, (written by Jennifer), is the hardest one I've ever had to do for e-Kiddna. On Saturday 3rd July, my darling sister Jayne Caswell (formerly Kidd) died in a tragic accident on the family farm.

Jayne lived and breathed e-Kiddna Event Management since its inception almost 21 years ago. e-Kiddna was Jayne's wonderful creation and everything she did with the business she did with excellence. We often chuckled about her "disease to please". She started her business from humble beginnings, ambitiously when her oldest daughter was only one year old. At that time I had my own career in recruitment but I "moonlighted" with e-Kiddna and would find myself working onsite with Jayne some weekends at the registration desk of conferences when she needed me. When I started my own family almost 15yrs ago, Jayne hooked me in permanently and the rest is history. There was never any advertising of the business, all of our clients were loyal, long-standing and through referrals, which is a testament to Jayne's reputation and standard of work.

Jayne was not only my sister, but my best friend and business partner. Now the sun still rises each morning and we wake up with the sad and surreal reality that Jayne is no longer with us.

When planning Jayne's funeral, I could feel her encouraging me to run it as an event in true e-Kiddna Event Management style. So, the date has been set, Saturday 17th July, and below is the link to the event site. A special thank you to Fleur Watkins & Leona Butler for helping me put this event site together. We are not limited by COVID as it will be an outdoor event at the family farm in Jimboomba, QLD. If Jayne touched your life in some way, you are welcome to attend........

https://ekiddna.eventsair.com/the-jayne-caswell-memorial-event/rsvp

Thank you to the RNA Royal International Convention Centre for their hospitality today where we were given a unique tour of their impressive commercial kitchens that can cater for groups ranging from small intimate numbers to thousands of guests. The logistics, food science & precision involved to serve high volumes of such quality cuisine in such a short time was so impressive. We tasted their new portfolio of canapés and we were not disappointed! A mouthwatering lunch was served, along with an impressive light show. It was great to be back out mixing with our industry colleagues “talking shop” about working in this COVID era that is so challenging for us all.

Last night was the Young Investigator Awards Dinner for the Gastroenterological Society of Queensland (GESQ). A major goal of the GESQ is to foster medical research amongst trainee gastroenterologists. Each year, trainees can submit their research presentations to be selected as a finalist to present at the YIA Dinner. This normally happens at the annual conference, the GESQ Noosa Update, but because of COVID the conference didn't go ahead this year. There were 35 entrants, 8 finalists presenting and two winners chosen (for scientific & clinical research), each receiving a $1,000 cash prize. The dinner meeting was recorded live for those in the regions to attend virtually.

It's nice to experience the optimism and confidence coming back to our industry. We adapted when COVID struck and Jayne & Jennifer have been busy mastering the skills of managing virtual meetings. These images are of a recent virtual webinar, one of a series of seven this year, for the Sydney International Endoscopy Symposium (SIES). The speaker on the right was Prof Cesare Hassan, a world leader in his field, from Rome. Such an entertaining man, we could have listened to his accent all night! 🙂 We still have a few more virtual meetings to manage in 2021, but we are excited to be working on a few onsite, face-to-face meeting & conferences that are planned to run over the next few months and in 2022. Nothing can replace the social feel that a face to face conference can create!

We are very excited! Not only is our contractor Fleur a Master of our EventsAIR software, but she is also one of the contestants on this year’s series of Lego Masters! First episode screens tonight at 7:30pm, Channel 9.
GO FLEUR!! Jennifer & Jayne will be glued to a different screen tonight....the TV screen! 😀
(Fleur is wearing yellow in this picture.) 😀