Valerie Khoo is managing director of the Sydney Writers’ Centre. Since founding the centre in 2005, she has grown it from a one-person operation to a thriving centre featuring more than 30 of Australia’s top writing trainers/journalists/authors. It is now Australia’s leading centre for writing courses, offering both “classroom” and “online” courses to students around the world. By early 2012, she expects to welcome the Centre’s 10,000th student.

The centre has helped thousands of students get published, score book deals, change careers and improve their job prospects. In 2010, the Sydney Writers’ Centre was a winner in  the NSW Telstra Business Awards. In 2009, it was named by Dell as one of the 10 most innovative small businesses in Australia.

With a passion for building online communities, Valerie has transformed the concept of the traditional cottage writers’ centre into a dynamic community of aspiring writers from all over the world. In addition to its flagship habourside premises, thousands of students participate in courses which include creative writing, magazine writing, business writing, travel writing, novel writing, grammar and punctuation, media releases and much more.

Valerie is also an experienced journalist and small business commentator. With a Bachelor of Economics (majoring in accounting) and a Graduate Diploma in Communication (journalism, public relations), Valerie began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining a national public relations firm. She has worked at three major publishing houses – ACP Magazines, EMAP and Pacific Magazines – including three years in Singapore.

Her popular Enterprise blog appears in smh.com.au, theage.com.au, watoday.com.au and brisbanetimes.com.au

Valerie’s personal blog at www.ValerieKhoo.com was named by Smart Company as one of the 25 Best Business Blogs in Australia 2011.

Valerie is also Ambassador of the Best Australian Blogs Competition run by the Sydney Writers’ Centre. Last year, the national competition received coverage in The Australian, Sky News, metropolitan radio and in newspapers around the country, not to mention countless blogs.

Valerie has been a mentor in the Women in Business mentor program with the NSW Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD). She is published regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald, is author of five books and writes for a range of corporate and consumer publications.

In 2007, Valerie was appointed an ambassador of Australia Network and will feature on the channel which is available in 21 million homes in 41 countries across Asia, the Pacific, the Indian subcontinent and in more than 200,000 hotel rooms.

In 2008, the Sydney Writers’ Centre blog was included in Smart Company’s list of Top 15 Best Business Blogs.

Valerie has been awarded:

2004 Family Circle Women Who Dare Awards
2005 Australian Humanitarian Award (Business category)
2005 Australia Post Small Business Awards Special Judges Commendation
2006 UTS Alumni Leadership Award
2006 Anthill 10 Coolest Companies in Australia.
2008 Finalist Small Business Champion Awards (NSW)
2009 Australian Finalist in the Dell Small Business Excellence Awards
2010 Winner NSW Telstra Business Awards Micro-Business Category

Comments on Valerie’s presentations and workshops

“Valerie is an excellent moderator, and demonstrated this once again in her third stint for the CIE at our Meet the Entrepreneur – State of Play event.  She is always exceedingly well-prepared, and this is evident not only in her knowledge of the subject at hand, but also in the high level engagement with the panellists and her ability to keep the conversation flowing while asking the tough questions.  She far exceeded our expectations for the areas to be covered in the discussion, and managed the following lively question-and-answer session with deftness, grace, and aplomb.  Valerie is able to maintain a wonderful air of openness and humour while at all times remaining a consummate professional.”
- Linda Glave, Program Manager, Centre for Innovation and Entrepeneurship, UNSW 

“Valerie’s seminar on ‘How to make your writing shine’ was extremely well received at the Eat Drink Blog 2011 national foodbloggers’ conference. Her presentation showed great insight into writing via the blogging medium and provided valuable tips on how bloggers can approach professional writing. An engaging and entertaining speaker I’d highly recommend to any conference organiser.”
- Trina So, blogger at The Gourmet Forager and organiser of Eat Drink Blog 2011

“Valerie is an engaging, dynamic presenter who is extremely professional and very well prepared for her roles.  She finds the right pitch for her audience and connects especially well to the small and medium business market.

“You can be very confident as an event organiser that Valerie will add value to your program and will deliver on your brief.  She is highly credible as a business speaker and presenter, and as a facilitator Valerie crafts probing questions and manages interplay with the audience with aplomb. I highly recommend you consider Valerie for your next event.”
- Bill Baggitt, Director, Business Events

“Valerie was simply ‘inspired’ as the moderator for our Meet The Entrepreneur hypothetical-style event. There was a heavy reliance on the moderator function to guide the group dynamic, and explore and delve into each of our panelists’ backgrounds and talents. At the most basic level, she entertained us all, and steered debate into important quarters, while being humorous, informed and obviously very intelligent. A brilliant performance and her preparation shined through!”
- Christopher Witt, Director, Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, UNSW

“You met our brief brilliantly, your content was on trend and where businesses should be going moving forward and you were such a pleasure to work with so thank you. The great thing about the workshop and I think that is reflected somewhat in the comments was the practical content that you delivered. So the feedback has been you got up there, talked about it and then showed them how to do it.”
- Claire Thomas, Connections with ACP Magazines

“Valerie Khoo is an inspiring and professional speaker who really knows how to engage an audience. She is able to impart lots of really useful information based on her extensive media experience in an entertaining and noncondescending way – I recommend her highly!”
- Fran Molloy, co-founder of the NSW Freelance Journalist’s Network

“I think Valerie is one of the best speakers I’ve come across so far.”
- Sandra D’Souza, NSW President, Business and Professional Women Australia

“Valerie is a very switched on and engaging presenter. She knows her topic in detail, and by showing how she applies it to her businesses, helps to make it real. I would highly recommend her as a speaker and presenter, her open manner and energetic repartee with the audience, keeps you alert and listening.”
- Helen McNall, small business owner

“Valerie’s presentation was spot on. The information moved quickly, was presented creatively and in a way that really sunk in.”
- Sue White

“Valerie is very enthusiastic, well prepared and knows her topic extremely well.”
- Sarah Macauley

“Valerie Khoo is an inspiring presenter with a positive and practical approach.”
- Susannah Hardy

“I really enjoyed Valerie’s exuberance and her ability to illustrate points in a way that everyone understood.”
- Natalie Reiss

“We chose Valerie Khoo to speak at the inaugural meeting of a freelance journalists association in Sydney because several people had described her talks as ‘inspiring’. She gave a speech on ten tips for running a freelance business and came across as enthusiastic and relaxed with a delightful sense of humour. Her manner was positive and professional and the tips she gave appealed to both experienced and new freelance journalists. She connected really well with the audience of almost 100 freelancers and spent considerable time answering a gamut of questions. She was generous with her advice. Valerie was a real drawcard and I would recommend her as a lively, entertaining speaker.”
- Linda Vergnani, organiser of the freelance association meeting, Sydney

Survey results
In the 2007 workshop series for the NSW Department of State and Regional Development’s Women in Business program, a total of 141 participants completed evaluations forms. Results provided by the Department showed that:

100% of the participants were satisfied to very satisfied that the workshop would be useful for them in their business
100% indicated that they were likely to very likely to implement what they had learnt into their business
100% rated Valerie’s delivery of the workshop as good to excellent.

Valerie has been published in:

The Sydney Morning Herald
The Age
Anthill magazine
The Straits Times
Australian Innovations: Towards a Sustainable Future
Build a Nation
Business View
Private Word
CLEO
Vogue
Medical Observer
and publications in the UK, South Africa and South-east Asia.

Speaking topics
Valerie can tailor her content to suit anything from a 30 minute presentation to a longer workshop. Her topics of expertise include:

*  7 Ways to boost your business and build your brand online
The right media exposure can rocket your sales, consolidate your reputation and build your brand.  

* How to get publicity
The right media exposure can rocket your sales, consolidate your reputation and build your brand. This seminar provides an overview of how to identify and make the most of your media opportunities.

About the Sydney Writers’ Centre
The Sydney Writers’ Centre offers writing courses and seminars and is Australia’s leading centre for writing training. The Centre has several popular courses available to individuals and also tailors training to specific corporate needs. Courses including feature writing, travel writing, business writing, creative writing, how to get published and more. As a result of the Centre’s courses, students have been published in magazines, secured book deals and improved their career prospects.
www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au

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