Alumni Program

ALUMNUS KEYNOTE SPEAKER.

In Term 3, we welcomed back Koonung Secondary College alumnus John Stewart (Class of 2017) who delivered a fantastic keynote speech to 600 students at our middle school assembly (YR7-9). John talked about life since graduating from Koonung and his move into an electrical trade. John had a very captive audience which was wonderful to see. His insights and experiences provided invaluable guidance and inspiration to our students as they begin to consider their own futures.

ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHT - BRENDAN THOMPSON (CLASS OF 2003).

Current Role

Victorian Operations Manager for Encore Event Technologies, working in 5-star hotel venues throughout Melbourne doing corporate audiovisual. More information about Encore Event Technologies can be found here.

Where has life taken you since graduating from Koonung?

Following my graduation from Koonung, I was accepted straight into the Bachelor of Creative Technology (Audio Engineering and Sound Production) at JMC Academy. 

At JMC, I was the valedictorian in my Advanced Diploma year (2005) before working in the Academy’s recording studios for one year in 2006, and training and doing competency testing for students prior to finishing the degree in 2007.

During my first year at JMC, I volunteered to mix broadcast audio once a week at the Royal Children’s Hospital for their in-house TV show “Going Nuts with Macadamia” as well as participate in a short film shoot, assisting on-set.

Once I finished the degree, I was accepted into a six-month traineeship at Encore Event Technologies. Through the traineeship, I shadowed senior technicians throughout various venues in Melbourne, learning the craft and honing my skills before being offered a full-time role as a Technician.

I was first stationed in our Melbourne base department, traveling between various venues around Melbourne and then later as an in-house Technician at Crown in Melbourne, prior to taking on the Workforce Coordinator role for Crown and later stints in Inventory Control, Warehouse Coordination, and Repair & Maintenance, giving me a good grounding in all aspects of the business.

Eventually, I became the state’s Workforce Coordinator and held that role for many years, reporting to the Head of Production prior to transitioning into my current Operations Manager role.

In parallel to my various roles at work, I have also held similar volunteer roles at my church (Iglesia Ni Cristo), where I am currently the District Multimedia Director, responsible for all TV, radio, online, and print media coverage for various church activities. I’m also heavily involved in all of the Arts & Culture events, ensuring that the technical aspects of all of our performances, concerts, short films, and other activities are done to a high standard despite everyone volunteering their time. Through the Church, I’ve done events in the Philippines, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and Macao as well as right around Australia.

What memorable experiences or achievements have shaped your life since finishing/graduating from Koonung?

Doing an event at the Sydney Opera House for my Church was a major highlight for me. 

We all pulled massive weeks leading up to the day with rehearsals and getting all our performances and multimedia content ready for the venue. We had hundreds of performers including singers, dancers, rappers, choir members, and orchestra – a massive undertaking.

The skills I had developed at work were able to be applied. My official role was Lighting Designer, but I was doing musical arrangements and recording backing tracks for performers, coordinating performer rehearsals and teaching them the arrangements, booking rehearsal venues, creating safety documentation for the event, coordinating venue inductions, creating on-screen graphics… the whole gamut.

What does your job involve?

When I started out in the AV industry, there were a lot of long hours at weird times of day, setting up and packing down events and not often having a chance to participate in the show portion. As I built up experience on the floor and the trust of my rostering managers, I was assigned to operate shows, and eventually ended up as the Head Technician at Crown Conference Centre.

Nowadays, I’m involved in making sure every event runs smoothly from a logistical standpoint, making sure we don’t blow out on costs and ensuring we have the right gear and right people in the right places to deliver an exceptional result.

What do you most enjoy about your work?

The variety is what keeps it interesting, but then there are also the repeat events that happen every year for which we need to come up with a new and exciting concept every time.

Sometimes we do events where you get a bit starstruck with some very famous people on stage. Highlights of my career were fitting a lavalier microphone to Kevin Rudd while he was Prime Minister, being the manager on duty when Mariah Carey performed at Crown Palladium for New Year’s Eve, and handling content playback for an Iron Chef event when two of the original Iron Chefs flew out from Japan.

I’ve been able to work interstate and even overseas for certain projects, which has let me see the wider business and bring ideas from one place to the next.

What skills or qualities are important in your line of work?

Most of the job is either problem-solving or customer service, often both. The technical side of things can be taught, but being able to methodically work through problems to find the right solution is important, as well as making sure the client (whether the end customer or an internal client, i.e., a colleague) feels like they’re being heard, and their problem is being dealt with.

What are your favourite memories of your time at Koonung?

I really enjoyed playing in the various bands, the Concert Band, John Wanner’s Swing Band, and my rock band ‘Stolen Identity’ at all the various events.

How would you describe yourself as a school student? E.g. Academic, social, ambitious, sporty etc.

I was very much an academic, being selected to be in the Challenge program, but I felt like I was also falling behind some of my peers (one of whom is now a literal rocket scientist, so I don’t feel too bad about that now!).

When you were a student at Koonung, what did you imagine you would do for a career?

I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do for my career until I attended an open day and received a flyer for JMC Academy, where I ended up enrolling in their Audio Engineering course.

When I finally had a direction, I was able to properly select my courses (Physics, Information Systems, Maths Methods). Until that point, I had thought I’d end up in IT. I still ended up working an IT job for a couple of years while studying at JMC. This job exercises both the technical and creative sides, so it’s a perfect match.

If you could go back and give advice to your school-aged teenage self, what would that be?

“Work hard, and don’t worry about what everyone else thinks, stay positive and know that your efforts will pay off.”

SIGN-UP TO THE ALUMNI PROGRAM.

If you are a Koonung alumni (went to or graduated from Koonung Secondary College), we would love you to join our alumni program. It's FREE to join. This form will take 5+ minutes to complete.

Alumni can give back to Koonung Secondary College in so many ways that benefit current students; either via inspirational study / career pathway advice, insights into the industry you work in, post-YR12 study tips and techniques, work experience opportunities, donations to assist with school programs etc. The opportunities for involvement are endless.

ARE YOU A KOONUNG ALUMNI ON LINKEDIN?

If so, we’d love you to please update the education section of your LinkedIn profile to include the correct Koonung Secondary College LinkedIn page. Our college LinkedIn page now includes an ‘alumni’ tab, and once you've added Koonung Secondary College to the education section of your personal profile, you will be added to the alumni stats on our official LinkedIn page. We'd be so grateful for this! See image below for reference.

FOLLOW THE ALUMNI PROGRAM ON SOCIAL.

CONTACT US.

Nancy Manders

Koonung Secondary College

Alumni Program Coordinator

Email alumni@koonung.vic.edu.au

ABOUT THE ALUMNI PROGRAM.

Koonung Secondary College’s Alumni Program is being developed in partnership with Ourschool, https://ourschool.net.au/, a not-for-profit service that helps government secondary schools build thriving alumni networks to benefit current students and the school community.