A puppeteer and a specialist anaesthetist have shared a $10,000 scholarship that will enable them to promote Western Australia as a conference destination.
University of WA associate professor Michael Paech and Philip Mitchell, artistic director of Fremantle’s Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, were named joint winners of the BankWest Scholarship at a breakfast function at Rendezvous Observation City Hotel.
The scholarship – an initiative of the Perth Convention Bureau – is designed to assist in the professional development of paid and voluntary executives with non-profit associations in WA. It allows them to travel overseas to attend international conferences.
Mr Paech is the recently appointed Director of Scientific Affairs on the Board of the Asia and Oceanic Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine.
He plans to use the scholarship to attend the 8th Biennial Asian and Oceanic Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine Congress in Japan in December to formally present a bid for Perth to host the ninth congress in 2007.
It would run concurrently with the organisation’s national conference that has already been secured for Perth.
Mr Mitchell will use the scholarship funding to travel overseas to promote the 20th World Puppetry Congress that will be held here in 2008. Last year he led the WA team that successfully bid to host that congress.