Industry hit by EAN collapse

A NUMBER of travel agents and industry suppliers are believed to have been impacted by the failure of Executive Assistants Network (EAN), a company which ran expos, conferences and training events until its parent firm was placed into liquidation last week.

EAN was operated by Calcon Communications Pty Ltd, which had administrators Trent Devine and Andrew Spring from accounting firm Jirsch Sutherland appointed as external administrators in a creditors’ voluntary winding up.

The company was founded in Sydney in 2005, and had been expecting to host an event next month, which now appears unlikely to proceed, with participating exhibitors having already prepaid thousands of dollars to book exhibition space.

Hotels, car rental suppliers and professional conference organisers were set to take part, along with several travel agencies and corporate TMCs.

The EAN website at executiveassistant.com is still live, claiming more than 7,500 members drawn from over 2,900 organisations across Australia.

The most recent update from EAN detailed the outcome of a conference and exhibition in Melbourne during Oct, as well as anticipating similar upcoming events in Sydney and Perth.

The scale of the collapse is unknown at this stage, with the liquidators currently attempting to sell the goodwill of the business, which had an annual turnover of about $2 million.

Assets include the client list, domain names, accounts receivable/work in progress, various IT equipment & software.

The company’s directors and owners include Natasha Cannon and Jonathan McIlroy, both based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.