What a year for auDA and our .au members! In 2022, we launched a new membership program, upgraded our member offering, and connected with our members via networking events, webinars and online workshops. Check out our top six .au membership highlights for 2022.
1. Launched the new .au membership program
In early 2022, we launched our new .au member program. Previously known as the ‘auDA member’ program, the shift to ‘.au member’ underscores the significance of member contributions to the .au domain. Along with the change came a raft of new member benefits and opportunities designed to engage and inform new and potential members (see below).
In 2023, we have our sights on further growing and diversifying our membership base, as we recognise that a membership that is representative of the Australian community will help us administer a trusted .au for all Australians.
2. Announced a partnership with Cynch Security
In March we launched a partnership with Cynch Security. Cynch is an Australian company specialising in building the cyber-fitness of small and micro businesses. Through our Digital Lives of Australians research, we know that cyber security is a major concern for many Australian small businesses, auDA’s partnership with Cynch aims to help small businesses tackle this issue by enabling them to access a free cyber-fitness assessment and exclusive discounts on Cynch services. We look forward to growing our partnerships in 2023 to deliver greater member value.
3. Hosted networking events around the country
In 2022, with many COVID-19 restrictions behind us, it was fantastic to again host in-person networking events for our members around the country. We enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces and welcome new ones at events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Geelong. Our 2023 calendar of events is shaping up to be even bigger with planned visits to a number of regional centres across Australia. Look out for updates in the .au member weekly newsletter and on the events page of the auDA website.
.au members attended networking events across Australia in 2022
4. Introduced .au member webinars
In 2022 we also introduced our dedicated .au member webinar program. We hosted five webinars with interesting and insightful speakers from auDA and external organisations. In three of those webinars, members of the auDA Team were joined by external guest speakers. They were:
- Tracy Sheen, an award-winning business author, who delivered a thought-provoking discussion on the topic of Technophobia and How to Overcome it
- Pauline Fetaui, General Manager of River City Labs, who drew on her experience leading an incubator for tech start-ups to unpack Australia’s start-up sector
- Adam Selwood, CTO and Co-Founder of Cynch Security, who took us through common cyber security issues and presenting practical recommendations for small businesses.
We look forward to sharing more .au member webinars with you in the new year.
5. Kept members up to date on .au and tech
auDA is committed to developing resources that support members to manage their own .au domain names and help them stay up to date on the broader internet and technology ecosystem.
Throughout 2022, we developed articles, blogs and fact sheets on key topics of interest including the .au direct namespace, .auCheck – a free webtool to check the security of websites, email addresses and internet services, combatting DNS abuse in .au, internet governance and much more, available on the auDA website.
We also ran a series of virtual cyber security workshops, shared insights from our latest research report, Digital Lives of Australians 2022, and delivered a curated weekly .au member newsletter with insights on the domain name, internet and technology sectors.
6. Asked our members for feedback
In 2022, we again asked our members to share their views in our annual .au member survey.
Respondents shared their expectations for .au membership and suggestions for resource development, event delivery and education opportunities. We’ve taken this feedback on board and set out the actions we’ll take to continue refining the program and the benefits we deliver to members in our recent blog. Importantly, we remain committed to ensuring our members can share their views on the future of the .au in 2023 and beyond.
The .au membership team thanks our valued members for their participation and engagement over the past year, and for supporting auDA’s vision to unlock the social and economic value of the internet for Australians.
Not an .au member yet? .au membership is complimentary, so join today!
