Tourism specialist Meredith Lawrence* addressed almost 500 graduates during 2 ceremonies for CQU Sydney on Monday, December 10 at the Star City Grand Harbour Ballroom.

A total of 339 postgraduate students from 22 nations celebrated their graduation during the morning ceremony.

A total of 132 undergraduate students from 24 nations celebrated their graduation during the afternoon ceremony.

Meredith Lawrence

The morning ceremony included presentation of State Director's Leadership Awards to Nowrin Nusrat and Mae Maria Sampana.

The afternoon ceremony included presentation of State Director's Leadership Awards to Monika Czannerova and Wee Chee Tay.

The ceremonies also included responses by graduates' representatives - Parikshit Ujwal (morning) and Monika Czannerova (afternoon)

Around 30 nations represented at Brisbane graduation 

Indian community leader addresses Melbourne graduation 

*Meredith Lawrence, BBus(Tourism), MIntTourismMgt, PhD SCU is the Deputy Director of the Australian Regional Tourism Research Centre (ARTRC) at Southern Cross University. She is the Lead Researcher and Coordinator of the Sustainable Regional Tourism Destinations Project, which aims to identify best practice in the sustainable development, marketing and management of regional tourism destinations in Australia. This project involves the coordination of nine researchers, from five universities around Australia and liaison with representatives of stakeholder organisations actively engaged in regional tourism across national, state/territory and local levels. Meredith is also actively involved in research projects and programs for the ARTRC, including her role in the development of the Byron Shire Tourism Management for the Byron Shire Council.

Prior to commencing her career as a university lecturer in tourism and hospitality management, Meredith held senior executive positions at Sydney advertising agencies.

Her many achievements include winning the Best Poster Presentation at the Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education Inc (CAUTHE) Conference in 2007, with her paper about Byron Bay short-listed as one of the six best-refereed papers. In 2006 she was recognised for her PhD paper on Tourism and Sustainability, at the CAUTHE Conference in Melbourne. She received an Honorary Mention in the Best PhD poster presentation category at the Tourism Futures Conference in 2004 and, in 2002, Southern Cross University acknowledged her contribution to the institution through a Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence.

Meredith has published several papers and commissioned reports and contributed chapters and numerous articles to books and publications. She has written several conference and other scholarly presentations, and in May this year, presented a paper at the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources in Canberra.

Meredith's knowledge of tourism issues ranges from the complexities of tourism destination management systems, event management and sponsorship through to the social impacts of tourism and she is at the forefront of issues confronting the tourism industry in Australia