Despite the weather in Geelong, the enthusiasm of the people who came to the Qualcon 2023 conference at Deakin University was undiminished. Two days packed with talks about quality, all centered around the theme of “People, Process, Performance with Integrity. It’s like the Avengers assembling, but for quality enthusiasts. 

The conference hall buzzed with quality professionals from various fields, each eager to glean insights from speakers from academia, Conformity Assessment Bodies, certified organizations, consultancy firms, and accreditation rockstars. The two-day event promised an in-depth exchange on the pivotal topic of quality. 

Amidst the myriad of speeches, there’s this guy, Jassen Yeoh. He wasn’t a typical conference speaker, drowning us in jargon. He was the magician who pulled a rabbit out of the hat, or in this case, brought ISO 90015 to life. Jassen’s talk, “Applying ISO 9001 Quality Management Principles in Managing People Quality” made us all nod like we’d just cracked a secret code. 

Jassen isn’t just talking about ticking boxes. He’s saying, “Hey, let’s make our colleagues – the internal customers – feel like kings and queens.” He challenged us to think about how every task, every email, every meeting added value to our coworkers’ lives. Suddenly, ISO 9001 wasn’t about paperwork, it was about making your 9 to 5 more awesome. 

Jassen goes beyond the usual quality talk. He’s like, “Listen up, folks! Quality isn’t just for customers outside. It’s for us, the people inside the company.  Let’s make the workplace a quality paradise.” He’s dropping wisdom bombs on creating a quality culture. It’s not about being a quality robot, it’s about making work feel like a party. 

The Qualcon 2023 conference had indeed lived up to its theme. It wasn’t just about processes and performance metrics, it was about the integrity of the human element in the quality equation.