International Virtual Assistants Day Date in the current year: May 17, 2024

Many people associate the term “virtual assistant” with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. However, International Virtual Assistants Day isn’t about digital software applications; the holiday is dedicated to professionals who provide administrative, technical, or social (creative) assistance to clients remotely, typically as freelancers or independent contractors.

Administrative assistants are essential to the smooth operation of most businesses. They can be responsible for a wide range of tasks such as answering phones, taking memos, sending and receiving correspondence, monitoring and recording expenditures, planning and scheduling events, storing, organizing and managing files, managing inventory, greetings visitors and guests, and more.

Since more and more businesses have been discovering the benefits of the remote or hybrid work model over the past years, the profession of a virtual assistant has become in high demand. Virtual assistants (VAs) perform mostly the same functions as regular administrative assistants, but they do it remotely from a home office.

In addition to doing typical secretarial work, virtual assistants can perform other tasks such as marketing and SMM, graphic design, content writing, data entry, bookkeeping, research, quality assurance, etc. General virtual assistants who perform secretarial tasks may be called online personal assistants or online administrative assistants, while virtual assistants who perform specific professional tasks are sometimes referred by specific job titles: virtual marketing assistant, virtual content writing assistant, etc.

Virtual assistants often work with small businesses that can’t afford to hire a full-time administrative assistant, but they can also support busy executives. Due to the nature of their jobs, VAs usually make extensive use of various modern technologies such as email, instant messengers, VoIP and videoconferencing services such as Skype, Google Meet and Zoom, team communication platforms, etc.

International Virtual Assistants Day was launched in 2006 by the Alliance of Virtual Businesses, a Maryland-based professional virtual assistant membership organization. The celebration is held on the third Friday of May, typically falling during the annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC) that brings together VAs from around the globe for networking, education, and training.

The main goal of International VA Day is to celebrate the hardworking virtual assistants from all over the world and show appreciation for everything they do to keep businesses running smoothly. If you have a virtual assistant, you can celebrate the holiday by getting them a gift or giving them some time off. If you work as a virtual assistant, the day is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the profession and give a shout out to your fellow VAs on social media using the hashtag #InternationalVirtualAssistantsDay.