Save the date!
Engage with the best and brightest practitioners
8:45am
Acknowledgement of Country and Karakia
9:00am
Welcome to the IAP2 Australasia Conference 2021
Changing Gears After a Crisis: How to Engage Better, as We Get Better
Tasneem Chopra, Leading Cross-cultural Consultant, Presenter & Author
While change is a reality most of us encounter at varying degrees throughout our lives, the past 18 months have ensured none of us have been spared the angst of negotiating entirely new landscapes, both privately and professionally. Pivot is a gross understatement for what we continue to endure as we emerge from the COVID battle attempting to recover, re-engage and rebuild. Knowing how to ease into this terrain in workplaces will not be without incident; we don’t exactly have a ‘Pandemic Recovery Playbook’ to work off. The one certainty we have, is knowing meaningful relationships with our diverse communities demand we rethink our engagement strategies and processes of inclusion.
10:00am
Equity centring framework for public engagement processes
Alice Sherring & Amanda Newbery, Articulous
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
11:00am
Practice and partnerships for inclusive engagement
Melanie Butcher, Research and Engagement, The Social Deck
Inclusive engagement is sometimes too narrowly defined as ensuring a diversity of people have an opportunity to participate. But inclusive engagement practice not only breaks down barriers that prevent people participating; it should also involve a genuine commitment to ensuring participation itself is equitable, accessible, empowering, and safe for all. This means moving away from traditional one-size-fits all methods, inviting ‘harder to reach’ communities into engagement design and facilitation, and advocating to decision-makers on the importance of true inclusion. This interactive session provides practical advice and different models for inclusive engagement, with a focus on engaging with people who face intersectional barriers to participation.
Back from Lost – A story of language revitalisation
Rory O’Connor
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
12:00pm
Panel: Accessibility in Stakeholder Engagement
Facilitated by Michelle Feenan, Engagement Plus
Tony Clair, IAP2A Chair and Victorian Health and Human Services Building Authority
Mantej Singh, Sydney Olympic Park Authority
Sharon Sebastian, GHD
Engaging Indigenous Communities in a Changing Environment
Elle Davidson & Belinda Arnold, Zion Engagement and Planning
Chloe Sullivan, GHD
Genuine engagement with Indigenous communities is built on trust and relationships between the practitioner and the communities they are working with. As the environment and engagement landscape changes around us, it becomes increasingly difficult to build this time into budgets and delivery timeframes. We also have a lot to learn from Indigenous knowledges as we face these important challenges. With the added complexity of COVID-19 and limitations with face-to-face interactions, being able to develop trusted relationships with Indigenous communities quickly and virtually has never been more important.
12:45pm
Workshop Discussion
1:00pm
Close of Day 1
8:45am
Good Morning
9:00am
The trust gap; community engagement in an era of information manipulation
Zoe Daniel, Former ABC US Bureau Chief, Journalist & Communications Specialist
Donald Trump was a master at deploying fear and doubt to mobilise support from communities affected by globalisation, economic upheaval and disenchantment with establishment politics.
In doing so, he sparked a movement in the United States, and influenced politicians and communities across the world, where the term ‘fake news’ is now ubiquitous, conspiracies are rife and trust in authority is at a low ebb.
In an era of dramatic environmental, technological and economic change, how do we achieve genuine engagement and progress against a backdrop of deep distrust in both the information and those delivering it?
10:00am
Collaborating with key stakeholders in a complex and evolving major project
Kate Walshe, CYP Design & Construction Joint Venture
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
11:00am
Panel: Cost of opposition in construction
Kylie Cochrane, Aurecon
Donna Groves, Comacon
Kirsty O’Connell, The Engagement People
Spoon feed or self-service – What is the community’s responsibility in the engagement process?
Donna Marshall, Head of Community Engagement, Customer Experience and Strategy, Airservices Australia
Interactive session to discuss whether as engagement professionals we should carry full responsibility for informing everyone one who needs to know about a proposed change or opportunity in their area, or if the community has some responsibility to seek out this information and be aware of what is happening if we make ourselves visible and provide context. Can we be expected to reach all the people all the time?
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
12:00pm
Deliberative Design: Now and into the Future
Emanuela Savini, University of Technology Sydney
Growing interest in deliberative democratic practices has meant that many more organisations are now developing deliberative engagement activities as part of their engagement strategies. Added to this, legislative changes in Victoria have meant that, in some contexts, the practices are also mandated.
In this interactive workshop we will provide a brief overview of the underpinnings of deliberation in theory and practice to better understand the types of processes that are most suitable for intended outcomes. We will collectively discuss the different approaches and their benefits and limitations, and finally, provide some take-aways for future designs of deliberative engagement activities.
Engaging on engagement: legislation, deliberation and frustration. Implementing community engagement policy in a post-lockdown Melbourne
Fiona Darling, Community Engagement Partner, Community Development, City of Melbourne
Georgie Meyer, Team Leader Community Engagement and Partnerships, City of Melbourne
2020 was a big year in Melbourne: the toughest year of COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia; severe economic, social and health impacts across all communities; new legislation mandating local government action on community engagement policy; and council elections. 2021 got tougher: Melbourne became the world’s most locked-down city and the impacts felt more severely. However with this, new ways of working with community have emerged. This interactive presentation will look at how the City of Melbourne invited a stretched, wary and fatigued community to define and shape a new community engagement policy, and how this policy has laid the foundation for a new normal in engaging communities.
12:45pm
Workshop Discussion
1:00pm
Close of Day 2
8:45am
Good Morning
9:00am
Keynote Address
Candy Chang, World-renowned Artist and Urban Designer
10:00am
Panel: Engaging through Covid – Challenges and insights
Facilitated by Anne Pattillo
Mel Hagedorn, Bang the Table, Jill Hannaford, GHD & Mandi Davidson, RPS Group
The Global COVID 19 pandemic, including is various variants has been challenging for many of us personally, our families and whanau, our businesses and our communities. As engagement practitioners and professionals we have needed to pivot, regroup and change our plans and approaches. As the vaccination rollout continues in New Zealand and Australia and as we anticipate a post-vaccination world, three of Australasia’s most experienced engagement practitioners reflect on their engagement experience and the lessons we can take from engaging through a global pandemic. This is our opportunity to pause, reflect on our collective experience and ask, what next?
11:00am
Walk and Talk Community Mapping
Tiffany Tang, Senior Consultant, Capire
Lockdown has meant that we’re spending more time than ever before in our own neighbourhoods. As a chance to step away from your computer, join Tiffany and the Capire team as they guide you through a personalised exploration of your neighbourhood via your mobile phone. In this session, we’ll explore community assets and the ways in which living more locally has impacted our connection to our local areas. Put on some comfortable shoes and let’s go for a walk together… but apart. Through audio notes, prompt cards and photographs, we promise this session will be even more captivating than your last podcast!
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
12:00pm
Transforming transport communications in a pandemic
Jacqueline Cormack, Senior Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Advisor, Major Transport Infrastructure Authority
Judith Heywood, Senior Communications Advisor, Major Transport Infrastructure Authority
The Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (MTIA) is the organisation behind Victoria’s Big Build, a program of 165 major road and rail projects being delivered across the state. Communications and engagement plays an important role in the delivery of transport infrastructure, as diverse project teams working closely with local communities to ensure we deliver positive community outcomes and minimise construction impacts as we transform how Victorians move around our state both now and in the future.
Throughout 2018 and 2019, MTIA developed an overarching Communications and Engagement Framework with input from 100 communications and engagement staff and key stakeholders. The Framework sets out best practice communications and engagement for infrastructure delivery across diverse communities, but just as it was being launched, coronavirus arrived, transforming how teams could communicate and engage in Victoria – with each other or with affected communities.
This challenge proved an excellent test of the framework, and the industry expertise that informed it. Join Jacqueline Cormack and Judith Heywood from MTIA on the insights provided by the pandemic and the challenges of engaging dispersed teams navigating significant change and uncertainty.
Citizen centric engagement in 2021
Cindy Lenferna de la Motte, Head of Customer and Community, Harvest Digital Planning
We are living in tumultuous times. The pace of social and economic change has quickened over the last decade especially in Australia. Profound social and technological change is evident across most facets of modern life, the impacts are wide reaching. CV-19 has accelerated a range of changes that were underway, including digital transformation and to meaningfully connect with our Communities to allow them to help shape their cities
However, we have amazing opportunities to reimagine what “might be possible” by leveraging technology, and re-bundling new skills and capability to connect and build resilience and adaptability in our Communities.
12:45pm
Workshop Discussion
1:00pm
Close of Day 3
8:45am
Good Morning
9:00am
How To Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference
Dr Rebecca Huntley, Author and Researcher
Drawing on her qualitative and quantitative research during the pandemic, Dr Huntley will reflect on how Australians are engaging with the issues around climate change at a time of social and economic upheaval. She will look at how both COVID and climate are shaping our preferences for how we engage with the messages and solutions to pressing problems, our changing expectations from government and business as well as the messengers that are the most influential and trusted.
10:00am
Using trust and effective engagement to create infrastructure for resilience
Rory Butler, Infrastructure Australia
Infrastructure Australia’s Pathway to Infrastructure Resilience paper and the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan, developed through collaboration with 600 experts, community and users from across Australia, advocates for a whole-of-system, all-hazards approach to resilience planning that focuses on strengthening an infrastructure asset, network and sector, as well as the place, precinct, city, and region that the infrastructure operates within. Recognising the increasingly complex role infrastructure now plays in supporting resilience, we identify the opportunities that need to be seized to improve how infrastructure is planned to increase resilience. A crucial ingredient to every element of reform is effective community engagement and trust.
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
11:00am
What can we do to create meaningful climate action?
Tamsyn McGrouther, School Strike 4 Climate
Rebuilding trust & shaping the future of Ipswich
Melanie Rippon, Acting Community Engagement Manager, Communications and Engagement, Ipswich City Council
Trust can be earned. It can be lost. And it can be regained. In recent years the City of Ipswich has experienced unprecedented change and an erosion of trust between council and the community. Off the back of the two-year period of public administration and under the direction of a newly elected Council, iFuture – Ipswich’s new Corporate Plan and 20-year community vision – opened the door for citizens to have a real say on the future of their city.
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
12:00pm
What’s in a Game? The use of serious games as an engagement tool for climate change adaptation
Paula Blackett, NIWA
Serious games have the potential to engage participants in climate change adaptation challenges in a way that few others methods can. In this presentation, we will overview NIWA’s current suite of games and provide a commentary on how these were developed and why we think they are successful in generating new knowledge.
From golf course to iconic parkland – a community-led vision for Victoria Park
Natalie Arnold, Principal Officer – Community and Stakeholder Engagement, Victoria Park Project, Brisbane City Council & Lisa Edgerton, Brisbane City Council
Brisbane City Council took the innovative step of staying at a higher, visionary level to transform an inner city golf course into an iconic new park for Brisbane. Rather than embarking on a traditional ‘Master Planning’ process with fixed ideas around a spatial design, Council went to the community with a blank page to gather ideas and feedback to forge the Victoria Park Vision, a vision that truly reflects the desires of the Brisbane community.
12:45pm
Workshop Discussion
1:00pm
Close of Day 4
8:45am
Good Morning
9:00am
Hope and Connection, through Storytelling
Ngahihi Bidois, recognised leader and modern day warrior
10:00am
Core Values Awards Presentation
MC: Marion Short, IAP2 Australasia
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
11:00am
Logan Community Vision: At the heart of Council’s decision making in the future
Logan City Council & Articulous
Reasons to be optimistic about the future of community engagement
Max Hardy, Max Hardy Consulting
Community engagement has come a long way in 22 years. The principles are better understood. We are asking better questions of the community. More and more people have experienced engagement as being meaningful, and so much more than merely ‘having a say’. We expect more of engagement, and so we should. This session is about reimagining the future of community engagement; about how it can contribute to smart policies, implementable strategies and contribute to a kinder, fairer world.
BREAKOUT 1
BREAKOUT 2
12:00pm
The Power of Stories
Rachael Edginton, PlumCo
This is an interactive workshop that will help you develop storytelling skills that will turn heads and capture hearts. Imagine a world without stories? It’s hard to do. A world without storytelling would be bland, transactional, empty and soulless. Stories create meaning, entertain us, give us hope, make us laugh, make us cry. Stories are fundamental to our connection as human beings and, if you believe the studies, those that can tell a good story seem more attractive to others! Embracing the IAP2 theme of HOPE, (and don’t we all need more of that right now?) I can’t wait to share the secrets of storytelling in this workshop. We will explore how to harness the power of stories to create meaningful connection.
Connect to Collaborate
Jacinta Cubis, Engagement Expert
Picture this. A group of strangers in a room or a zoom. We want them to share their ideas. Their aspirations. Their concerns. Their hopes. In our original plan, we’d given them a few days. Now they only have a few hours. How can we help complete strangers connect quickly and deeply? If we can’t connect, we can’t engage.
Join Jacinta for a quick but deep dive to explore connection. We’ll talk about why it’s important. What can happen when we don’t ‘protect the connect’ and explore ideas for connecting people quickly and deeply. Jacinta’s got one way that works really well. Bring yours and let’s see where we end up. You will leave with a practical step to connect with each other and continue the conversation after the conference. And definitely a little more hope that no matter how little time, we can help people connect.
12:45pm
Workshop Discussion
1:00pm
Close of Conference
Practical Engagement Stakeholder Mapping
Allison Hendricks, CEO & Founder, Darzin Software
Stakeholder Mapping is a way of segmenting your stakeholders based on their level of influence, impact and other criteria. It is increasingly recognised as an important part of planning and managing effective stakeholder engagement. However most organisations tend to do the stakeholder mapping exercise at the start of their project and it’s rarely used beyond that initial stage.
In this session Allison will discuss emerging trends with stakeholder mapping and provide some practical ideas for how it can be used for monitoring engagement activities; to drive strategic engagement and ensure you are getting meaningful insights from your stakeholder data.
Deliberating over deliberation
Amanda Newbery, Aticulous
Max Hardy, Max Hardy Consulting
This conversation is all about Deliberative Community Engagement. As two highly experienced practitioners, and the trainers of IAP2’s Course on Deliberative Engagement, we explore the following questions.
• What is deliberative engagement? What is it for? When is it useful and when isn’t it?
• What are the key challenges of planning and facilitating deliberative engagement?
• What might be the future of deliberative engagement?
• What else are people doing the one day course curious about and learning?
Tune in if deliberative engagement is something you are interested in!
If you need to convince the decision maker in your organisation, then you might find this helpful.