Inspired

VOLUNTEERING AUSTRALIA
elegate At aonal Volunteer onerence
eter oc aonal ounicaon anager Volunteering Autralia
The 13th National Conference on Volunteering was held in Melbourne from 27th to 29th October at the Sebel Citigate Hotel.
More than 560 delegates attended the conference, making it the most successful ever held.
The feedback from delegates has been particularly positive, especially around the networking sessions held during the lunch
breaks. Sections in the lunch area were created to help delegates find their peers easily based on three themes: What do you do
Which state do you come from and What sector do you work in Add to this the use of Facebook pre-conference for the first
time and the addition of Twitter and the conference certainly met the challenge to help delegates network. This was in response
to feedback from the Gold Coast conference in 2008.
The increased use of social networking was facilitated by our media partner, Pro Bono Australia. This was ground breaking for the
conference, meeting the challenges of these new social technologies including live Twittering during the conference. This will be
an area that we would expand for the next conference.
The conference program received very positive feedback with a broad range of speakers and presenters sourced locally, nationally
and internationally. This is always the biggest challenge for conference organisers and we are pleased with the outcomes. Thank
you to everyone who participated in the program as presenters. There is no conference without that support.
One innovation we are looking to include for the next conference is the opportunity for presenters to have a dry run through of
their presentation for feedback prior to the conference. This may be particularly helpful for inexperienced presenters who could
benefit from having their presentation critiqued.
The 2011 conference will be a feature of the International Year of Volunteers plus 10. The dates and location
for the 2011 conference will be announced shortly. Check out the Australian IYV+10 celebration website at
www.iyvplus10.com.au
Page 2