The world of Community Engagement is rapidly expanding and evolving. More and more public and private sector organizations are recognizing the value of consulting those affected by their decisions and are embracing a mix of technologies and tools to carry this out.
This year’s IAP2 Australasia Conference will explore the related elements of engagement practice – Influence, Engage and Lead and will be held in Perth, Western Australia from 14-16 October, 2015.
The conference will feature a range of highly acclaimed National and International speakers to address the three conference themes:
- Influence - Exploring strategies and experiences of raising awareness, improving decision making and embedded practice in your organizations or profession.
- Exploring the celebration and commiserations from your engagement experiences, sharing insights and understanding that can only be gained in the field of practice.
- Lead - exploring the future of engagement by profiling emerging research, strategies and practice to stretch our thinking.
Simon Denegri of INVOLVE UK and Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer of the USA National Institute for Civil Discourse will be keynote speakers at the 2015 Conference.
Simon Denegri is the Chair of INVOLVE in the United Kingdom. He is also the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) National Director for Public Participation and Engagement in Research. His previous roles have been Chief Executive of Ovarian Cancer Action and Chief Executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) from 2006-2011.
His background is in campaigning and communications and has included roles such as Assistant Chief Executive and Head of Public Affairs at the Alzheimer’s Society in 2002-2003 and 1992-1997 respectively. The latter coincided with the formation of the Society’s Quality Research in Dementia (QRD) public involvement program.
Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer is the Executive Director of the USA National Institute for Civil Discourse. Under Carolyn’s leadership, NICD established itself as a leader in the field of democratic renewal, receiving the Search for Common Ground’s 2014 Common Ground Award and leading the coalition that received IAP2’s 2014 USA Project of the Year Award for Creating Community Solutions, a national dialogue on mental health.
Carolyn is the founder of AmericaSpeaks, a deliberative democracy organization that successfully applied its 21st Century Town Meeting® to a number of major public policy issues, including, state-wide health care reform in California and Maine, the national childhood obesity epidemic, disaster recovery in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the federal budget deficit.
She is the author of Bringing Citizen Voices to the Table: A Guide for Public Managers, which provides strategies and best practices to public managers and leaders who wish to authentically engage citizens around significant policy issues.
For more information and to register, please click here.
