The 2014 LGPro Annual Conference has lived up to its theme, ‘A Place for Everyone’ with 746 people across Victoria registering for sessions.
This was the first year the conference offered four streams based around the central theme and this provided delegates with even more choice in their fields of interest.
From the official opening by the Minister for Local Government and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Jeanette Powell and the Welcome to Country performed by Aunty Di Kerr, there was a positive buzz surrounding the conference.
Keynote speakers, including Dr Andrea Siodmok from the UK, Dr Craig Hassed, Melinda Cilento, Professor Greg Craven and Michael Gorton AM, provided inspirational and thought provoking addresses.
The eight concurrent interactive sessions offered delegates an opportunity to hear the latest trends and gain practical ideas and techniques from experts.
The 2013 LGPro Emerging Leaders provided an interesting and entertaining presentation based around the question they have spent 12 months considering and researching, Australia 2013 – Can Local Government remain a relevant and vibrant tier of Government?
The Ideas Marketplace, where 12 Local Government CEOs literally jumped on their soapbox to discuss and debate hot topics and interesting hypotheticals in Local Government created a lot of interest.
For the first time people both inside and outside the room were invited to provide their thoughts and comments via Twitter, which even generated some international tweets.
Local Government’s Got Talent was once again hotly contested with Brendan Forde and Corinne Bowen from Maroondah City Council taking out the title ahead of a vast array of talent.
‘Democracy comes with an IQ test – is that a failing or a feature?’ was the question two teams went head to head answering in the Conference Debate which wrapped up two days of action packed professional development.
A record crowd of 650 plus attended the Annual Conference Dinner where the winners and finalists of the 2014 LGPro Awards for Excellence were announced.
