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'The best and most relevant and interactive conference I have ever attended'

Forums often have a reputation of being quite 'dry' passive events where academics present papers, the audience listens... and nothing further develops from that information. 'Bring it!' 2008 was a very different experience — dynamic, positive, interactive and fun.

This was the opening statement of the foreword from the Bring It! final report published by Carers Australia on 24 June 2009.

The event itself was held for almost 200 people from a wide variety of backgrounds and concerns in Parliament House over a two-day period at the end of November 2008. iMEET! was deployed to capture all comment and to form the basis of the final report. Participants worked in groups to discuss four main areas of concern, and to form recommendations for priority action and discussion.

Key messages were formulated for the Federal Government's consideration (and which found their way into the final report), and participants were able to view all recommendations on-screen and in real-time whilst focussing on their table's concerns.

Staff from Global Learning worked with the forum steering committee to ensure that the best possible outcomes could be delivered in the time available (using iMEET!). Feedback from previous forums highlighted the need to be more inclusive and to ensure that all voices were heard — thus making iMEET! a perfect tool to use during the event (and especially with such a large number of participants).

Young carers were also given the opportunity to meet with a number of relevant Ministers and Shadow Ministers and/or advisers, and a range of meetings were held concurrently within the program. Feedback from both parties was very positive, and contributed to the overall success of the forum. Politicians were very pleased to gain a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of young carers.

The atmosphere in the Mural Hall of Parliament House was electric for much of the time: so much so that ushers from the Senate (which was sitting at the time) were sent to ask forum participants to not make quite so much noise or risk eviction!

Feedback from the participants showed that the Forum was an overwhelming success, and that the program was well-conceived and executed. Expectations were met or exceeded for 91% of participants, with 45% responding that the Forum exceeded their expectations. Participants were also asked how the Forum rated in the key areas of the program, keynote presentation, panel discussions and interactive group discussions. Participants rated the forum on a scale from one to five as follows, where one was 'not satisfactory' and five was 'excellent': 94% rated the program a four or five, and 78% rated the interactive iMEET! sessions as a four or five.

The Bring it! Young Carers Forum 2008 Final Report is available here. [PDF, 1.1MB]

More feedback

"...It was an interesting, inclusive and energising conference with great participation by everyone but particularly the young carers." (Peak organisation)

"...This was one of the most enjoyable, informative conferences I've been to." (Service provider)

"...Absolutely fantastic involvement of young carers. Great to hear their views to help shape service delivery, policy, training, funding etc." (Service provider)

"...It was FANTASTIC, GREAT, SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICALEXPIALIODOCIOUS AWESOME!" (Young carer)

"...The best and most relevant and interactive conference I have ever attended." (Peak organisation)

"...Congratulations to the organisers — a job well done, from the comprehensive delegates handbook to the great program." (Government)

"I have to say that this is the best event I've been to in 16 years in terms of participation. It's the best even in terms of actually hearing young carers speaking and having their voices integrated throughout the day. So it's not seen to me to be at all tokenistic, this is being mainstream." (Saul Becker: keynote presenter - Head of School, Professor of Social Policy, Social Care School of Sociology and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education, University of Nottingham)