The onsite conference in Canberra will have a range of formal and informal networking activities, especially the Sunday “monster networking event” and the skills enhancing workshops, about which there is more information below. There will also be networking lunches, which will be organised at the conference.

There are a number of networking spaces available, including a beautiful outdoor setting, tutorial rooms and lunch tables.

Monster Networking Event

Join us on Sunday September 8th from 4-8 pm in the Great Hall at University House to meet the plenary speakers and other delegates. There will be ice-breaker activities, and dinner and drinks will be provided.
 

Skills-enhancing workshops

There will be three workshops to enhance skills for conducting systems-based, action-oriented multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary research.

Skills-enhancing workshop #1: Tools for Policy Entrepreneurs: The RAPID Alignment, Interest and Influence Matrix (AIIM) (Monday September 9, 12.30-2 pm)
 

John Young (Biography)

Workshop presenter: John Young

This 90 minute workshop will assist participants to be more influential in bringing about evidence-based policy and practice change. The workshop will introduce participants to a range of the tools that the ODI (Overseas Development Institute) Research and Policy in Development Programme recommends for researchers to use to develop strategies for policy engagement. Participants will have the opportunity to try out the Alignment, Interest and Influence Matrix (AIIM) tool, which is designed to help to identify their main audiences (stakeholders) and to determine how to engage with them to promote interventions based on research evidence. The tool can also be used to identify indicators to monitor and evaluate research uptake and impact.

Skills-enhancing workshop #2: Structured Dialogue to Uncover Research Assumptions (Tuesday September 10, 12.30-2.30pm)
 

Michael O’Rourke (Biography)

Workshop presenter: Michael O’Rouke

This two-hour workshop will introduce participants to the Toolbox Project. The aim of the Toolbox Project is to enhance cross-disciplinary communication among research collaborators through structured philosophical dialogue about their research assumptions. Participants describe how they conduct research, enabling collaborators to see the research landscape through each other’s eyes. The skills enhancing workshop will consist of detailed introductions by the participants, a detailed introduction to the Toolbox approach, a 45 minute “sample” Toolbox dialogue to introduce participants to the approach, and an extended debriefing.

Skills-enhancing workshop #3: An Introduction to System Dynamics (Wednesday, September 11, 12.30-2 pm)
 

George Richardson (Biography)

Workshop presenter: George Richardson

This 90 minute workshop will introduce the core concepts and patterns of thought of the system dynamics approach to complex problems: thinking dynamically, thinking causally, thinking about accumulations, and the key to it all, thinking endogenously.  The session will build skills in the mechanics of defining problems dynamically, mapping system structure, and teasing out qualitative insights linking structure and dynamics.  It will introduce quantitative modeling, illustrating with a group model-based engagement on the problem of security of North Sea oil platforms during a technological transition.  No prior experience with system dynamics is necessary, only an interest in deepening and expanding awareness of systems approaches to problems that persist over time.