Future of Communities: Power to the People Annual Conference, Melbourne, 2016

Another year, another fabulous Conference with participants and presenters from all over the world sharing a wealth of knowledge in the field of community building.

This year our keynote speakers included Rhys Williams (The Makers, WA), Peter Kenyon (Bank of I.D.E.A.S.), Jessica Christiansen-Franks (Co Design Studio), Max Hardy (Max Hardy Consulting) and Iain Walker (The New Democracy Foundation) amongst other engaging presenters. Topics included – youth engagement, the use of citizen juries, designing public spaces, community activation, transition towns and evaluation and measuring impact.  This year’s format also included a panel on youth engagement, a series of workshops for participants to choose from and a speed sharing session, where participants had the chance to discover five community engagement methodologies.  Our dinner guest speaker this year was Andrew Fuller of Resilient Youth Australia.  Our Conference Cartoonist, Simon Kneebone was also in attendance and delivered some fabulous pieces which we auctioned off to support a community initiative suggested by one of our participants. Thanks to all those who presented, contributed and attended – it was a great group and one of the best Power to the People Conference’s yet!