Speak Out August 2018

National conference

Inspired in Adelaide

27-30 May 2018 Adelaide Convention Centre, South Australia

collect their environmentally friendly reusable satchel, sip a "mocktail" and catch up with friends and colleagues while visiting the exhibitors’ stands. From there it was a short walk or bus ride along the cultural precinct of North Terrace to the Welcome Reception at the award winning National Wine Centre, with its unique design representing a wine barrel. Delegates continued

The Conference Planning Committee was delighted to welcome 760 attendees to Adelaide for the 2018 National Conference. Delegates enjoyed the newer facilities at the western end of the Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) with huge glass windows bringing the outside in when moving between the exhibition hall and session rooms. The many presentations within the program connected in some way to the I N S P I RE theme, the areas of engagement, practice innovation and research embedded within the theme and also the vision for speech pathology captured in Speech Pathology 2030: Making Futures Happen . Through Twitter the conference extended globally with the hashtag for the conference, #SPAconf, amassing 9.114 million impressions, 6,575 tweets and 532 participants from Sunday to Wednesday. Impressive! Following is somewhat of a "Richie Benaud highlights package" of the four days of the conference. This focuses on the keynote and invited speakers and main social events as it’s impossible to cover everything that was shared, learnt, discussed, debated, challenged and inspired. However, it’s important to also acknowledge and thank the presenters of the quality presentations in the concurrent oral, presented e-poster and workshop sessions, paper posters and lunchtime sessions that gave breadth to the conference program and also offered much to take back to the workplace or study. We must mention though the "full circle" moment where Laura Glisson presented her masters research with Dr Ron Gillam, who inspired her study in narrative, in the audience. That’s the conference theme demonstrated and realised right there. Sunday The conference program kicked off in the morning with a capacity crowd for the private practice workshop entitled, "What’s in it for me? Working together to realise the benefits and break down the sterotypes of employment in private practice". This was a timely topic with the growth and ongoing changes in the private practice space. During the afternoon Dr Ron Gillam presented a masterclass on "Assessing narrative in school-age children: Comparing norm referenced and progress monitoring measures". Like his other presentations that followed later in the conference the masterclass offered attendees a lot that was practical to take away including Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language (MISL), a tool for monitoring progress of narrative and informing intervention decisions. During pre-registration delegates took the opportunity to register,

catching up and networking while enjoying delicious finger food and drinks. Some took the self-guided Wine Discovery Journey. Delegates who had entered the monthly ‘RBar gift voucher’ competition went into the draw and the lucky winner was Leanne Konitzka from South Australia. Monday The scene for the I N S P I RE conference was set with the official opening of the conference preceded by a short video montage with members sharing what inspires them. If you missed it or would like to see it again head to the SPA YouTube channel. The Welcome to Country by Jack Buckskin was a wonderful relatable blend of tradition and history with the modern and contemporary.

The Hon Simon Birmingham, Federal Minister for Education and Training, formally opened the conference with an informative speech that acknowledged effective communication skills as foundational to education. You can read the full transcript at www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/ address-to-speech-pathology- australia-conference-adelaide The conference being held during Reconciliation Week added extra significance to the opening keynote address by Professor Dennis McDermott on, "'Big Sister’ Wisdom: How might Non-Indigenous speech pathologists really engage, effectively, with Indigenous Australia?" The wisdom he imparted included: meet people in their own reality, have regard for the person in front of you, and engage in deep listening.

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August 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out