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Innovate Symposium 1.0

The first Innovate Symposium was held 18-19 August 2011 in partnership with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand. The symposium tackled some critical questions in the fields of engagement and community development.

These included:

• How to engage and work with communities in creating social change.
• Innovative practices and alternative discourses that explore the possibility of meaningfully engaging community.
• New platforms for socially just and effective work through arts practice, community education and digital technologies.

The result was a tremendously exciting two days of creative ideas, new processes and moving stories. The symposium also allowed participants the opportunity to make new connections and networks.

There was an eclectic mix of people and approaches, but some common themes emerged during the two days, such as:

• We were reminded of the importance of using creativity and creative arts practices when working with communities. This may offer alternative ways of thinking, help overcome traditional forms of disconnection and barriers, and to simply provide joy and inspiration in people’s lives.
• The idea of working in the edge was central to many people’s practice; identifying that much of our work is with those in the margins, and that our work often challenges traditional ways of thinking and acting. There was a deal of debate around whether we continue to build, enhance and replicate new approaches in the edge or whether we focus our efforts on integrating these within, and challenge the core.
• New forms of media and new ways to share ideas and practices were explored with many new possibilities for collaboration. Collaborations could be between researchers and practitioners, artists and community development practitioners, or different organisations working together. Many will be using digital technologies both as communication and practice tools.
• The importance of values, narrative and place emerged as critical to our work. For many people, this was the highlight of the conference. We were all reminded of the importance of working locally, starting small, being smart and strategic, to tell stories and to approach our work with concise values and process.

Over the next twelve months we will further develop these ideas, capturing the new collaborations and stories while building the networks. Innovate Symposium 2.0 will take place on 4+5 October 2012.