Regional Arts Australia (RAA) held its conference last week in Canberra. Rather than starting with a theme, or a suite of ideas building out a program, RAA chose to begin with the foundation of care. It was yet another example of bold and brave leadership led by the regions, and offered lessons that the entire sector can take on board.
How the RAA approached this was first by appointing a Knowledge Circle and then purposefully selecting 80 participants. ‘I think a lot comes from that first step. With a traditional conference model you register to attend, you get yourself there, accommodate yourself and it requires you to have funding for that. Whereas the idea with this was to actually balance that equity of access and say, “No, we’re not going to have registration. We’re going to call for EOIs (Expressions of Interest), and see who wants to participate and be part of this process”,’ explained Abercrombie. ‘And, at that point, we would see where they all came from and what they’re going to bring new as individuals.’
