It’s that time of the year. Just three more sleeps until our 2018 LGAQ Annual Conference and 830 attendees from local government, state government, sponsors, business and the media arrive in Brisbane to discuss and debate the big issues in our sphere of government, listen to experts and learn from their peers.
But it’s also a time and place to share fellowship which is so important. I’m talking about sharing your personal stories, trials and triumphs and realising you have many colleagues facing the same challenges. Conference is the place to do that.
Whilst our conference kicks off on Monday, there is a pretty busy lead up from Sunday. We start the day, appropriately, with prayer and reflection at morning service at St Johns Anglican Cathedral in the city, followed by a Policy Executive meeting and an afternoon reception at Government House for mayors and CEOs hosted, of course, by the Governor His Excellency Paul de Jersey AC, QC.
On Monday we are straight into it with the Indigenous Leaders Forum, Regional Road Group Assembly, a special forum on sport and recreation as well as a living lab session involving our LG Sherlock project, followed by the official welcome to Brisbane that evening.
The conference proper starts on Tuesday, with our annual general meeting on Wednesday. Our conference theme says it all: “Onwards and Upwards”. That is who we are - optimistic and positive about the future, and our speaker line up also reflects that sentiment.
No international speakers this year. All home-grown talent. The conference by design allows a lot of time for interaction with all council speaker panels, council showcases and breakout sessions. That’s what members want and that’s what we’re giving them.
In advance, I want to thank all my wonderful staff for the enormous amount of work they do over nine months to deliver this event. We start planning in earnest in early February every year and there’s not a person in the organisation who isn’t involved in some part of the preparations. It runs like a Swiss watch for a reason. Thanks team.
See you all next week.