Wrestling @ Wrest Point!

Hobart and Wrest Point are a distant memory, but one that will stay with me for a while.

The welcome to country by Kartanya Maynard was very informative as well as musical, with a song that was both moving and poignant.

Keynote speakers also made us think and do a little wrestling as well. Craig Barling, Chief Strategy Officer in the VC’s office at the University of Tasmania, talked about why they do things differently and how they try to make a difference at the University of Tasmania. Angel Calderon from RMIT got us thinking about the future of higher education and the implications for institutional research and planning. And all of that was just the start of Day 1!

As usual, the quality and breadth of the presentations was very high and well received. This is evidenced by the winner of our Best Presenter Award, Shane Compton, along with his colleagues Benjamin Phillips and Paul Lavrakas from The Social Research Centre with their presentation on ‘Using loss framing to optimise response in the context of the Graduate Outcomes Survey – an experimental trial’. Our Best New Presenter Award went to Gimwah Sng and Shane Smith, also of The Social Research Centre, for their presentation on ‘Graduate employment destination – exploring the relationships between study are, occupation and industry of employment’.

The Institutional Research Award this year was presented to Daniel McNamara, Robert Williamson and Leone Nurbasari.

The Forum dinner was also a highlight and started with a cruise before returning to Wrest Point for a 1920s themed gala dinner. Women revealed their inner flapper, with tassels and feather boas gracing the dancefloor. Men with pinstripes and ties, caps and argyle socks rocked their gangster style. The band kept us going well into the night, and more than a few new AAIRies learned that dancing is a requirement! Check out the pictures to see who really took to the theme.

The final day was equally thought-provoking and culminated in the announcement of Sydney as the next Forum location. More details will be forthcoming, but if you are interested in being involved, or have some ideas, please get in touch with Liesha, our Executive Officer, at info@aair.org.au.

I would like to give extra special thanks to our sponsors and exhibitors who partner with AAIR at our forums each year. They make an invaluable contribution to our events, and we wouldn’t be able to hold such events without them. This year our sponsors were: