We’ve appointed Waldron Smith Management as the professional conference organiser for ASC 2012. They worked well with us previously when they were the PCO for the very successful 2007 World Congress of Science Journalists, held in Melbourne and hosted by ASC.
Our next steps will be to work with the PCO to develop the conference budget and get the basic infrastructure moving. Then Rod Lamberts, the chair of our national conference organising committee, can unleash the keen ASC committee to start working on the program and numerous other details.
Brainstorming is welcome across the nation. Last year the NSW branch held a brainstorming session which produced a lot of ideas that Tim and Kali incorporated into the conference. I encourage all the branches to organise similar events as soon as feasible to dream up what they would like to see as part of the conference. Send the results to Rod (he will attend these events if possible) and he will collate them for his team.
The conference will be in Sydney from 27-29 February, with perhaps a welcoming event on Sunday 26 Feb.
Jesse Shore
National President