Executive Summary
The 2022 AAG National Conference was the first face-to-face conference organised by AAG since 2019. It should be noted that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continued to create challenges for the 2022 conference, with an upsurge in cases nationally in the weeks leading up to the conference, and infection outbreaks that impacted some attendees, including the South Australian Conference Chair. Despite these last-minute challenges, the conference achieved its primary aim of getting people back to an in-person event. In attendance were 556 delegates and a further 60 people who registered for the preconference workshops.
The conference feedback survey was completed by 46 respondents, representing an 8% response rate. This is lower than previous conferences, however the survey was embedded in the conference app which was a contributing factor based on the feedback that the app was not user friendly. A reminder to complete the survey was distributed on the Monday morning following the conference; ideally a more immediate reminder sent out on the Friday afternoon after the final session might have generated more responses.
The majority (77%) of respondents to the survey were AAG members. Respondents were primarily researchers, from across a variety of fields, followed by social workers, educators, students, health professionals, policy/advocacy, volunteers, and others.
The most common reasons that respondents identified as their reason for attending the conference was to learn more about the latest research and to network with their peers. The most common ways respondents heard about the conference were through the AAG emails (43%) and from other colleagues (25%).
Overall, the survey responses provided very positive feedback on the content of the conference, with 44 out of 46 (96%) people agreeing that they learnt something new at the Conference.
The plenary sessions that were nominated as ‘standing out’ by respondents were the Opening Address given by Sophie Thomson on the physical and psychological benefits of gardening, and the 2022 David Wallace Address presentation by Professor Veronica Soebarto, and accompanied by Dr Helen Barrie on the impact of architecture and the built environment on ageing.
Feedback on the concurrent sessions was mostly positive with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sessions and the Yarn Ups cited as the stand outs. There was feedback on suggested topics for future conferences, and suggestions that the conference program needs to better connect the research presentations with policy implications and practical applications, and that this would better meet the interests of the multi-disciplinary AAG membership. There was also an observation that many presentations focussed on pilot work; however, we feel this is understandable given the impact of Covid disruptions experienced by the sector since January 2020.