The Cooperative Research Centres Association Inc (CRCA) is a not-for-profit organisation operating to promote the pursuit of science, particularly through the Australian Government’s CRC Program.
Each year they hold a conference for their membership which attracts around 350-450 people. It runs for three days and comprises conference sessions, social functions and networking opportunities, plus a small trade show.
Each year, although we use the history of our time working with the CRCA, we take a unique approach to each event. The organisation itself survives by being innovative, so the conference must reflect this.
The last conference was held in Alice Springs, which was a departure from the norm in that traditionally it has been held in a capital city, rotating through each state each year. This departure from the norm was a calculated decision as it meant that the group would be “isolated” for a period of four days. The reason being that if held in a capital city the attendees take the opportunity to book a lot of meetings in and around the conference city which means they are not totally engaged in the event itself, and they can fly in and out when they choose to do so.
As an observer to this it is interesting to note that the attendees are CEOs, COOs, Financial Controllers, Business Managers, Directors etc and as such lead busy and stressful lives, so the decision to move this conference to Alice Springs was risky but the benefits would be plentiful.
If you’ve never been to The Alice then you won’t know about its calming influence on you. It’s almost instantaneous. It just makes you slow down and take in the landscape. So that’s benefit no. 1 – slowing down!
There is only one flight in and one flight out of Alice Springs each day to each capital city, so making the decision to attend was a conscious one on the delegate’s behalf. Benefit 2 therefore was we had a captured audience once we got them there.
The weather is benefit 3 as pretty much year round you can be guaranteed of good weather and be able to make use of the outdoor environment for the social functions – which we did. The Welcome Reception and the Awards Dinner were held outdoors – a welcome relief from being cooped up in another convention centre or hotel function room which could be anywhere on the planet.
Benefit number 4 was that it’s a VERY close-knit community in Alice Springs which meant there were very clear and strong links that we could draw upon to provide a few surprises and impactful experiences.
From this were able to create a very innovative, unique and memorable event for all involved.
For example: The Welcome Reception was held out of town at the Desert Knowledge Precinct where one of the CRCs is located. Through their connections we were able to create indigenous markets on site which provided an interesting, insightful and fun evening, but also supported financially the local indigenous population. We also were able to bring an indigenous children’s drumming group in to perform for our delegates. This group helps these children stay at school and receive a full secondary education. These kids are amongst the only people in their community to have reached and completed high school. So instead of the usual drinks and canapés (which we did provide, but used the local bush tucker in the making of the food), welcome speech and the “when can we get out of here looks?, everyone was engaged and involved and the night flew by.
The conference commenced the next day in the Convention Centre, but as it’s not a huge cavernous space, we were able to make good use of the venue in keeping people together, while still being able to hold meals outside. We provided some provocative and thought-provoking sessions and we also did a taste test on chocolate during the day – the test being what was actually flavouring the chocolate – bush tomatoes!
This conference, although predominantly national, always has international speakers and so we brought speakers in from Singapore and Geneva to experience our Outback and in fact organised a tour to one of the local indigenous communities using the strong links of our local CRC to allow them to do this. However, we kept them connected to the world via ABC National Radio who delivered an outside broadcast on site at the Convention Centre.
One evening we did a Dine Around in restaurants in Alice Springs for smaller groups to interact on a more personal level. The standard of cuisine in Alice Springs is excellent with many really good restaurants on offer.
The final evening was the gala event – the Awards for Excellence in Innovation. This was held out of town in the desert. Every thing had to be brought in – water, electricity, tables, chairs, food, audiovisual equipment, staging, cool rooms, field kitchens etc. The set up took two days and many, many sleepless nights! However, the delegates’ experience was fantastic with 300 people catered for on the night including sophisticated AV. The weather held and the event was a huge success, and with a surprise performance by the local Asante Sana a cappella choir singing under a full moon as guests arrived, it was a very special night.
To summarise, the benefits of holding this event away from the expected capital city location were these:
- People slowed down
- They de-stressed
- They actually spent more time with each other and enjoyed their company (and fulfilled in a much more meaningful way the networking expectations of a conference).
- They didn’t leave the conference early
- They interacted in the sessions
- And they got a lot more out of the event as they were fully present during it, not multi-tasking on issues that take them away physically and mentally from the content and activities on offer.
These photos show the vibrancy of the Territory and the uniqueness of this event. We felt very privileged to have worked on this event providing the support and viability of our network to produce the results for our client.
