IOE Conference - Passion And Purpose

IOE Conference - Passion and Purpose

28th April 2010

Passion and Purpose was the theme for the inaugural Interchange Outer East Conference for families, volunteers, staff and connected agencies held on April 20th and 21st 2010.

Over 120 people attended the conference held at the Foothills Conference Centre in Mooroolbark, Victoria.

Belinda James, IOE General Manager, said “The conference was a great success. It was inspirational, informative and an experience which united our Interchange Outer East community and reinforced the reasons why we are all so passionate about Interchange.”

Key Speakers, Wendy Lawson and Tom Tutton provided informative and valuable insights into the world of autism, while Leanne Skinner’s ‘each person can make a difference’ story of her involvement with disadvantaged people in Africa was truly inspirational.
The new Interchange Outer East website was  launched during the conference by Webdynamic's Nick Grinberg, who also discussed social media trends and the potential for Interchange to create online communities.The conference also featured a number of workshops and presentations which, as well as being informative, offered different perspectives on a range of Interchange and disability related issues and encouraged audience participation and comment.

The passion and purpose theme was continued on Day 2 with Seymour based performance company, Dream Theatre, introducing the audience to ‘Sweet Dreams’, individual short films on their personal hopes and dreams.

Marketing Coordinator, Rebecca Gallaher said “It was a great opportunity to share, learn and create an environment of team work. The feedback has been so positive and it was nice coming to work the following day feeling the buzz back in the air.”

The next conference for Interchange Outer East will be held in 2012.

To read more about what people thought about the conference check out the Blog page.
Links to websites associated with the individuals and organizations who presented at the conference have been posted on the Links page of our site.

Read the notes and summaries of all presentations in the Conference Information Booklet

by Sandra Leehy