Science Day and posters

Well last week saw the Bushfire CRC and AFAC conference at Darling Harbour Sydney; it was good to see and talk with so many friends and acquaintances. Of particular note was the inclusion of a Science Day again. The last time we had included this was back at the Adelaide Conference in 2008. Judging by the feedback received during the networking times this day was well received and seemed to strike the right balance for those who attended.

The Science Day saw 36 presentations from various researchers from within the Bushfire CRC, and outside organisations focussing on various aspects of emergency management research. It was also particularly pleasing to see a large number of end-users in the audience, and presenting in many cases.  For me the opening keynotes addresses from Jose Torero and David Pannell, and the closing keynote from Mike Fromm were the highlights and I thought illustrate the vitality and diversity of the research space.

Another aspect of the conference I really enjoyed were the poster displays, with some 120 or so posters displayed, I felt that the quality and designs exceeded other conferences, and as a member of judging panel, it made our job very difficult to find a winner.  But in the end it was congratulations to Blythe McLennan who won the judges award and to Tony O’Day who won the people’s choice award.

It is now onto the planning for next year’s conference to be held in Perth on the 28-31 August 2012