Like the 'what difference is Australian writing making?' seminar, this was part of the 'Melbourne Conversations' series: Cheryl Batagol (chair of Melbourne Water and deputy chair of Sustainability Victoria), Noel Purcell (Group General Manager, Stakeholder Communications for Westpac), Richard Dennis (economist and strategic adviser to Bob Brown) and David Yencken (patron of the ACF and, from what I gather, a bit of a grand old man of the environmental/sustainability movement in Australia).
So it was quite interesting and all, but short on really substantial commentary - as an interested but relatively uninformed attendee, I felt that I ought to have learned and been provoked a lot more than was actually the case. Maybe that's not the purpose of these kinds of public seminars - but surely, without wanting to give myself airs, in broad outlines I'm exactly the kind of person they should be trying to engage? It wasn't a wasted attendance, though - I did pick up a bit, and when in the initial stages of learning about a field, it's always good to be exposed to as much as possible, even if some of that material is only reiterating basic assumptions and perspectives.
(w/ Nicolette - Wei & Julian F also around)
