Australian Museums and Galleries Association – AMaGA

Panellists at the AMAGA national conference

Panelists in the partnerships, power, people and purpose panel

Earlier this year our Be Connected, Lead Digital Mentor, Tik, was asked to be a panellist at one of the workshop sessions at the Australian Museums and Galleries Association’s National Conference held in Perth.

The invitation stemmed from conversations early in 2021 between Tik and AMaGA WA’s Executive Director, Natalie Evans, about how they might partner with ASCCA to increase digital literacy among some of their members’ older volunteers through our Be Connected, Capacity Building projects.

The theme of AMaGA’s first face to face conference since the pandemic, “HERE.US.NOW: turning conversation into action” had a large focus on partnerships.

There were over 400 delegates in attendance from across Australia, Asia, and Oceania, in person and via webinar.

Both Tik and Tony attended day one of the four day conference and managed to chat with many delegates.

The first day of the four-day conference was dedicated to regional, remote and community organisations (RRC) with all content tailored to be accessible and relevant to the RRC audience which makes up the majority of the sector.

The panel discussion Tik sat on was: Partnerships, power, people, and purpose: Planning for a sustainable sector. This panel was facilitated by M.O.D. (Museum of Discovery) South Australia’s Dr Kristin Alford (Dr Alford was also one of the national keynote speakers for the conference) and focussed the discussion around sector sustainability. Other panellists included, Executive Director for the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA, Kim Jameson, CEO of FutureNow, Julie Hobbs, Executive Director of DADAA, David Doyle and Executive Strategist Alison Gaines.

Natika and Tony at the AMAGA National Conference in Perth

Digital literacy, access to technology and ongoing upskilling in technology are major concerns for AMAGA’s regional, remote and community members, and whilst the sector in general was a new one to Tik, she spoke about ASCCA’s commitment to empowering seniors through Technology and how ASCCA could, through another round of Be Connected Capacity Building funding, support AMaGA’s smaller, community based members by working with them to recruit and train digital mentors.

Many great conversations were held over the course of the day by both Tony and Tik. We’re looking forward to following up these conversations and developing new partnerships from those