The Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA)  invites you to participate in its next annual conference, "Next Steps:  Building a New Engagement Agenda," July 11-13, 2011 in Sydney.   Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) executive director  Sarena Seifer and CCPH board chair Susan Gust co-keynoted this year's  AUCEA conference and found the issues, challenges and rewards of  community-academic partnerships to be remarkably similar across  Australia, Canada and the US - there is much we can learn from each  other!  The 2011 AUCEA conference in particular aims to draw greater international  participation.

For more information about the conference, see below and visit  http://bit.ly/d2uUJE

To read keynote remarks made by Sarena and Susan at this year's  conference, go to http://bit.ly/arUqqn and scroll down to July 2010.

The 2011 AUCEA conference aims are to:

• Provide a forum for provocative and interactive discussion about  University-Community Engagement in Australia and across the world;
• Provide an opportunity for universities to showcase  University-Community Engagement research, theoretical aspects and best  practice;
• Engage with individuals and organisations outside of the higher  education sector in order to better sustain University-Community  Engagement;
• Provide a venue for high quality scholarship of engagement; and
• Attract new members, individuals, institutions and  organisations, to AUCEA from across Australia and internationally.

The conference will broadly organise presentations around the four themes of leadership, learning, research and partnerships.

Presenters and conference delegates are encouraged to think about how  these themes play out in the context of their own work in particular,  and how they relate to University-Community Engagement in general.

Conference Streams

Within the context of the four conference themes, presenters are asked  to consider the following three streams:

Collaboration

University-Community Engagement brings diverse people together to form  collaborations around common goals, where participatory processes and  reciprocal relationships are valued. In some collaborations community  members and academics equitably share control of the  University-Community Engagement agenda, and this can be quite  challenging. Presentations and workshops in this stream will explore  these issues and reveal strategies and techniques for developing and  sustaining collaborative partnerships.

Community Voice

Should the needs and concerns of the community  be it business,  industry, Not-for-profit or community-based  be part of, or help to  shape the University-Community Engagement agenda? Presentations and  workshops in this stream will explore how University-Community  Engagement  particularly engaged scholarship activity  can be designed  and carried out in order to include community voices and perspectives.

Action and Change

University-Community Engagement can help to build a better future,  through on-going learning, reflection and action. The process and  results of University-Community Engagement can be useful to community  members and university partners in promoting social equity and making  positive social and institutional change. This stream will reveal the  impacts and social transformations of University-Community Engagement,  and will include specific action techniques that can assist in the  development of policy and the implementation strategies that  effectively increase knowledge sharing.

Who Should Participate?

People from Australian and International universities  academic,  professional, and executive staff as well as students; and people  working in business and industry, community-based and Not-For-Profit  organisations, and government.

Presentation Formats

The AUCEA Conference Program Committee has chosen the following  innovative presentation formats because they create opportunities for  increased discussion, exploration and shared learning. Community member  participation in presentations with academics or engagement  professionals is also encouraged. Presenters are asked to select from the following six presentation  formats.

Skill Development Workshops

In these workshops, presenters will share their skills and techniques  in relation to undertaking University-Community Engagement,  particularly through community-based research and/or  university-community partnerships. Workshops should be interactive and focus upon specific learning objectives to  increase the participants competence in an important area relating to  the conference themes and streams. Opportunities for feedback and  practice should also be included. When submitting your presentation  proposal please indicate your workshop objectives, agenda, and the  participation processes.

Workshops will be 90 minutes in length. (Number of Participants = 30 maximum)

Research Presentations

Research presentations are academic in content and demonstrate  theoretical underpinning and original research, and report on research  that relates to the conference themes.  Presentations may be submitted  individually or jointly as a panel session (submitted by the panel  lead).

Individual presentations will be approximately 30-45 minutes each, with  a total of 90 minutes allocated for each session. (Number of  Participants = Open).

Roundtables

Roundtables will provide an opportunity for discussion on important  themes and issues relevant to University-Community Engagement.  Presentations may include ideas in development that are relevant to the  conferences themes. A roundtable might provide an opportunity for  collective problem solving of an identified challenge. A submission to  facilitate a roundtable must include a summary describing the problem  or issue, its significance, the questions to be posed, and a plan for  engaging the participants.

Individual presentations will be 30 minutes each, with a total of 60  minutes allocated for each session. (Number of Participants = 30  maximum i.e. 5 tables of 6).

Story-telling

Stories should be consistent with the conference theme and streams and  they should also reflect the genuine and authentic experience of an  individual, a team or a community. For example, a story session could  involve a story of a successful or less than successful attempt to  engage a multi-disciplinary team of academics in community-based  research. A story could also describe the challenges faced and overcome   in full or partially  when strategic University-Community Engagement  policy is put into action.

Individual stories will be 20 minutes each, with a total of 60 minutes  allocated for each session. (Number of Participants = 20 maximum).

Poster sessions

A dedicated venue will be established for the display of posters  illustrating research outcomes, describing ongoing projects, and  elaborating the experience of University-Community Engagement. Posters  may include photographs, statistical tables, figures, charts, or other  graphic material relevant to the project and e-posters are also  encouraged.  Some posters will be clustered according to the conference  themes to increase learning and networking opportunities.

Presenters must be available at their poster to answer questions or  conduct a conversation about their poster at a designated time during  the conference. (Number of Participants = Open).

5-minute Expos

The 5-Minute Expos will showcase different ideas, innovations, or  theories that are being undertaken by those working in the  University-Community Engagement arena.  This knowledge sharing activity  will challenge presenters to clearly and succinctly explain their expos  in just five minutes.

Individual presentations will be strictly limited to 5 minutes, with a  total of 60 minutes allocated for each session. (Number of Participants  = Open).