The WA 2009 Child Care and Early Childhood Education Conference was by all accounts a resounding success.  Approximately 470 delegates registered for the conference—which exceeded all our expectation; we received 180 completed evaluations.   The evaluation outcomes have been collated and are now on the conference web site www.waecec.com.au  as well as CHILD Australia’s.  As you can see the majority of delegates felt very positive about the conference program; the written feedback reinforced that positive view and gave us some excellent suggestions for how we can improve the next conference in 2011. 

 

In addition to the evaluation outcomes there is also a link to the conference website which has the conference papers on it. For those of you who were not able to attend the final session I would draw your attention to the video shown below, that Anthony Semann made that captured some lovely and insightful reactions from delegates about the conference.

 

This inaugural conference definitely set the bar high simply as a result of high calibre of presenters such as Ron Lally who provided us with invaluable insights about early childhood development and the most current research available on the 0-3 age group.  

 

With the generous financial sponsorship from Lotterywest and Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), we were able to support many early childhood professionals from rural and remote parts of WA to attend the conference. It was gratifying to see people who would not ordinarily get the opportunity to attend a conference of this quality soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the networking opportunities.

 

I would like to thank the conference organising committee and the staff of CHILD Australia who worked so hard to make this conference such a success. This was a big challenge for CHILD Australia but one we will continue to meet on a biennial basis because it fits with our role to improve professional practice and raise the quality of the early childhood education in WA.

Please refer to conference evaluation by delegates here.