Melbourne International Student Conference

by Maiana Sena

Overall this is a wonderful student conference to attend as a student/new evaluator. Well organized conference, good scale, solid content in presentations especially high level plenary/keynote addresses, well chosen for conference context.

I was impressed by the quality of keynotes and presenters at a regional conference. I was also impressed with the commitment and efficiency of those who plan this conference. The student presentations and posters were outstanding. The conference is really easy to navigate and nice setting as the opportunity for interaction during the session, as well many opportunities to network with fellow evaluators outside of the sessions, inspiring information, learned several ideas, really informative, very engaging, very helpful and also met new friends and potential colleagues. As a graduate student, I can communicate with a lot of people with rich knowledge and skills in evaluation field for that reason it was a perfect size for networking opportunity and also it was affordable for students.

Personally, what I like the most was that the conference generated a lot of ideas about how to continue to expand my skills and my professional qualifications. I feel like it helped me get out of a ‘rut’.” The opportunities this conference gave me were unforgettable: great content, new and old experts, candid advice and small enough for really good conversations as the theme embraces conceptual/theoretical as well as empirical work. Keynote speakers were stellar, also very friendly, board members went out of their way to introduce themselves. The skill-building track was excellent, and I took advantage when Tegan our Academic coordinator asked us to talk about how is the opportunity to begin an Ambassador student sharing all my passion about the program, offering evaluator info, promoting thoughtful of our effective organization.

In addition, I was pleasantly surprised with the venue, they had a very welcoming atmosphere and It was a great location for a small conference that allows me to really connect with other evaluation professionals!

I truly enjoyed the Melbourne international student conference this year. I shall return next year.

Student Ambassador Maiana Sena