The South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub’s Extension and Adoption team attended the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN) International Conference 2023 held in Launceston mid-last month. The theme of the conference was ‘Looking to the future: the role of extension and education’.
More than 100 speakers presented on topics from AI and the future of agricultural extension, effective communication of blue sky research through narrative, to emergency management and recovery.
South Australian of the Year, Tim Jarvis was the key speaker. Known for his 2013 recreation of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition, he is considered an authority on the late explorer and his leadership model
Mr Jarvis presents globally and the APEN conference attendees, like many around the world, heard from the Environmental scientist about purposeful leadership, problem-solving, teamwork, change management, goal setting and sustainability. He distilled his key learnings from his journey of survival down to ‘the positives in problems’, and ‘don’t ask others to do something you are not prepared to do.’
While in Tasmania the Hub team took the opportunity to visit three different farms. The itinerary was organised by the Tasmanian Farm Innovation Hub, one of the seven other drought hubs across the country.
The team gleaned insights about the vast variety of crops grown with 7-9 year rotations, the vast majority grown under irrigation.
The key takeaway from the trip was change and how we can adapt to it.
