Conversation Co helped La Trobe University speak with the surrounding community, current students and future residents about what a city born from a university might look like for community, industry and ideas to transform to a city of the future.

Started in 2012, this day is intended to promote girls’ empowerment and bring attention to the need to address the challenges that girls face. Across the globe, girls still face barriers to education.  This has only been exacerbated by COVID-19 and the growing impacts of climate change. 

Inclusion should be at the core of everything we do – whether it’s in the workplace, a sporting team, school or even at home. 

Back in June this year, we wrote about The Power of Elections & Civic Democracy reflecting on the Federal Election in May and the Victorian State Election later in November 2022. We talked about election voting being a classic example of public participation at the EMPOWER level (as defined by the International Association for Public Participation).

It’s heart-warming to see the community’s ideas take shape and definitely a place worth visiting. This public space in Cowes, off Chapel St, was locally known as Olive Justice Place and used primarily as a carpark and back of house area for nearby shops. 

So nice to drive by Ercildoune Reserve in Cranbourne West and see works taking place onsite. A project Conversation Caravan worked on in 2019 with the City of Casey Council to engage with residents about the site and landscaping options.

Conversation Co was engaged to deliver a sector-leading engagement and research program to inform Council’s actions around community safety. The aim of the program was to explore the community’s perceptions of safety and compare this to reported crime levels. We wanted to understand: risk factors; protective factors; locations of concern; and potential actions for Council.

Outdoor dining parklets (or spacelets) are now so commonplace it’s difficult to remember the time before they existed. We are all enjoying having a coffee outdoors, or a glass of wine on a pleasant Friday night.

Like many others, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns took its toll on our team. We knew people were feeling particularly isolated and some were experiencing poor mental health.

Conversation Co recently partnered with Moreland City Council, City of Darebin, and Homes Victoria to work with their communities and stakeholders in developing Housing and Neighbourhood strategies, to improve the standard of development in each municipality and strategically plan for the future housing needs of their diverse communities.

Being a good corporate citizen is a driving force for Conversation Co. Be anything but an a#%!h&le. 

This shapes the projects and clients we work with, the people we employ and of course the way we run our organisation.

Community engagement to finalise actions for a suite of plans that deliver on the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan.

Conversation Caravan was engaged by the City of Melbourne to plan and deliver the engagement approach to seek feedback on the draft Towards Smoke-Free Melbourne 2025 policy – an unprecedented public health initiative within Victoria. The Policy describes the vision that “the City of Melbourne will become a smoke-free city by 2025 with smoking restricted in the majority of public spaces and events”. 

July is National Desexing Month! This is a national initiative undertaken by the National Desexing Network (NDN) & Animal Welfare League QLD to link pet owners to services where they can receive discounted desexing from participating vets & Councils around the country.

Community engagement is commonly a process that collects qualitative feedback. It often involves ‘open’ consultation – anyone who is interested or affected can participate. It uses ‘non-random’ selection – stakeholders are deliberately defined and targeted according to their interest in the project. Some stakeholders will have more influence than others.

It’s hard to believe that a project that felt so tough and emotionally tiring (at the time), is now up for an award, and has financial commitment.

On May 21 Australians had the opportunity to have their say about their Federal Government representative, by voting in the Federal Election. 

Voting at local, State/Territory and Federal elections is one of the most important ways we can have our say about the future of our local community and our nation.

This month I have started an exciting new journey in learning AUSLAN. It is something I have been considering for a few years now but learning a language can be daunting and difficult to find the time for. Thankfully, having friends to demonstrate learnings and being a part of a company that is driven by inclusivity, has made this venture an exciting one!