The coincidence of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry and Information Awareness Month offers the opportunity to explore how well our communities are using information and knowledge in regard to natural disasters. In early January this year the media carried horrific images and stories of the loss of life and damage caused by flooding in the southern Queensland towns of Toowoomba and Grantham and in the cities of Brisbane and Ipswich. Surprise was expressed at how such severe events could have happened. But the reality is that these floods have their predecessors, as explored in the article Queensland floods: information, history and knowledge.
Tags: Climate, Climate History, Floods, Information Awareness Month, Information management, Knowledge and Information Management, Knowledge management, National Library of Australia, Queensland Floods, Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, Trove
Information and knowledge management | Bruce Boyes | 
5 May 2011 8:52 pm | 
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We are so pleased that the Australian Stream Management Conference is making a comeback in 2012 – there has been a big gap in the calendars of natural resources management professionals without this event, so we are very happy to announce that the ARRC is going to be a part of this revamped occasion in February 2012.
The conference will be held in our home town of Canberra, with the River Basin Management Society and the Catchments Australia Foundation hosting the event. The ARRC will be running workshops that link to the conference theme of ‘Managing for Extremes’ with some of the questions being asked over the two days including:
Does successful management of stream systems lie in managing for the extremes?
What are these extremes, and how do we predict and plan for them?
What are the implications for ecological communities and monitoring and evaluation programs?
How do we engage with communities and elected leaders to discuss these issues?
The ARRC will be exploring this topic in terms of what skills do we, as natural resources management professionals, need to ‘manage for extremes’. How can we best support and facilitate positive environmental and social outcomes in the face of these future challenges?
Place the dates 6-8th of Feb 2012 in your diary and we look forward to welcoming you to lovely Canberra!
Siwan & Nerida 
We have just come back from a fascinating and enjoyable four days running a workshop hosted by Desert Channels Queensland and attended by staff and members of the wider community. The workshop focused on connecting through conversation, as well as examining communication styles and how to promote creativity in the workplace. We arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm which was very exciting (!) and the landscape was transformed due to the rain – as a result, we went up in a helicopter to take a peek and, for those of you that know me (Siwan), that is a very brave thing to do! Thank you Desert Channels Queensland and the Longreach community for being so welcoming and participating enthusiastically in the two days, we had a great time.
Siwan and Nerida
This is what Mike Castrisos, Corporate Consultant with Desert Channel Solutions had to say “Our staff worked through a two day workshop that was held at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach Queensland. Over the two days, our staff focused on connecting through conversations, communication and creativity. Sounds interesting! Well it was! Siwan and Nerida didn’t miss a beat! All participants felt valued and respected and took from this event something relevant after the two days. For me the highlights were some self discovery of how I could improve and perfect my skills in communication and conversation. The added bonus was “meeting” TED.com – a wonderful site! Check it out! A brilliant resource for initiating conversations and communication strategies for presentations.” More
We are delighted to be heading to Longreach to run two one-day workshops focusing on connecting through conversation (Day one), communication and creativity (Day two). Desert Channels Queensland is hosting the event, which will be held on the on the 15 and 16 of November. We welcome anyone who would like to attend to contact Roelie Hartwig (roelie.hartwig@dcq.org.au) or call 07 4652 7812 for more information. Read more about the Longreach Workshop.
This is an example of how the ARRC can work with organisations to tailor a workshop for your region – think about it and give us a call! Siwan
Tags: Communication, Conversation, Creativity, Desert Channels, Information and knowledge management, Knowledge management, Natural resource management, Stories, Storytelling, Training, Workshop
Events, Narrative and story | Siwan Lovett | 2 November 2010 11:16 am | Comments Off
When you build bridges, you can keep crossing them.
~ Rick Pitino
In all things, be willing to listen to people around you. None of us is really smart enough to go it alone.
~ John Clendenin
On 20 October 2010 the ARRC will be running a workshop on Connecting through Conversation: Narrative techniques for Organisational Knowledge Sharing. This workshop stresses the importance of conversation and other narrative techniques and how to use them in your everyday work life. These are simple and cost effective techniques which won’t break the bank.
We still have a few places available and would love to see the workshop completely full. Come along and join Siwan , Nerida and Matt and build your skill set.
