APEN Conversations November 2026: Gleaning the value from a peer network

Most of what extension practitioners learn from each other gets shared at conference every two years or in the REIS Journal once a year, usually at the level of project findings. The smaller experiences, like how a workshop went in a particular setting or what you’d change next time, are often the most useful and the most personal. They’re also the least likely to be passed on.

That’s why the APEN book club, and then APEN Conversations, were started: to turn a membership spread across Australia and New Zealand into a network where practitioners share with each other, regularly and in both directions.

This session looks at what makes that kind of network work.

On the day

• A quick poll: how many APEN Conversations have you been to?

• Noel Ainsworth on why the APEN book club and APEN Conversations started

• Small group discussion, five people or fewer: which networks you’re involved in and why, which networking activities give you the most value, and what gets in the way

• Bringing the ideas back together

Facilitated by Noel Ainsworth