APEN Webinar - October 2026 - Proving Impact

Showing that your work made a difference starts well before the final report. This webinar begins at the end with a plain question: what are you trying to achieve?

Amy Samson takes you through a practical approach to monitoring and evaluation. You'll look at how to capture the so-what rather than only the activity, how to gather evidence as you go, and how to make a plan while expecting it to change.

The session closes with a short foray into social media, based on Amy's PhD research on how Australian women on farms use it, in the context of climate extremes.

What's covered

Part 1: monitoring and evaluation

- Start at the end: what are you trying to achieve?

- Measure what matters: capturing the so-what

- Monitoring is important: gathering evidence on the go

- Make a plan, but expect to change

Part 2: a short foray into social media

- Within the context of climate extremes affecting Australian agriculture, can social media provide space to connect, learn and maybe even flourish?

Your speaker: Amy Samson

Amy Samson has a Master of Professional Communication and a PhD investigating social media use by Australian women on the farm in the context of climate change. In addition to managing Coutts J&R projects, her expertise is in the evaluation of communication and social media strategies. Her interest in this area started growing when she worked in London for a media intelligence company evaluating the effectiveness of public relations campaigns within government and not for profit organisations. Her clients won industry awards (the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC)) for their evaluation of communication/social media programs and campaigns. Amy is a strong advocate for improving evaluation planning and reporting to help communicators prove the effectiveness of their work.