Great strategies start great questions.
At a time of great uncertainty but also a growing commitment to doing at least a few things differently in HE, we decided it was a vital moment to ask whether the sector is headed in the right direction.
I’ve had a lot of questions this week about why we are holding the Brand Australia conference – a mini-conference looking at ways that higher education staff and institutions can seek to regain social licence. We are lucky to have support from a great range of speakers who have recognised the value of fresh perspectives and the opportunity to dive into conversations that you won’t find elsewhere.
But here is why we chose to run the conference in this format. A lot of people have told us that cost is a real issue for many staff in attending conferences – so we are running this at cost and charging $85 for the conference, with lunch and followed up by networking drinks sponsored by ATN. The question is, though, is that too cheap? We wondered if there is perception that there will be a correlation between price and quality and my gut feeling is that holds true, just as it does for many students when selecting courses.
It’s not a problem for us – places are limited at our venue and we have some great thinkers and key decision makers from the sector attending, with absolutely no compromise on quality. We will be having conversations that won’t be heard elsewhere.
But on the pricing issue, we believe in asking the questions others won’t. Given many academic staff don’t have access to significant conference budgets and one of our goals is to broaden understanding and conversations about key sector issues, there may be a need to consider what other ways are available to keep providing low cost, high quality conferences that people love.
In an update, IEAA CEO Phil Honeywood has agreed to join us to outline insights from the development of a campaign to engage the Australian community in appreciating the value of international students – with insights relevant to the wider topic of how we understand and address the priorities of middle Australia.
We still have a limited quantity of tickets – join us in Canberra on February 24. And remember, price isn’t a reliable proxy for substance.
