aes26 International Evaluation Conference: Full Schedule

This is the draft aes26 program, subject to change. To register for workshops and the conference, go to: https://www.aes26.aes.asn.au/

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11:30am ACST

What makes place-based evaluation different?

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST

Waterfront 3

Authors: Lorraine Heywood, Treasury, Suzanne Butler, Treasury, Jessica Smart, AIFS
This panel discussion and Q&A will provide a lively and thought-provoking discussion about the differences between traditional program evaluation and place-based evaluation, with panel members sharing their experience and examples from different organisational perspectives across the field.

Speakers

Jessica Smart

Research Fellow, AIFS

Suzanne Butler

Director, Place-based Evaluation and Wellbeing Unit, Department of Treasury

Suzanne currently leads a team in the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE) responsible for embedding good evaluation principles and practices across government and fostering an evaluative culture that supports continuous learning about what works, why, and for whom. This includes... Read More →

Lorraine Heywood

Assistant Director, Department of Treasury

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:30am - 12:30pm ACST
Waterfront 3 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Traditional and new ways

Format Panel
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services

4:30pm ACST

Professional isolation in evaluation: AES members’ experiences, and ways to strengthen peer connection and community

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST

Hall 2

Authors: Martina Donkers, Julie Elliott

Professional isolation is an experience that, ironically, many evaluators share. As evaluators, we often find ourselves in a team of one – the only evaluator in the room, the only evaluator at the organisation, one bringing an evaluative lens to the problem. This can be hard. It can feel like people are turning to us for more answers than we have, or expecting something unrealistic. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling isolated due to our culture, our methodological approach or our disciplinary background.
There are structural ways isolation shows up – evaluators who work remotely in regional areas, evaluators who are self-employed, evaluators who balance their role with kids and family responsibilities. These experiences can leave us feeling like an outsider, with no one to test ideas, no one to help when the going gets rough, and no one to help grow our capabilities.
This panel session will explore AES members’ experiences of professional isolation, and what has worked (and not worked!) to help them combat it. We’ll present anonymised experiences from AES members about professional isolation to show attendees they aren’t alone.
We’ll then hear from 3 panellists at different stages of their professional journey, and what they’ve done to address professional isolation they’ve felt as evaluators. Finally, we’ll open the floor to questions – how can we feel more connected in our work? – and explore a range of ways that we can combat professional isolation in our field. This panel is presented by the AES Peer Group Mentoring Program Working Group, and considers how the program helps strengthen connection to peers. It also extends thinking beyond AES initiatives, and considers other ways that evaluators can combat professional isolation in a disconnected world. If you’ve ever felt lonely as an evaluator, this session is for you.

Speakers

Martina Donkers

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST
Hall 2

Boundaries and bridges

Format Panel
Audience Level Intermediate
Industry Public administration and safety, Community and social services, Education and training, Not for profit Philanthropy, Health and disability
ID 311

4:30pm ACST

Two-way learning through evaluation: An innovative Indigenous-led initiative enacting developmental evaluation at the cultural interface

Wednesday September 16, 2026 4:30pm - 5:30pm ACST

Waterfront 3

Authors: Samantha Togni, S2 Consulting, Robyn Napurrurla Lawson, Central Land Council, Verona Nungarrayi Jurrah, Central Land Council, David Japanangka McCormack, Central Land Council, Belinda Napaljarri Wayne, Central Land Council
For decades Indigenous peoples have led, and advocated for, evaluation that centres Indigenous ways of knowing and being and that promotes cultural safety to better support the realisation of Indigenous peoples’ aspirations through decolonising evaluation.

As a relationship-based participatory approach that is suited to supporting social innovation in complex, dynamic contexts, developmental evaluation is emerging as a useful approach in these settings. The focus on relationships underscores recognition that it is in relationship that change and development happen.

Over seven years developmental evaluation has supported the facilitation of two-way learning between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to develop an innovative Indigenous-led initiative to strengthen the governance of two Indigenous corporations in remote Australia. Operating at the interface of different knowledge systems, laws and values, this co-design process involved Indigenous directors, land council staff and corporate governance trainers.

Guided by the principles of culturally responsive evaluation in Indigenous contexts, developmental evaluation enabled the prioritisation of relationships, and the centring of Indigenous voices, knowledge and culture to effectively enact two-way learning within this complex intercultural context. In conversation with the evaluator, Indigenous directors will share how they engaged in and influenced the developmental evaluation to enact two-way learning and how it became integral to the initiative’s co-design and delivery.

Featuring long-term and newly elected directors, panellists will explore their experiences of how, through the centring of their values and knowledge, the evaluation learnings:

1) transformed the program to align with Indigenous ways of learning;
2) contributed to the initiative’s effectiveness and accelerated newly elected directors’ learning; and
3) strengthened relationships and cultural safety that underpinned two-way learning.

Panellists will provide valuable lessons from culturally responsive developmental evaluation in practice, demonstrating factors that contributed to this approach effectively centring Indigenous people’s values and perspectives to strengthen relationships and decolonize evaluation to support Indigenous aspirations.

Speakers

Samantha Togni

Evaluation Consultant, S2 Consulting

Samantha Togni is an evaluation and social research consultant based in Alice Springs. She has more than 20 years’ experience in Indigenous health and wellbeing research and evaluation, working with rural and remote Aboriginal organisations in northern and central Australia. Her... Read More →

Traditional and new ways

Format Panel
Audience Level Foundational, Intermediate
Industry Community and social services
ID 247

11:30am ACST

4:30pm ACST

4:30pm ACST

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