"Inspiring, diverse, challenging. Great to have input from people outside DE ."

"We need to rethink what the story is that we are telling ourselves and disrupt some routines- can’t wait!"

63 people attended the recent annual IDEA conference which took place on Friday the 4th of June in Space 54, Smithfield, Dublin 7.

The morning panel discussion set the tome for the day, bringing together diverse perspectives from outside the Development Education sector. Dr. Ivor Browne talked about his own personal experience of education, of his experience of personal change in psychiatry and psychotherapy and of his realisation that the only thing we can be sure of changing is ourselves. Paula Downey of Downey Youell and Associates spoke about a living systems approach to learning, exploring the deep paradigm shift that is needed to renegotiate our relationship with the planet and each other. Dr. Kieran Allen from UCD explicitly named capitalism as the obsolete system that needs to be replaced, through radical collective action. Rajiv Joshi of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) described personal experiences of mobilising to challenge injustice locally and globally, highlighting the role of young people in activism and awareness-raising. Rita Fagan, from St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore spoke about linking local and global struggles for justice and emphasised the importance of the community development sector in Development Education. The chair, Pete Davis, brought all the contributions together and facilitated a dynamic question and answer question, with some provocative questions from delegates leading to inspiring discussion.

In the afternoon, 3 discussion corners were hosted by volunteer members of IDEA's National Council. Each corner focused on a different level of change- personal, organisational and sytemic (social/ environmental). Delegates discussed the broad question that underpinned the theme of the conference: "What is needed  to empower citizens through education to take part in creating a more fair amd sustainable future?" As a result, action points emerged from each discussion corner. These were fed back to the delegation who put their names next to actions they intended to follow up in their own DE practice. Lots of action points emerged for IDEA to consider, points that will be considered as we go into our planning mode for next year.

The conference was a great success, thanks to all who contributed, the panellists and chairs, volunteers and delegates. We were also delighted to have found Space 54, which is a social enterprise multifunctional arts space- not a regular choice for conferences- it definitely brought a fresh and inspiring ambience to the day!

You can read more about the action points from the conference and those who signed up to them here. You can read the compiled questions from delegates to the panellists here. Finally, you can see photos from the event on our facebook page.