GP & PHC Research Conference - Driving Change

A very productive experience: summary of the 2009 GP & PHC Research Conference evaluation

This year’s conference brought together 460 delegates consisting of researchers, decision makers, policy makers, practitioners and consumers to listen, share, discuss, network and socialise. With four plenary sessions, six workshops and symposia, four breakfast meetings, 144 papers and over 80 poster presenters, ideas and information flowed in abundance.

About the delegates
Delegates came from diverse fields and organisations. Over 30% were funded through PHCRED with another 33% coming from universities. Federal and state government delegates comprised 9% and Divisions delegates represented 6%. As the conference was held in Melbourne it not surprising that Victoria contributed the greatest percentage of delegates (34%), followed by NSW (18%) and Queensland (15%). Women comprised 73% of the registrations. Almost a third of the delegates registered as ‘Dr’ (either MD or PhD), and 14% as ‘Associate Professor / Professor’, suggesting that the conference is a good conduit to researchers ranging from leaders to emerging researchers in the PHC sector.

What they said
The conference evaluation was done entirely on-line in keeping with our green policy. The response rate was 40% (168/423; 37 could not be contacted via email).
Most respondents (89%) indicated that the conference increased their knowledge and understanding of the scope and nature of current research, evaluation and development to a great to moderate extent. Most (90%) also indicated that the plenary sessions addressed the conference theme Driving Change to a great to moderate extent.

Networking at the conference
Most delegates (89%) indicated that the conference was a good to excellent forum for networking with 87% indicating that networking at the conference was important to them to a great to moderate extent.
Networking was primarily used for socialising (24%), discussing content of presentations and posters (24%), obtaining valuable input for work (21%), and discussing general primary health care issues (17%).

Comments regarding the ‘most enjoyed’ aspects of the conference

• Concurrent paper sessions - made it easy to find out about lots of different sorts of research happening without having to sit through long presentations. Having 4-5 presentations in each session created variety and good discussion opportunities.
• Particularly love that you can view the abstracts of the papers prior to arriving at the conference.
• Presence of so many policy makers who really took part in the conference. Content was very pertinent, and presenters and presentations were of a very high standard.
• Excellent promotion, organisation like clockwork only more responsive, website a marvellous repository with papers uploaded very quickly, lots of good food to suit range of appetites, did not have to queue too long, good to have proper coffee machine right there. Venue lovely - very central, pleasant to be in, plenty of space to escape from crowd to phone people if needed, exhibition booths good variety, in good positions.
• Feedback on the abstract submission process was a first for me - very transparent and informative.

A more detailed report is available at <www.phcris.org.au/conference/2009/evaluation/>