We’re still thinking about the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN) 2025 International Conference held in Brisbane in October and what a great conference it was! We had the chance to catch up with people we knew, meet some new faces, get some ideas and inspiration, and be reminded of what really matters in our work as extension practitioners. There’s no way we can cover everything, but here’s a few highlights from us.
David Warren from the US opened with a reminder that technology adoption is speeding up. Adoption of cars took decades, but social media only took 12 years. AI is outpacing that. He talked about how Artificial General Intelligence, where AI systems are capable of performing at or above human-expert level across all domains, could be here by the 2030s. For extension, he said, the challenge isn’t to compete with technology, but to own the relationship with our digital customers. “Get data from the people you interact with,” “and build contacts and community.” If we can use AI to help us, then it has the potential to elevate the extension profession, helping us serve more people, better. His advice was, get AI to teach us how to use it better. The future for extension is a human-AI partnership, so let’s embrace it!
The panel session that followed with Ruth Nettle, Ian Perkins, and Jeanette Long, built on that theme. Ruth noted that there’s always an implicit policy in what gets funded, reminding us that what we choose to invest in shapes behaviour and values. Ian pointed out that “technology won’t replace time spent together,” reinforcing that building social capital takes time and intention. And Jeanette reminded us that extension needs to be built into the front-end of projects not just tacked on at the end. We agree!
We both also enjoyed the two farmer presentations. Mark, a sheep farmer and Scott, a brussel sprout farmer (the largest in Australia in fact). Mark highlighted that adoption works best when it:
- makes what people already do easier,
- makes data a by-product of management, and
- improves labour efficiency.
It was a great summary of years of research into understanding on-farm change!
There were a lot of concurrent sessions at the conference. Denise definitely had the dilemma of needing to choose one session when she had three marked of interest and all were at the same time! A standout session for Denise was delivered by Stacey Holzapfel and Mary Williams from the NT. They made a short film about collaboration and team learning and totally nailed it! They helped us reflect on how teams come together and what works and doesn’t work with a bit of fun along the way. Matt Reynolds also had an excellent session, with a question that’s stayed with Denise, “Do we have trust?” He challenged us to think about whether we’re communicating or truly engaging. Communication tends to be one direction, but extension is two way and the only way that happens is if we build trust with the people we are working with. Another session Denise enjoyed was from Jess Fearnley who shared lessons from the cherry industry and their young grower network study tour. It was a great reminder of why peer-to-peer learning is so valuable. And study tours, as Jess said, help with “creating space for conversations that wouldn’t normally occur.”
John thinks that conferences are often a time to explore new ideas, and it was inspiring to experience the fishbowl session that wrapped up the event. He’s used that format before with small groups, but never with over 150 participants—it was remarkable to see how smoothly it worked at that scale. The rotating conversation kept everyone engaged, and even those not in the inner circle were clearly attentive and interested. It demonstrated how large-group discussions can still feel personal and dynamic when well facilitated. John’s now keen to experiment with this approach in different contexts, as it proved far more energising and inclusive than he’d anticipated.
Aside from the sessions, there was the buzz of catching up with people we knew and meeting some new faces. Thanks to everyone who came along to our session where we talked through the different ways our community interacts with our episodes. Over 50% of our subscribers head to our blog post, just under 40% go to YouTube, and the remainder listen to the podcast. We highlighted that a multi-modal strategy is a winner because the best extension approach is multiple extension approaches (to paraphrase Frank Vanclay!).
If you’re not already a member of APEN, check it out! We are of course completely biased. Both of us have been part of APEN for years and think it’s a great network of people and a place we love! And now, you’ve heard our thoughts, and we’d like to hear yours! Did you go to the APEN conference? Add a comment below the blog post and tell us your takeaway! We don’t want this to be just a one-way conversation—join in by sharing your thoughts and ideas with us!
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