LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE 

Annual Local Government Conference 2024 

The Local Government Conference was held from Tuesday 27 - Thursday 29 August 2024!  

Destination: Cairns 

Leading from the Front: Leading from the Back

One of the challenges local government leaders face is that our organisations need to be chameleons, constantly shifting approach to meet varied demands.

At times, we are innovators, leading from the front and providing a pathway for our communities that they may not yet have considered or not be fully understanding of.  At other times, our role is to sit back and allow community to step up and lead themselves, perhaps with some facilitation or enabling actions at our end.

As with all leaders, it is easy to get stuck in one role, creating a culture, approach and mindset that matches the chosen leadership model. 

The 2024 Local Government Conference will explore the two approaches and consider what to use when and how to adapt local government leadership to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of your community.

Join colleagues from across Queensland as we explore what leadership in local government looks like, learning from experienced and new local government officers, academics and thought leaders.

View the Delegate Programme

View the Delegate Email

Venue: Shangri-La The Marina, Cairns - 1 Pier Point Road, Cairns   Q   4870

Schedule:

Tuesday 27 August 2024

3.30pm – 4.30pm Registration

4.30pm – 6.30pm President’s Welcome Reception

Evening at Leisure

Wednesday 28 August 2024

08.45am Welcome

09.00am – 3.00pm Conference Sessions

3.00pm LGMA AGM

4.00pm – 6.00pm Beach vs. Bush Challenge

Evening at Leisure

Thursday 29 August 2024

08.30am – 3.00pm Conference Sessions

6.30pm – 10.30pm Gala Dinner

Keynote Presenters:

Holly Ransom is a global strategist with an unrelenting work ethic, passion for ambitious ideas and a love of problem solving. She has a reputation for developing innovative solutions to complex multi-stakeholder problems for corporations, governments and non-profit organisations.

In 2014, the Australian Prime Minister appointed her to chair the G20 Youth Summit. In 2012 she was the youngest person to be named in Australia's '100 Most Influential Women', and also became the world’s youngest-ever Rotary President.  Her company has worked with the likes of INPEX, CBH, Conoco Phillips, KPMG, as well as local, state and federal government departments around the world.

An accomplished global speaker, she has presented across six continents, including delivering a Peace Charter to the Dalai Lama and addressing the G20's Central Bank Governors and Finance Minister.

She has featured on ABC's Q&A, Channel 7 News and Channel TEN's The Project, and is renowned for her commentary on intergenerational economic and social challenges.

Mark Squirrell (Squiz) is a man that has done all!  From car bombings to meeting Yasser Arafat and climbing Mount Everest, Squiz has experienced more than many of us can dream about.

Awarded the coveted Green Beret in his role as a commando with the Australian Special Forces he burned with a passion to put his skills to good use.

Squiz will share his hazardous voyage through life and I’m sure you will all be inspired the determination of a man who dared to dream.

Conference Sessions: 

Wednesday 27 August

Front or Back Leadership: What does it all mean?

With the conference theme, Leading from the front: Leading from the back, it is important to explore what both of these terms mean.  How do you do one or the other and in what situations would each be appropriate?  To talk through this, Professor Sarah Kelly, Head of the QUT Graduate School and experienced company director will share her experience of both leading from the front, and the enabling leadership of leading from the back.

Whose role is it anyway? - Stakeholder panel

This panel of local government stakeholders will consider the role of local government as leaders of their communities: where are the lines; whose role is whose; how does local government leadership interact with other leaders across the wider community?  They will provide a report card detailing where local government leadership excels and where there may be gaps (over- or under-laps) or conflicting responsibilities.

Place-Change Initiatives: The role of local government

Place-based change initiatives are engendering positive change for communities across the globe.  But how do such initiatives get started and how do they gain traction and momentum? 

CEO Panel

This panel of local government CEOs will consider leadership in different council contexts.  What has worked, where has it gone wrong and what are the lessons.  Always informative, the panelists offer a wealth of experience and the considered insight that comes with reflection and the passing of time.

Thursday 28 August

The Power of Your Leadership Brand – Mark Puncher

As local government officers, the importance of our own brand is not always front of mind.  But as leaders and as professionals, our brands have power.  Mark Puncher will explain how a focus on personal brand can drive incredible results for and through your team - for the communities you serve and for each other.   He will share insights and advice on how to shape and harness your personal brand in an authentic and meaningful way.

The Great Debate: the role of local government – to reflect community sentiment or to shift community sentiment?

Listen to some of our local government young guns as they debate the extent to which local government decision-making should be a mirror of community sentiment as against making decisions that might be of benefit to future generations but are not supported by the community who elected the current council.

Council Case Studies

This session includes a series of concurrent council case studies demonstrating examples of councils leading from the front and enabling communities from behind.  Select your preferred sessions.

Brochure