Who says we can’t change the world?

As conferences go, this is good as it gets. There hasn’t been a year since we started that I wouldn’t have been glad to swap our panel of speakers for the Cabinet of the day. This year, for example, we have Grace Tame, Penny Wong, Uncle Jack Charles, Hugh Mackay, Jess Hill – it goes on. The people who come enjoy it, and are informed, and say they’re inspired. It’s not a big earner, but even in tough years for the sector it breaks even financially – sometimes.

I have to ask, though: is that good enough? Does it justify, collectively, spending more than a year of my life on it?

There are two possible flaws in the picture.

One is that old-school conferences may have been overtaken by technology. Having actual tactile bodies in the same room, being talked at by a breathing meatsack – isn’t that a bit Neanderthal? Are we going to be swept away by the irresistible tide of iPhoneisation that’s eliminating whole sectors of the economy?

It’s not as if we haven’t tried. Last year we held the conference all-online, without a coffee cart, a vegan sandwich or a beer between us. It worked well enough – and people enjoyed it, and were informed, and said they were inspired. The talks were of a uniformly high quality. I was afraid that people wouldn’t hang on online through a whole hour’s worth, but I was wrong. It was much easier for interstaters to attend than ever before, which is important. So why not leave it there? Why come back out of the cloud?

The other possible drawback is that we’ve been pointing the way forward for 18 years and we are, nonetheless, where we are. Our communitarian ideals – indeed, any attempts to suggest that society’s status quo isn’t necessarily right – are still dismissed by Canberra as sentimental utopianism. We’ve tried evidence, logic, and persuasion – what will it take?