(i)    CONVERGE NATIONAL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE, BRISBANE

The National Industry Conference and AGM will be held at The Edge, State Library of Queensland on 14-15 March. The opening night and traditional welcome will be hosted by BIMA 4AAA on Tuesday evening 13 March. 

(ii)   BROADBAND FOR THE BUSH FORUM AND INDIGENOUS FOCUS DAY, DARWIN 

Will be held at Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT on 5-7 June and IFD on 5 June. Expressions of interest for speakers welcome. 

(iii)  NATIONAL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE AND AWARDS, NOVEMBER 2018

The second national conference will be held in Alice Springs (TBC) in November to align the annual conference with the AGM season. The inaugural national awards ceremony will take place here.  

(iv) EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

IRCA is recruiting a Project Coordinator to develop a 3 year strategy in the first half of 2018. The Coordinator will facilitate the Advisory group to get sector input, as well as undertake consultation and an audit of existing employment, training and career development opportunities across the sector. The Strategy will include a focus on the IAS Indigenous employment funding targets, and outline the need for increased DPMC support and assist members to develop action plans to 2020. The plan will identify potential new job roles in the areas of multi-media and online/app production, technical services, archiving, community journalism, digital mentors and more.         

(v)  WEBINAR SERIES

IRCA will conduct a series of webinars on current topics of interest to support industry development in the sector. Topics will include: Use of Audience Survey results; Archiving Community Collections; Developing a Fundraising Strategy; Introduction to Zetta RCS; Workforce Development options for your org; Developing a Wordpress website; and more. Suggestions for webinar topics that you would like to see included in the future are welcome. 

(vi) ADVISORY GROUPS

The first two Advisory groups that will get started from early 2018:  

i.     Radio Content Sharing (including news and current affairs) 

ii.     Employment and Skills Development

Expressions of Interest for both groups are still open if you want to get involved. Other Advisory groups will be introduced throughout 2018 including Archiving; Policy Directions; and New Technologies.

(vii) INDIGITUBE REDEVELOPMENT

The new version of IndigiTUBE website and app for radio/audio/ music content sharing and sector showcase platform. 

(viii) ELECTION 2018 POLICIES

IRCA will seek sector input in developing a set of key policy documents to distribute to all major parties in the lead-up to Election 2018.