National Volunteering Conference 2020

Volunteering Australia’s National Volunteering Conference 2020 is a premier bi-annual event that inspires Australia’s volunteer leaders to take time to connect, grow their skills and find solutions to the biggest volunteering challenges they face today.
For the first time in 25 years the conference was be held in Western Australia with attendees from across Australia coming to Perth for the three day event at the Perth Conference and Exhibition Centre on 18-20 March 2020. Prior to its cancellation over 450 delegates had registered for the Conference with over 54% attending from states other than Western Australia.

The Conference was due to feature fantastic keynote speakers such as Suzanne Waldron - Leadership & behavioural change facilitator, Samuel Johnson - Gold Logie winning actor, advocate, Rabia Siddique - Presenter, panellist, international speaker and best-selling author and Dr Rob Macmillan - Principal research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University amongst others.
As well as our keynote speakers the Conference featured an outstanding program with speakers from all over Australia and New Zealand presenting their abstracts, exhibition booths, sponsor activations, group volunteering activities at Perth Zoo, Rottnest Island and Kings Park Botanic Gardens and networking opportunities at local Perth venues including The Ritz-Carlton Perth.

Unfortunately the National Volunteering Conference 2020 had to be cancelled five days prior to the start date as a result of COVID-19. While the option of postponing the conference was thoroughly investigated, with the ongoing health and economic uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, a decision was ultimately made to cancel the conference.
Volunteering WA would like to thank everyone that was involved in the Conference for all their hard work to deliver a conference that was shaping up to be one of our best yet, with a high-quality program of speakers and networking opportunities.

We would also like to acknowledge the support and commitment of our valued sponsors and business partners and thank them all for their contributions:

Australian Government Department of Social Services
Woodside
Department of Communities
City of Perth
SEEK Volunteer
Perth Convention Bureau
Aon
ProBono
RAC
Beyond Bank
Eduka
Lotterywest

All items that were produced for the Conference were donated to local organisations. The satchels were donated to The Smith Family, EdConnect and University of Western Australia Student Guild with the signage and various other items donated to REmida. Volunteers at REmida collect items from organisations that are no longer needed and provide them to a variety of educators, artists and community groups that deliver sustainably minded arts and education programs.