Beyond the Echo Chamber: Why Diverse Professional Conferences Matter

I’ve just returned from the Australian Literacy Educators Association (ALEA) conference in Hobart, and I’m buzzing with ideas, challenges, provocations, and possibilities. I met new people, I made new friends and I was challenged.  There’s something powerful about being in a space where people gather not around one singular idea, programme, or approach, but around the shared goal of growing the field of education. It reminded me of the real purpose of professional conferences. It’s not to reinforce what we already know or believe, but to stretch our thinking.

I'm at the ALEA Conference!

Too often I see and hear about conferences that operate more like echo chambers. You walk in and everyone’s nodding in agreement, referencing the same frameworks, quoting the same thought leaders, and leaving with the same conclusions they arrived with. It can feel comfortable, sure. But it can also be limiting. When we only surround ourselves with people who think like us, we miss the opportunity to challenge our assumptions and deepen our understanding.

What made the ALEA conference so valuable was the diversity of thinking. There were researchers presenting long-term data studies alongside educators sharing lived experiences from the classroom. There were provocations about systems change, alongside grassroots projects that are reshaping school cultures from the ground up. No one was trying to push a single solution. Instead, there was space for genuine inquiry, respectful disagreement, and, most importantly, learning.

As educators and leaders, we talk about fostering critical thinking in students, but how often do we model it in our own professional learning? When was the last time we sat in a session that made us genuinely uncomfortable, not because it was poorly delivered, but because it disrupted something we thought was settled? That kind of discomfort is where real growth happens.

And here’s the thing: if we want these opportunities to keep happening, we have to show up. Many of these events are run on the smell of an oily rag, often by passionate volunteers working late nights and weekends. The budgets are tight. The work is huge. And they only survive if we support them. Go to them or they will go.

We need to back conferences, organisations, and networks both in Australia and back home in Aotearoa that challenge us, that stir debate, that welcome difference. These are the spaces that keep our profession alive and evolving.

A stand-out Keynote from Dr Lilly Brown of Magabala books

So here’s my gentle challenge. Next time you’re thinking about attending a conference, ask yourself: Will this stretch me? Will it challenge my thinking? Will it introduce me to perspectives I haven’t yet considered? If the answer is yes, then go. Lean in. Listen deeply. And let yourself be changed.

Because the moment we stop learning is the moment we stop leading. And the moment we stop showing up is the moment these rich, vital learning communities begin to disappear.

Check out what’s available in Aotearoa in the next 12 months! I might see you there.