As a growing practice, conferences and events are frequent and well worth attending as you nurture your M&E career. Attending conferences is a great way to learn new methods, to ensure you stay abreast of recent developments in theory and practice, as is a great way to develop your professional network as an independent practitioner. These are just a few of the highlights in 2021.
The Evidence and Implementation Summit
Taking place in Australia on the 30th and 31st of March, 2021, this is sure to be the M&E highlight of the year. This conference is “an evolution of the Australasian Implementation Conference and the Global Evidence and Implementation Summit that was held in 2018.” Designed for practitioners, policy makers, and anyone working to better the lives of communities, this summit will focus on the cutting edge of development practice, how to implement well, and delves deep into evidence in context, while exploring new innovations in how we manage and use information.
Measurement at the Crossroads 2021
If you are already studying Social Sciences, and have a keen interest in the metaphysics behind measurement and modelling, this this conference, planned to take place at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, in July of 2021 is sure to add to your pile of unanswered questions about the philosophy, ethics and mechanics and modelling social systems. This conference follows previous conferences in the same area of thought in Cambridge in 2015 and Paris in 2018.
The UK Evaluation Society’s Annual Conference
This year’s conference is themed “Evaluation and Evaluative Thinking; Insights for methods, capabilities culture and implementation”. The conference was postponed from 2020 to 2021, and thus this conference is still accepting abstracts for those with great work to share in this collegial forum. The concept of ‘evaluative thinking’ is a focus for this conference, and this exploration of the importance of critical thinking is sure to bring the nuance back where, at times critical reflection might tell a truer story than a cross section of data. If you’re grappling with complex projects, then this is one not to be missed. This conference is planned for the 26th and 27th of May, 2021 in London.
Connected Voice’s Online Event – Monitoring and Evaluation Essentials
If you’re looking for an online event to help unpack the basics, then register for Connected Voice’s M&E essential free webinar. This event will help you to explore some of the basic tenets of good M&E practice and will enable you to decide what to measure, how to collect data, and then how to present and use the findings of your evaluation. For practitioners just looking to pick up a few essentials, this event is highly recommended. The event is planned for the 9th of February, 2021.
The Australian Evaluation Society’s International Evaluation Conference
This international conference is due to be held at the Brisbane Convention Centre from the 27th Sept to the 1st Oct 2021. The theme for 2021 is “Through the Lens” and sub themes are around reflecting and refocusing M&E practice, to resonate better with reality, context and complexity. This is sure to be a stimulating and information conference, and a top pick destination for your post-lockdown brain, in need of some deep creativity.
The International Congress – The Social World Order after COVID-19
This conference focuses on how we reconceptualize the social world order post COVID-19 and focuses on a range of topics, including the role of NGOs and development organizations in times of crisis. Monitoring and Evaluation is expected to feature, particularly our use of data, data we have, and data we need, in redefining this new order. The conference is currently calling for papers until Dec 2020. The congress takes place in Portugal on the 24th and 25th of June 2021.
