Conference Diary
Notes on the IAWF's International Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference in Hobart
Alright, I’m here at the airport. That means it’s go time. Better get some work done on the plane. Oh, look, it’s [name redacted]. Should I say Hi as I walk past? Do they want to be left alone? Nah I’ll do it. They didn’t seem too bothered. Were they bothered?
Oh look, who’s sitting in front of me, it’s [name redacted]. “Hello! How was your weekend? Spent it on a job application, huh? Yeah, the one half our group is going for? Yeah I put one in too. Goddamit. I hope you get it.”
Work.
“Let’s split a cab. You’re not staying at the conference venue? Just down the road, eh? See ya tomorrow.”
Check in. Oh shit, what’s the corporate credit card pin again? I really need to fix my password system. By the time I find the password that opens up the password manager app on my phone, find the entry for the corporate credit card and get the pin, the EFTPOS machine has timed out and they have to start again. Ooh, level 14, I might get a view. Over to the lifts.
Oops better get the room card out so I can swipe it and press my floor number. Quick, do it before the lift doors close! Why? What would happen if I didn’t? Better not risk it. Careful, don’t want to drop it in the gap. Remember Saarbruecken? 14th floor my ass, why do they start counting at 10? This is the fourth floor at best.
Damn, these rooms are nice. Thank you, Australian Research Council! Ah, the old Milk Arrowroot / Nice combo in the weird little clear plastic wrapper. Good, there’s two. One for tonight and one for tomorrow night. A bath? Yes! Mints on the pillow? This is getting out of hand.
So tired. Should go to bed. Better do some work instead. Also better make sure I’m prepared for the panel session first thing. At least I’ll go for a run in the morning.
Morning. Slept in. No time for a run. Be nice to see [names redacted] for brekky. Hmm, feel a bit queasy. Must be nerves ahead of the panel. Alright, I’m taking this funky oversized rainbow patchwork arty notebook my kids regifted to me. No way anyone else will pick that up by mistake.
Well, here we are. Ooh, this is a bit like being at your own wedding. Weird to be in a big crowd where you know so many people. Better sit at the front and lock in for the panel session. Ha, [name redacted] says they’ll keep time because I’m a crap timekeeper. Hmm, weirdly calm now.
Terrific Welcome to Country from Todd Sculthorpe. Mic drop. No need for any other talks.
Panel over. Quite enjoyed that. Seemed to go ok. Hmm, better duck out to take care of a few more work things.
Ok, back. That’s nice. People are telling me the panel was good and I did well. Someone even said I was a natural. How can I monetise this? I really need to get a show on RRR. Maybe I can ask Shane or Jen. Anyway, all credit to the panelists, they were the ones talking. Ah, that’s better. Feeling much more relaxed now that’s out of the way.
Hmm, what talks should I see?
We’ve got prescribed burning, fire fighting effectiveness, smoke, fuel, satellites, Indigenous knowledge, collaborative fire stewardship, atmosphere-fire interactions, fuel to fire, fire management systems, landscape dryness, global challenge fire and fuel management, fuel mapping/LiDAR, human dimensions, fire weather, initial attack, climate change, fire behaviour modelling, case studies for fire management, evidence, ecosystems and land use planning.
Better check out the prescribed burning session. Effectiveness in France, the US, Canada and Australia? Perfect. Copious notes. Better follow up with speakers. Fits perfectly with the lit review I’m planning. Pity though, I wanted to see eight other talks on at the same time. Damn, lost my notebook. Phew, left it at the FLARE booth.
Why does the Indigenous and Community stream always go in a room all the way down the other end of the venue? Such a physical metaphor for how we keep them separate. Ha, it’s the nicest room though.
Food? Not bad. Not too bad. Plenty. Look, it’s not NCCARF circa 2014, but it’s still good.
Damn, I missed the talk all the people said was great. At least I got to see one that seemed fuelled by psychedelics.
Oh God, [name redacted] is right. Why do we do all this email, these teams and zoom calls, these meetings and workshops? No one wants to do any of them! From now on I’m only communicating with people over coffee, outdoors, on walks and/or excursions. Damn, lost my notebook again. Nope, not at the FLARE booth.
Great panel session on Country and Culture. We’ve all gotta just get out on Country, [name redacted] says. God, it’s true. It sound so easy. Is is that easy?
Drinks and canapes. Better load up on food, this might be my only shot. Quick drink at the pub. Bit chilly out here. First to head home 😇.
Made it through Day 1. Sigh. Why am I feeling do damn tense? Definitely going for a run tomorrow.
Great run with [name redacted]. We decided to follow it up with brekky at Jackman and McCross. Ah, memories. Those pastries, my God. Definitely getting a vanilla slice. Hmm, must be this guy’s first day. I’ve never seen anyone press twenty buttons on the screen just to put in a single order of coffee. Poor guy. What the - there’s a huge bowl of muesli and a thimbleful of yoghurt. There’s not even space to tip the milk in. Whatever, that vanilla slice is mine. Thank you, Australian Research Council!
Man, I forgot how spectacular Hobart is. Why do I have to go inside? I don’t want to. I really don’t.
Ask at the registration desk if they’ve seen my notebook. Nope. Check the hotel reception downstairs. Nope. Check the FLARE booth again. Nope.
Good panel session on social license. Trust takes time to build but can be lost in a split second. We gotta be human, y’all. Authentic, honest, transparent. All well and good, but organisations are none of those things. And while we all have power as individuals, we invest a truckload of power in our institutions. We serve them. Reminds me of my hypothesis that above a certain size, any organisation becomes sociopathic. Asked my question about humans vs organisations. Don’t think I phrased it very well. Didn’t get to my other question - what about social license for academics? I happen to think we have a lot, but there’s a lot of warning signs. Expertise has never counted for less, even as every second mediocre white male on LinkedIn claims to be an expert. It’s all about power. Didn’t notice many people at the conference talking about power.
My God, every second person I see has mentioned my prodigious LinkedIn activity. How embarassing. [Name redacted] asked me if I have someone to do that for me. Great line but it hurts. It cuts deep. Not a single person has said they’re blown away by my incisive analyses, modern methods and policy-relevant findings. Well, maybe that will happen at the conference dinner tonight. Sorry, the Meet & Mingle. Damn, that feels a bit Tinder-adjacent.
Good session. Moved between three streams. Alright, meeting time. Chewing the fat with [name redacted] about the prescribed burn prioritisation tool we’re planning for the industry fellowship. I’ve only really got one meeting the whole conference, others seem to be doing it constantly in the breaks, in between sessions, during sessions. This must be what it’s like at the NBA Summer League. Gotta cut a deal. That’s gonna be my KPI for the next conference. At least four high-powered meetings.
Quick break at the hotel then off to the evening event. My God I feel awful, what is wrong with me. Burned out? Mid-life crisis? Bad vanilla slice? Shake it off.
Ok, here we are at the Meet & Mingle. Thank God, there are some people I know. I’m not leaving them. Sticking to soft drinks tonight. So responsible. Damn, [name redacted] left first. Alright, I’m leaving second 😇.
Tired. Still stressed. Dammit. Go for a run in the morning.
Yes! Went for a run. Zigged when I should have zagged. Wound up in front of a bunch of fencing and industrial wasteland. Turn around. Ooh, is that [name redacted]? I didn’t know they were a runner. Head towards Battery Point. It’s a little hill but it’s a killer. Message the team. Manage to guilt a few into joining me for brekky at the Machine Laundry. Wow, that’s the chessboard we took a photo of Daughter Number 2 at when she was just a bub! Ah, memories.
Bugger, gotta go back inside again. Alright, locking in for my talk. Phew, the Star Wars joke went down well. Unlimted power awaits, if you just join the Academic Side. Talk done. Other speakers in my session are terrific. Phew. Now I can really relax. Whoops, also gotta give that talk with [name redacted] after lunch.
Good to catch up with [name redacted] at lunch. Still, I could have chatted a lot longer. So many people I only spoke to for a minute, or not at all. Oh well. What the - is that my notebook sitting on the table? How did it get there? Was it there the whole time? Wow. Sweet!
Ok, now second talk’s done, seemed to go ok. Now I can really really relax. Other talks in this session are terrific too. So many follow ups. Fill a few pages of my notebook making a list of people to follow up with. Collect the posters. Almost home time.
Final session. Generational insights aka some young people and some old people. Why do they keep using the word seminal? Is that sexist? Can we say ovular instead? Ha, look at all these suckers carrying around giant posters. Should have made a fabric one like us, folds up like a tea towel.
Heading to the airport early. Don’t think I can relax if I stay in the city, even if the food will be better. Food’s not too bad actually. Nice mango smoothie too. Thank you, Australian Research Council!
Any final reflections?
Wow. Buggered. Perhaps I should have charged my battery before leaving for Hobart. Might have gotten a bit more out of it. Still good though. So much happening. Great to reconnect, make new connections. So many leads to follow up. Grateful to my wife for holding the fort while I went.
Great to see my colleagues enthused, particularly those that are new to the fire game. Could be a formative event, trigger new connections, ideas, collaborations.
Pretty cool collection of disciplines, sectors, geographic regions and knowledge systems on show. Fire is a pretty cool area to work in.
There was a bit of ‘Yes, fire is changing faster than we thought it would, yes things are going to get much worse, yes we need to make transformational change on a number of fronts, but don’t worry - we know what to do, we’re good.’ Do we though? Is there a point when we realise we don’t got this?
[Name redacted] pointed out there didn’t seem to be a lot of PhD students around, with our group a happy exception. Good thing to do during your PhD, go to a conference, I reckon.
It is all bit overwhelming. So many people, so much information. Lots of talk about full brains, going too hard, needing a rest, needing a break. Do we need to make more down time in conferences? Allow meditation or contemplation time between talks? What about paired or group walks by the sea, with prompts for discussion on a card? I guess that’s the point though, right? Connect with people, get a taste of what’s been happening. Is there any other way to make that happen? Maybe the fundamentals are right.
Then again, maybe we should change some of the fundamentals. Do we need to have extended Q&A sessions in small groups, where everyone gets a chance to speak, not just the usual male question-askers, as [name redacted] pointed out? Maybe ditch the talks altogether, and just have facilitated chats around different topics? Or maybe we tell stories instead of give talks. Rap battle? Poetry slam? What about an unconference? [Name redacted] was involved in running one of those, it’d be cool to try it some time. Definitely interested in playing around with the format, seeing what else is possible. When I’ve got enough energy to seriously contemplate putting something on. So yeah, maybe not for a while.
Then again, maybe it’s time to follow through on one of my half-baked ideas, for a new conference: Ridiculousness 2027. Where speakers and participants from all the disciplines and sectors get together and talk about what is absolutely fucking ridiculous in their line of work. And I’m not just talking about the usual whinge about admin, although I spose there could be a session on that. You know, the assumptions, models, practices, terminology, ways of doing things that have persisted for years or decades because it’s too hard or awkward to look at them closely? The things not done, topics not studied, issues never brought up? That are open secrets but that no one talks about? I’m not sure what the fire versions of these are. Maybe a post for another day, although I do already have an abstract prepared about calculating the drought factor. I’d pay to attend Ridiculousness 2027. Thank you, Australian Research Council!
Huge effort by the conference organisers. Good God, what a lot of work. Thanks all. See ya next time.
Thanks for another great read, Hamish! I chuckled over the 'one fuelled by psychedelics' and NBA Summer League references :)
Because the area is SO HUGE, that is precisely why all participants should have time (in whatever non-structured form) to process matters there - obviously more processing happens later.
Hamish, this reminds me of why I loved conferences (particularly this series) - the energy, ideas, discussions, thinking; and why I could only handle so few - energy drain, brain overload, too many people in small space, so much taliking, head so full thoughts would just fall out to fit the next one in !
Maybe Ridiculousnes 2027 could be 'slow' conference with outside events, time for runs/walks, more catch-up/small discussions, more generational & disiplinary mix ...