2002 ASTEN Fellowship Report
By Vicki Shegog
Manager, Imaginarium Science Centre
Launceston, Tasmania

As I write this report I am still 'riding high" on the renewed vigour and focus, the newly inspired ideas and plans, and the infectious enthusiasm that I experienced during the five, full days of the 3rd Science Centre World Congress. Networking with many of the 400 delegates from over 40 countries, gave me the opportunity to tap into a wide range of talent, skills and years of collective experience.

I know it is not only me who still feels the effects of the Congress, two weeks ago. Speaking with other Congress participants since the event, it is clear that they too are still buoyed by whatever benefits they gained.

I particularly benefited from the three levels of focus that the Congress provided me in the form of international, national and individual centre perspectives.

The international perspective provided me with an increased awareness of the global trends and issues and how centres plan to remain sustainable in the future. Sessions such as Crisis Management and Shaping the Future of Science Centres and Museums were most revealing and beneficial.

The Australian Science Centre network, of which I am now formally a part, provided me with a national "sense of place" and not feeling so "isolated" professionally. As Paul Bayly, General Manager of The Investigator so aptly put it, he was no longer "rowing a lonely boat". We can regularly communicate our centres' plans for the future and ways that we can support each other.

On an individual science centre and personal level, I was able to benefit greatly from such sessions as Science centres on a shoestring, Leadership from the inside out, and the science show sessions that were inspirationally led by such "icons" as Paul Doherty, Moshe Rishpon and Art Sussman.

I have returned to the Imaginarium Science Centre, in Devonport, Tasmania, with renewed energy and creativity and have a much clearer vision of where Imaginarium will be heading in its future years.

I deeply thank the ASTEN Committee for awarding me the ASTEN Fellowship so I could take full advantage of such a unique opportunity as attending the 3rd Science Centre World Congress.

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