Australian Rural Leadership- Adelaide Visit

Well I was off again for a week (16th-24th August), this time though I was not climbing through caves and sliding down waterfalls. Instead I was enjoying some time spent in Adelaide with fellow course 15 members from the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP). There was plenty to keep us engaged and always more to learn. The general theme this time was media, Myers Briggs and presentations. We were also privy to learning more about our fellow members as they shared some stories of their lives post Kimberley's.

It seems like such a long time away from home and it is really in the great scheme of things but this time around we were able to phone home. The flight to and fro were good and there was plenty to see. My husband Paul joined me for the last few days which was kindly organised by the Australian Leadership team.

So what did we do? well lets start with an update on each of my fellow ARLP members in course 15 and where they are up to since returning from the Kimberley's. There were a variety of stories with a common theme coming through as to how incredibly changing the experience was to so many individuals.

We were given a book to read about Emotional Intelligence and to support this concept we had a workshop which again reiterated the importance for leaders to have such an important skill in life. With this we spoke about our values and linked them into our course 15 vision for our group.

Two days were spent working on media training and how timely this has been for me with the upcoming election. We learnt about presentations, media releases, what makes news and how to get your message across. We were able to see how the TV news room works and what story selections were chosen. There was a brief on dressing for the media, the role of the interview, the do's and don'ts of a media interview and lots more valuable information.

There was even the opportunity to perform on television with a mock crisis management press conference. This was an amazing experience and certainly kept us all on our toes. To follow on from that we visited the ABC studio and again conducted another interview with a media release we had previously developed. The feedback from this was valuable more so because we were dealing with real journalists who are exceptionally experienced in their field. There was the opportunity to witness Country Hour and we were also able to watch and participate in a live to air radio news bulletin.

The second last day focused on presentation skills with a mass of role playing and even some games to put a competitive edge on it. Some things to think about were how much of the true you do you share with your audience, where do you place yourself when speaking in front of an audience and how do you use your body when presenting.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator was given to us on Friday. Learning about your type proved to be an interesting adventure that we were all keen to engage in. Once our types were identified we could then hear how the various quadrants impacted on other people. This was especially significant for extroverts. All of our partners were then invited to a session also which they had without us present. They were also given some interesting home work. This area opened up a great deal of discussion and our names changed to extroverts or introverts at the evening dinner. On the last day we all came back together with our partners and learnt more about our relationships and those close to us.

Saturday afternoon was spent on a guided tour around Adelaide and visiting several Vineyards. We learnt about how they managed their water situations and how they promote their businesses. This networking opportunity was very relaxing and engaging. The vineyards visited were Paxton, Shingleback and Fox Creek based in the McLaren Vale area. It was very easy to bring into the conversations the Orange Vineyards and the progression of our industry as a food and wine basket for the central west.

I cant help but say how important it is for people to have support and information in order to grow. The Australian Rural Leadership excel with their program and again I am so glad and feel very privileged to be a part of course 15.