I also attended the recent AMTA national conference at the Melbourne Town Hall. I certainly concur with Kat's sense of ripples and would add a couple of thoughts to her point.
While national conferences are a wondrous time of sharing with old and new networks of people, they also tend to be a time for collective whining about the plight for recognition and funding. However at this, our 33rd conference, the profession was strong and buoyant in its consideration of new pathways forward.
Catherine Threlfall's keynote was a fresh and exceptionally well-tailored presentation. I later told Catherine that her presentation was "elegantly controversial", but as I spoke with other delegates I was delighted to find that it actually wasn't! Conference delegates largely welcomed her conceptualization, which I believe illustrates a new energy and sense of self-worth.
During the same conference, the Paediatric Reference Group (MTs who work in children's hospitals) held its annual meeting over breakfast and the proliferation and strength of programs was apparent in the number of new members and the diversity of new programs. Of particular note were the updates from Beth Dun and Jeanette Kennelly, the senior MTs at the Royal Children's Hospitals in Melbourne and Brisbane (respectively). Both have developed outstanding models of future-planning which have broken the cycle of misery about recognition and funding. Collaboration is a feature in both cases.
By truly keeping the focus with our clients, rather than trying to maintain our own professional well-being, we achieve a better understanding of our real-world potential. In turn we are able to embrace rather than exclude the possibility of collaborations which may have previously been unattractive. The benefits are that we may achieve both an expanded excellence for our clients and inspiration beyond our own capabilities.