AES Alert: 29 October 2025 |
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Dear Visitor Last week we were excited share with AES members that the presentations from the aes25 International Evaluation Conference with are now available online. A heartfelt thank you to all presenters for generously sharing their insights and contributions with the AES evaluation community. You can check them out HERE.
It’s that time of year again, when our Regional Networks come together to celebrate, connect and reflect. End-of-year networking events are a great opportunity to meet new faces, reconnect with familiar ones, and share highlights from the year. Check out the upcoming events below and register to join the celebrations. And don’t miss the Of Interest section below, it’s full of additional online and in-person opportunities hosted by other evaluation community members! Stay connected! Make sure you continue receiving the latest news and opportunities, take a moment to check that your member details are up to date. Login and update your details. |
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Quality Evaluation | Shared Learning | Collective Impact | We’re excited to launch AES VOICES, a new social media series celebrating the people who make the AES such a vibrant and diverse community. Through AES VOICES, we’ll share short profiles of AES members across LinkedIn and other channels, showcasing the diversity, passion and impact of people working in evaluation and related fields. We’d love to hear your story! Whether you’re an evaluator, policy professional, researcher, educator, or someone who believes in the power of learning and evidence to make a difference, your voice can inspire others to connect, learn, and join the AES community. Why take part?- Share your AES story in your own words
- Inspire others to connect and learn
- Showcase your journey and strengthen your connections within the AES community
- Help grow our community of practice
Participation is easy:- Complete a short Q&A (we’ll provide prompts)
- Send us a photo
- Approve your profile before it’s shared
Express your interest by emailing aes@aes.asn.au |
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IN PERSON WA WORKSHOP: Offered in partnership with Institute for Public Administration Australia WA (IPAA WA) November 2025 December 2025 | |
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The Of Interest section of the AES Alert includes information from international evaluation societies as well as upcoming events and other articles that may be of interest to our members and wider evaluation community. There is no charge to be included. Please send content to aes@aes.asn.au by Tuesday lunchtime. Your article should include a short blurb and any relevant links. Note that we don't include images or upload documents. Note that the AES reserves the right to refuse publication if we don't judge that your copy is of interest to members of the AES. Member notices are given preference. |
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Evaluation Masterclases with Policy Performance Evaluation Skills Masterclass: Conducting Interviews (Free) Thursday 30 October 2025, 12:30pm to 1:30pm AEDT via Teams Facilitator: Charlie Tulloch, Director, Policy Performance Registration: Click the link below to register for free. Masterclass link will be emailed to registrants prior to the session. Registration Form | 2025 Policy Performance This free lunchtime discussion will share Policy Performance’s insights into preparing for and conducting evaluative interviews. Participants will learn about various forms of interviews, techniques for creating a comfortable and accessible setting, effective question design and flow, and best practices for collecting data for later analysis. This Masterclass is targeted at anybody interested in reflecting on their qualitative interviewing techniques. | Evaluation Skills Masterclass: Types of Infographics (Free) Thursday 13 November 2025, 12:30pm to 1:30pm AEDT via Teams Facilitator: Arun Callapilli, Research and Evaluation Consultant, Policy Performance Registration: Click the link below to register for free. Masterclass link will be emailed to
registrants prior to the session. Registration Form | 2025 Policy Performance This free lunchtime discussion will share Policy Performance’s insights into preparing clear, engaging, and meaningful infographics for evaluation and reporting. The session will explore how to identify your audience, select the most appropriate charts and visuals, and apply principles of good design to communicate both qualitative and quantitative findings effectively. Participants will also learn about the strengths and limitations of different visual choices, the importance of consistency and accessibility in data presentation, and practical tools and techniques for creating high-quality visuals. This Masterclass is targeted at anybody interested in improving their presentation of data. | Evaluation Skills Masterclass: Conducting Surveys (Free) Thursday 27 November 2025, 12:30pm to 1:30pm AEDT via Teams Facilitator: Charlie Tulloch, Director, Policy Performance Registration: Click the link below to register for free. Masterclass link will be emailed to registrants prior to the session. Registration Form | 2025 Policy Performance This free lunchtime discussion will share Policy Performance’s insights into preparing for and conducting evaluative surveys. It will discuss survey purpose, mode, sample and question design. It will consider the usefulness of surveys for qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. This Masterclass is targeted at anybody interested in reflecting on their survey skills. |
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New Resource: The It Depends Podcast with Matt and Tenille
Looking for a podcast that tackles questions without straightforward answers? Welcome to The It Depends Podcast, hosted by Matt Healey and Tenille Moselen from First Person Consulting. In each episode, Matt, Tenille, and their guests explore the tricky, nuanced world of evaluation, systems change, design, and complexity. It's your go-to source for thoughtful conversations, practical insights, and comfort in embracing uncertainty.
Find and follow the It Depends Podcast with Matt and Tenille on the Podcast host website, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts to get the latest episodes, and discover why the best answer to tricky questions often starts with "it depends…". |
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Play with Purpose: Building Evaluation and Systems Thinking Capacity Workshop Looking to strengthen your evaluation and systems thinking skills while having serious fun? Join us for Play with Purpose, a full-day interactive workshop on 14 November in Melbourne. Facilitators Matt Healey (First Person Consulting) and Dr Sam Abbato (Visual Insights People) will guide you through techniques to build capacity through play. You will use card games, board games, and playful activities that bring evaluation and systems thinking to life. You’ll walk away with hands-on experience, practical strategies, and a take-home toolkit of resources valued at $125 to keep building capacity long after the workshop ends. Whether you’re building skills for yourself, your team, or the people you train, this workshop combines behavioural science, stories, and play to make learning engaging, memorable, and impactful. Places are limited — secure your spot now and don’t forget: AES members receive 15% off with code AES15. Find out more and register here |
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Grosvenor M&E teas – dates available for October and November The fourth in Grosvenor’s well-attended M&E and tea series is now live for registrations, with events running in Brisbane 11 November, Adelaide 17 November, and Canberra and online 25 November. These events are FREE for attendees from the public sector or not-for-profit/for purpose entities, but they’re so good even other evaluation consultancies have come along! Register here for your upcoming M&E tea: https://www.grosvenor.com.au/monitoring-evaluation-afternoon-tea/ This series will cover the topics of ‘so you think you can rubric?’ and demystifying economic evaluations, interspersed with yummy food and good conversation with passionate evaluators from all walks of life, to give attendees practical guidance on designing and implementing fit-for-purpose rubrics as well as empowering attendees to develop an economic model map for their program. Can’t wait to see you there! |
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Iris Ethics HREC opens for applications
Following successful registration with the NHMRC, Iris Ethics has opened its Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) for submissions, making it the first privately operated, open access HREC to focus solely on the evaluation, market research, and social research sectors. The committee is chaired by Professor Chris Maylea, an experienced social researcher and legal scholar, and includes people from all over Australia representing a range of lived and professional experiences and includes practicing evaluators. This ensures that reviews are completed quickly with an understanding of the research purpose and methodologies used, and that the committee can act as a trusted advisor and partner. Iris Ethics also delivers rapid reviews for lower risk evaluation projects and produces a growing library of resources to support ethical evaluation practice.
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Clear Horizon Academy – Courses Now Available Enrolments are now open for a range Clear Horizon courses, with AES members eligible to receive a 15% discount (just use the code “AES15” at enrolment to claim your discount).
Evaluating
Place-based Approaches | starts 13 March – This course
has been designed to equip you with the unique skills required to effectively
measure and evaluate place-based initiatives for maximum impact. Starting with
an overview of systems change – the umbrella discipline of place-based
approaches – you will learn about the key principles and unique challenges of
evaluating place-based approaches before delving into strategies to develop an
evaluation framework specific to place-based initiatives. You will apply the
learnings through practical exercises and see this approach in action with
real-life case studies. This course has been developed by the creators of
Australia’s game-changing place-based evaluation framework. Complete Guide to Measurement, Evaluation and Learning | starts 27 March – This course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and the tools to effectively build and implement your measurement, evaluation and learning plan for your program to help you create maximum impact. MEL provides critical evidence and insights that can drive strategic decision-making and ongoing improvement, meaning greater impact and value for money for your initiative. Throughout the learning modules, you will explore how to scope, design, and implement a tailored approach to MEL for your context. We’ll peel the onion layer by layer. First, we unpack your theory of change – this will help you get super clear about how your activities will lead to outcomes. Next, we look at how to wrap a measurement framework around this. Then address some of the bigger questions – that’s the E in MEL. Finally, we look into how to visualise, learn and adapt throughout your MEL journey and take your teams and/or community along with you. MEL at Clear Horizon is guided by a set of 10 co-developed principles. This will help you place learning at the heart of measurement and pay attention to equity. The unique focus is on how measurement systems can feed real-time learning to enable you to create deeper and more equitable impact. |
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AES Blog
| We want to hear from you! What is interesting you in the world of evaluation? Have you attended an AES event recently and are keen to share what you learned? Please refer to the Guidelines for what and how to submit to the AES blog and if you have any questions, please email the team at blog@aes.asn.au. Check out the the latest AES blogs by clicking here.
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Job Vacancies | Employers looking to fill positions in program monitoring and evaluation and performance measurement can list their job vacancies on the AES website. This service is available to members and non-members for a small fee. Discover the benefits of advertising on the AES website as recruiters and for applicants. Local and overseas opportunities are listed throughout the year and are also included in the AES Alert e-newsletter. |
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Consultants Directory | The AES often receives enquiries looking for evaluators with specific areas of expertise. These enquiries are directed to the online searchable Consultants' Directory. As well as being 'discovered' by potential customers, consultants in the directory also enjoy receiving early advice on any call for Evaluation services tenders. AES members can be listed in the Consultants' Directory for a small fee. Log into the AES website and access the form here. |
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Logging On to Member Only areas of the new AES website | Members can now remain logged into the AES website rather than log in each time - simply click on the 'Remember me' box when loggin in. If you have forgotten your username and password, please email us at aes@aes.asn.au. |
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Become an AES member | Do you work as an evaluator, commission evaluation work, manage evaluation projects, are an academic teaching and conducting research, a tertiary level student or even a professional interested in evaluation and performance measurement? Are you interested in developing your knowledge and skills across evaluation theory, methods and practice while networking with other professionals involved in similar work? Then you will benefit from joining the AES. Click here for more information and to apply to join. |
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| We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands in which we conduct our business. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present. The Australian Evaluation Society is committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society. |
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