Reflections on the American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference: Washington DC - November 2002
| Author | Rosalind Hurworth,Anthea Rutter |
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X0200200211 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Reflections on the American
Evaluation Association
(AEA) conference
Washington DC – November 2002
Anthea Rutter
After the relaxed nature and intimacy of the AES Wollongong conference, held in
office hours beside a sparkling blue sea in a provincial city of NSW, the change of
Rosalind Hurworth
scene to the concrete and freeway-bound Hyatt Hotel in Crystal City, near
Washington DC, was quite mind-blowing! The AEA conference area took over
four levels of the hotel and had people on the go from 7 am to 8 pm without any
official lunch break (unthinkable for AES)!
There were other contrasts. For instance, the size of the two events was vastly
Anthea Rutter is the
different. AEA in Washington had booked in over 1800 registrants and during the
principal of Janavid
year they received 600 proposals for papers. Perhaps not surprising, since the
Pty Ltd, an evaluation
membership of AEA is close to 3,400 – vastly different from the AES which
consultancy, and an
attracted 250 attendees from a membership of around 700. However, what is
Associate of the Centre
surprising is that the US conference is run mainly by volunteers rather than by
for Program
professional conference organisers.
Evaluation, University
Another important contrast was the different make-up of AEA conference
registrants, reflecting a different membership profile from the AES. The AEA is
of Melbourne.
characterised by a higher academic membership and a smaller government and
Rosalind Hurworth is
consultant membership. The opposite is true of the AES at present.
a Senior Lecturer at
the Centre for
Program Evaluation,
FIGURE 1: AEA PARTICIPANT PROFILE
University of
Melbourne.
The American conference was certainly a busy one, with:
■ 39 professional development sessions offered before, during and after the
conference
■ 384 concurrent sessions presented between Wednesday afternoon and
Saturday afternoon
■ 3 plenary sessions
■ 14 Presidential Strand sessions exploring this year’s theme, ‘Evaluation: a
systemic process that...
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