4 June, 2013
6 Sessions You Won’t Want to Miss
With the Canadian Evaluation Conference coming up in a week’s time, you may be having difficulty deciding on the sessions you want to attend. We figured we’d help you with that by highlighting the 6 types of sessions we believe you won’t want to miss:
PANEL – Towards a Canadian Definition of Evaluation
The purpose of this panel is to begin to examine how the field of evaluation currently is being defined within the Canadian context. The authors will report the preliminary findings from three sources: (a) consultations with current leaders in evaluation, (b) a public discussion on Twitter, and (c) a content analysis from literature.
MULTI-PAPER – Examining leadership initiatives
- Sport and Recreation Leadership Development initiatives in the Northwest Territories – Katy Pollock, NWT Sport and Recreation Council
- The Joy of Complexity: Evaluating Geriatric Health Systems – Paul Stolee, University of Waterloo
- Building Evaluation Capacity Among Diverse Stakeholders in the Yukon: Progress To Date- Harry Cummings, University of Guelph; Jean Sebastien Blais, Yukon Government, Advanced Education; Shawn Kitchen, Yukon Government, Advanced Education
This project involves a series of three case studies examining leadership initiatives undertaken by five sport and recreation partner organizations in the Northwest Territories. Each case looks at program impact(s) on leadership development in community sport and recreation in NWT communities.
DEMONSTRATION – What works? How Evaluation Can Cross Boundaries to Influence Public Policy and Management – Steve Montague, Performance Management Network Inc.
Evaluation has languished behind other review efforts in terms of influencing public policy and administration. This has occurred despite the fact that evaluation is designed to address fundamental questions. This session suggests that evaluation efforts need to adopt a realistic and pragmatic approach to help public and NGO decision makers to learn and understand what works (to what extent) for whom in what conditions and why in terms of initiatives.
THINK TANK Cultivating a Community of Practice to Build Evaluation Capacity in Community-Based Healthy Lifestyle Programs for People Living with Mental Illness – Scott Mitchell, Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario
This think tank will invite participants to consider the process and benefits of creating a national community of practice (CoP) around designing and evaluating healthy lifestyle interventions in community settings for clients with mental health issues.
ROUNDTABLE
- Social Return on Investment (SROI): Moving the Conversation from Cost to Value – Anne Miller, SiMPACT Strategy Group, SROI Canada Network; Jenny Ofrim, SiMPACT Strategy Group: This session will introduce the SROI approach, provide some examples of its use in Canada, and outline the increasing use of SROI by agencies and funders to understand and communicate the value of their work and investments.
- An Executive Summary is Not Enough – Kylie Hutchinson (Community Solutions Planning & Evaluation): This presentation will present an overview of three key principles of effective reporting and engage participants in a discussion of its role in effective evaluation. Participants will leave with an expanded repertoire of innovative reporting techniques for their own practice.
EXPERT LECTURE: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should – how to address ethical considerations in evaluations
- Wendy Doughty, University of Alberta
- Linda Barrett-Smith, Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions
- Birgitta Larsson, BIM Larsson & Associates
- Flora Stephenson, Alberta Health Services
- Jeanne Annett, Alberta Health Services
Focusing on Project Ethics, the panelists will share their experience working with leaders of program evaluation and quality improvement projects to ensure that people and their information are protected and respected.
View the Full Conference Program for the informative workshops and plenary sessions, or listen to this podcast to hear about the program we’ve got lined up.
Register today
Join more than 480 of your evaluation peers who have already signed up by registering online using our Registration page. You can also book your hotel rooms online to take advantage of the special rate offered at the Fairmont Royal York.
Follow the Conference
Watch our blog for more information on the 2013 conference, or subscribe to our bilingual Conference Newsletter and follow us on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. We’ll also be tweeting live from the conference using the hashtags #cestoronto2013 and #eval, so you can follow everything we’re doing.
