The First Delegates For Junket Have Been Revealed
About 200 of Australia’s best and brightest young minds will descend on Canberra next month to discuss the issues affecting Australia today. Put together by AWOL’s sister site Junkee.com and proudly supported by Qantas, JUNKET is an “unconference” (more on that below) with the wonderfully lofty aim of setting the agenda for the nation’s future. No biggie.
Handpicked by a committee (which includes Yassmin Abdel Magied, Dylan Alcott and Nakkiah Lui), the first round of delegates for JUNKET have just been announced. They include:
– Jess Tovey (Wonderland, Underbelly, Paper Giants — and Belle from Home & Away!);
– Independent Member for Sydney (and marriage equality/anti-lockout campaigner) Alex Greenwich;
– Model and entrepreneur Ollie Henderson (founder of activist art project House Of Riot);
– Simon Griffiths (Who Gives A Crap and Shebeen founder);
– Drag performer Shane Jenek (COURTNEY ACT from RuPaul’s Drag Race);
– Journalist and film critic Marc Fennell (aka triple j’s That Movie Guy);
– Author and spoken word poet Omar Musa (Here Come The Dogs);
– Environmental activist Anna Rose (the founder of Australian Youth Climate Coalition, and the national manager of Earth Hour Australia);
– Walkley-nominated storyteller and documentarian Patrick Abboud (who launched and presents on SBS2’s The Feed);
– Pro-skateboarder and TV persona Mikey Mendoza;
– Simon Sheikh (Future Super founder and former director of GetUp!);
– Chef, DJ, author, promoter and Heaps Decent founder Andrew Levins; and
– Gayby Baby director Maya Newell.
Topics up for discussion are: secondary and tertiary education, housing affordability, fast fashion, the environment, aged care and carers, disability access and representation, the economy, arts funding, privacy in the digital age, LGBTQIA issues, and more.
So how will this whole thing work?
An “unconference” means there will be no set agenda or program decided in advance. It also means there will be no audience. In the lead-up, the 200 delegates will be encouraged to pitch a specific idea, problem or issue they want to talk about, and the types of people they need to make the conversation a good one; at the event, the other delegates will decide on which sessions they want to form the agenda.
The JUNKET program itself will be action-packed, with delegates choosing between up to ten streams happening simultaneously — making up a total of over 60 sessions throughout the day, with everyone encouraged to contribute to the conversation.
JUNKET will take place at Canberra’s QT Hotel between November 1 and 3. Watch the video below for more on what Junket is all about, or click here to visit the website.
