Early Childhood Conference Sold Out

Media Release Tuesday 25 March 2008

Early Childhood Conference Sold Out

Early Childhood Conference Sold Out Six weeks before the event, New Zealand’s largest annual conference for early childhood professionals has already sold out, with 650 delegates booked to attend the three-day conference in Wellington and many more disappointed teachers missing out.

Early Childhood Council CEO Sue Thorne is delighted but not surprised by the exceptionally positive response to this year’s conference programme.

“We designed a programme that has very broad appeal with many concurrent sessions specifically for teachers, managers, centre owners, as well as for committee members running community centres,” said Mrs Thorne.

“Delegates know they can expect a professionally run event that will not only challenge them, but will also give them up to date, practical guidance to help them carry out their roles even better.”

The ECC has been running high quality professional development for the early childhood sector for nearly 20 years. In late 2007 the ECC employed a dedicated professional development manager to expand the programmes it offers to its members and the wider ECE sector.

The Early Childhood Council Annual Conference 2008 will be held at the Duxton Hotel and Wellington Convention Centre from 2 – 4 May 2008. The conference will feature 650 delegates, 47 speakers, a policy forum with Members of Parliament from 7 political parties, 35 workshops, 50 trade stands, 25 invited government officials and sector leaders, pre-conference tours of Wellington ECE centres, and a number of social activities including a cocktail party and a masquerade ball. Full details available at http://ecc.org.nz/conference/programme.html

Special features include: • The ECC’s newly released Good Governance Guide and Toolkit for committee-run centres that will be topic of 2 three-hour workshops presented by its author Steven Nayda of BDO Spicers.

• A keynote address and two workshops by international leader in early childhood education, Dr Lilian Katz (USA) who is returning to NZ for the first time in ten years. For those unable to attend the full conference, Dr Katz is also presenting a three-hour pre-conference workshop in Auckland on April 29. Booking information for the Auckland seminar is available at http://ecc.org.nz/events/

The Early Childhood Council is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. Our more than 1000 member centres are both community-owned and commercially owned, employ more than 7000 staff and care for more than 50,000 children.

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