Today, the Ninth International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS9) closed after 5 huge days of debate and discussion which brought nearly 1,000 Asia scholars from all over the world to Adelaide. The conference has been a great example of how we can all do so much more by creating clever, win-win partnerships, and always building as much community engagement in to our initiatives as possible.

ICAS9 was hosted by a consortium of Adelaide’s three public universities, and was also supported by the Asian Studies Association of Australia, which I represented on the ICAS9 committee. The ASAA largely aligned its Event Funding Scheme with the event by supporting two smaller workshops inside it. These were the Pakistan Summit, hosted by the University of South Australia, and a workshop on reframing the boundaries of “Asia” organised by UWA’s Assoc. Prof. Romit Dasgupta.

One of our strategies for maximising community engagement with ICAS9 was to organise InterculturAdelaide, a day-long event on notions of interculturality supported by the Department of Premier and Cabinet of the Government of South Australia. The event brought together more than 300 people from South Australia’s scholarly, business, not-for-profit and policy communities to discuss South Australia’s place in Asia, along with the skills that we all need to benefit from Asian integration. These skills include enhanced intercultural competence so we can engage better with our own diversity, along with the dazzling diversity of Asian societies with which we hope to partner.

ICAS9 also hosted a range of other streams within it, including events organised by the Chinese Studies Association of Australia. the Malaysia & Singapore Society of Australia, the South Asian Studies Association of Australia, a day-long mentoring workshop for postgraduates, and keynote speeches by Prof. Takashi Shiraishi from Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and former Indonesian Minister for Trade Mari Pangestu.

There are lots more details about ICAS9 on its website.