ABOVE: Bettina Backman presents at the Preventive Health Conference in Adelaide in May 2023.
Bettina Backman is a RE-FRESH member and Associate Research Fellow with Deakin University. She has recently begun her PhD titled “Supporting community-based food retailers to sustain healthy food policy interventions in the long term”. RE-FRESH Knowledge Exchange funding allowed her to travel to Adelaide in May 2023 to present at the Preventive Health Conference – her first conference presentation.
She shares her experience:
The Preventive Health Conference is an annual conference that provides a discussion forum for preventive health issues in Australia. The conference is organised by the Public Health Association Australia (PHAA) and it attracts a diverse audience, from researchers and academics to health professionals, advocacy organisations and local government and state representatives. The overarching goal of the conference is to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing between participants. The aim this year was to inspire action and emphasise the need to prioritise preventive health across Australia. This year, the conference was held from 2nd May to 4th May at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
The Preventive Health Conference was my first in-person conference attendance. The aim of this attendance was to a) disseminate findings of a research project that I have led; b) improve my public speaking skills; c) network; and d) be exposed to new methodologies and current topics in the preventive health field.
The study I presented focused on Food classification guidelines across Australia – concordance and implications of differences and was a result of a collaboration of RE-FRESH researchers from Deakin University and The George Institute. Presenting this research was important to knowledge dissemination among academics, policy makers and other government representatives to activate discussion around harmonising institutional food policies across Australia.
Key learnings and takeaways
While the conference focused on a wide range of themes and topics in the public health field, there was always something to learn and apply to my own research interests. For example, one of my key takeaways from the vaping discussion was that the public health system should take responsibility for creating a vaping problem that is partly a result of actions taken against tobacco companies. As we are players in a very complex system, it is good to consider both the positive and negative consequences of the changes we drive and advocate.
Another more practical learning, or reminder, was to keep things simple when aiming to influence policy makers, highlighting the need for providing clear and concise presentations and project summaries.
More specific to my research interests, a few conference presentations provided some new perspective to the strategies to promote healthier and discourage less healthy food options. Lastly, I also learned that public speaking is not as scary as I thought!
Benefits
The conference was a great opportunity to learn more what is happening in the public health field more broadly. I also felt honoured to share the room with Australian leading public health professionals at the time the Australian Government announced its ‘war against vaping’.
Moreover, my conference presentation increased my confidence in public speaking and watching other great speakers inspired me in further developing my own presentation and public speaking skills. The conference also provided a great opportunity to connect with people working in the public health nutrition field and realise how everyone seems to know each other in this field. It was great to see other RE-FRESH and Deakin University researchers and hear about their research as well.
Overall, this conference experience was a big milestone in my research career and expanded my professional development as a researcher.
ABOVE: The Adelaide Convention Centre