On April 30 in Vancouver, the 2017 CESEF Silent Auction will present an amazing variety of items with a range of price points! Pick up a book on evaluation, indulge in wine, chocolate or some new decor or jewellery. This year we also feature for bidding, the following high value items: Continue reading
Tag Archives: conference updates
Something for Everyone by Wendy Doughty, Canadian Evaluation Society Educational Fund
My second favourite event of the year (Christmas takes first place) is quickly approaching. This year’s CESEF (Canadian Evaluation Society Educational Fund) Silent Auction will be held on Sunday, April 30 starting at 6 pm during the CES 2017 National Conference Opening Reception. Continue reading
Three Quickie Tips to Rock Your CES2017 Presentation by Kylie Hutchinson
There’s been a quiet revolution in conference presentations over the past ten years, and it’s all in the name of learning and knowledge translation. Gone are the days of banging out a deck of slides using a canned Power Point template or one covered with an organization’s logo and a list of six bullet points per slide. Nowadays, savvy presenters are putting a more thought and innovation into their presentations in order to better engage audiences and communicate their key messages. Many millennials seem to understand this new era of communication and design intuitively, while many of us from other generations are still learning.
Don’t let your great content get lost in a lacklustre presentation! Here are three quickie tips to rock your CES2017 presentation. Continue reading
Announcing the Fellows’ Plenary Panel – Pushing Forward: With or Without Evaluation by Natalie Kishchuk
The Fellowship of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) is made up of individuals who have been recognized by CES for their lifetime achievements, service and prominence in evaluation. Since its inception in 2003, 23 individuals have received the CES Fellowship. One of the Fellowship’s roles is to provide leadership and collective experience, including at CES national conferences. Starting in 2015, the Fellows began organizing a special strand within the conference, bringing together recognized leaders to address timely and often controversial issues in the field of evaluation.
We are delighted to announce this year’s Fellows Plenary Panel, to be held on Tuesday May 2nd, 2017. We believe it will deliver a critical, edgy perspective, and stimulate dialogue at the conference and beyond. Continue reading
Get Social at CES Vancouver by Danielle Simpson
There are many academic reasons to attend CES Vancouver but the social activities will guarantee to be a highlight of your trip. Whether it is taking in the sights and sounds of beautiful Vancouver, chatting with a new acquaintance at morning exercises, or catching up with old colleagues at the evaluator dinners, this conference has something for everyone. Continue reading
Presentation proposals for the 2017 conference are in and we are thrilled by the response! by Beth Snow
We received a record setting 357 proposals!
That’s a 30% increase over the previous record, set by the 2015 conference in Montreal, which received 275 proposals. In addition, we received 43 workshop proposals. As one of the program co-chairs, I am excited both by the depth and breadth of proposals, which will allow us to put together an amazing program to offer on our theme of Facing Forward: Innovation, Action, and Reflection. Moreover, this signals that there is a lot of interest from the evaluation community in attention our conference next spring!
Now to look a little more closely at the numbers..
Journey to a Theme By Chris Lovato
It’s now only 7 and a-half months before the 2017 Canadian Evaluation Society Conference begins. Thinking back on the journey to date, one of the early tasks that stands out for me was the process of identifying a theme. I was tasked with leading that process so I started by sitting down with a pen and paper and a BIG cup of coffee. I wrote down words and concepts that I felt represented what I’ve been hearing my evaluation colleagues and students talk about. That list was revisited and revised many times after conversations with Co-Chair, Sarah Farina and a host of others who engaged in the conversation. Just looked at my computer files and my first theme document was created in May 2015!
After several meetings and months of collecting feedback from a wide range of people, in April 2016 we landed on our 2017 conference theme–“Facing Forward: Innovation, Action and Reflection”. After that meeting I celebrated (not with coffee!). We are pleased with the response we’ve received to date; this theme seems to be resonating well with people. So far, we’ve heard unsolicited comments like “love the theme”, “exciting”, “great theme”. This feedback has made us all very happy! J Continue reading
The Evolution of Evaluation as a Community and Profession By Sarah Farina
I’m delighted to be Co-chairing the 2017 CES conference with Chris Lovato. My first introduction to CES was at the 2010 conference in Victoria. I’d been working in evaluation for many years, including conducting training in monitoring and evaluation. At that time, though, I wasn’t familiar with evaluation as a discipline.
What struck me most about the conference was how collegial attendees were, and how curious they were to learn. I enjoyed the sessions I attended, and more than that, I savoured the open and exploratory conversations that took place throughout the event. Almost every session made me feel like I’d finally come home. People were friendly, used a language I understood, and talked about topics I cared about. I felt from that time that I was joining a community of people working in the same realm, though the boundaries were still being worked out. Continue reading
Share, Learn and Collaborate at CES 2017 in Vancouver
We are working hard to organize a dynamic and engaging CES 2017 Conference in Vancouver. CESBCY members voted in June 2014 to host the conference, and since that time, we’ve been working with CES National to create a meaningful event that brings together evaluators in diverse roles to share, learn and collaborate. We’ve passed a few important milestones:
- Selecting the scenic Westin Bayshore as the venue, with a layout that supports maximum networking
- Setting up an incredible conference planning team with our talented volunteers
- Testing innovative ways to support learning and networking at one-day conferences: CESBCY 2014 Health Evaluation Conference: Evaluation as a Learning Process and CESBCY 2015 Evaluation Conference: Collaboration, Contribution and Collective Impact
- Creating a conference budget and workplan
- Engaging volunteers via volunteerspot
We thank the team of CES 2015 in Montreal and CES 2016 in St. John’s, who have provided valuable guidance. Our incredible team of volunteers is made up of experienced and new evaluators from throughout BC and Yukon as well as national CES members located throughout the globe. We have received invaluable advice and insights from our colleagues at AEA. All in all, this experience is bringing out the best in our profession and we thank everyone who is working with us to make CES 2017 a great success.
Keep an eye out here for more updates!