ANU Asia Pacific Week 2011 Conference: Experience

It was a memorable and meaningful event for me to attend the Australian National University Asia Pacific Week 2011 Conference from 10-14 July hosted by the Australian National University that had brought together leading experts on the region and one hundred of the specially selected undergraduate and postgraduate students of the world's top university from around the world to engage in a series of academic and networking events focused on the Asia Pacific region developments and trends. Delegates were mainly specialising on the public policy, economic,  international law, international business, international relations, international business, public health, and human rights represented from 40 different universities and 24 countries.

The sessions were held in the following topics:
- The Transformation of Political and Economical Power in Asia and the Pacific
- From Sorcerers to Cyber-crime
- Gendered Citizens: Human Rights and Violence in the Pacific and Asia
- China Update Book Launch
- India Goes Outwards
- The Hazardous Pacific
- Climate Change and Fiscal Policy: A Report for APEC
- An Indonesian Perspective on Asia
- Asia Pacific Master Blogging Challenge
- Japan, after the Tohoku Earthquake
- Antagorism despite Alignments: Simulating crisis over Takeshima/Dokdo (Wargame)
- Q & Asia Big Ideas at the ANU with Virginia Haussegger, ABC TV News host/journalist
- Keynote Address from the Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser AC

The conference was featured a Q & A style forum on the future of the Asia-Pacific region; a flagship conference panel on the transformation of political and economic power in Asia led by Professor Peter Drysdale and Professor Hugh White; and an address by the Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser AC, Prime Minister of Australia (1975-1983). Other leading figures who had joined the event include: Professor Peter Drysdale, Professor Hugh White, Professor Ross Garnaut, Professor Deborah Brautigam, Professor Kent Anderson, Professor Veronica Taylor, Professor Margaret Jolly, Professor Sandy Gordon; Professor Andrew Maclntyre, Professor Ariel Heryanto, Professor Greg Fealy, Dr. Judith Healy, Dr. Nicholas Farrelly, Dr. Andrew Walker, Dr. Shiro Armstrong, Dr. Brendan Taylor, Dr. Admiral Chris Barrie AC, Dr. Katherine Morton, Professor Jenny Corbett, Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Professor Stephen Howes from the ANU; Professor Yiping Huang, Peking University; Professor Raghbendra Jha from the Australian Research Council; Dr. Ahmad Ahsan from the World Bank; Professor Sisira Jayasuriya and Dr. Nabu Yamashita from the La Trobe University.

To be in touch with the delegates for the future collaboration facebook network group has been created on the third day of the conference and also explored other options of sharing and networking strategies.