Where Facilitation Comes to Life: Inside IAF Oceania 2026

By Quelia Phan

Rhonda Sparks has been to 18 IAF conferences. She has travelled to Africa, across Asia, and beyond, returning each time for the same reason.

"I wouldn't keep doing it if I didn't like it," she says, and laughs.

This October, she will make it 19. The destination is Geelong, Victoria, where the IAF Oceania Conference 2026 takes place at Deakin University's Waterfront Campus from 14 to 16 October.

Rhonda Sparks facilitating a workshop at an IAF Conference.

From Agenda to Transformation

Every conference begins with an idea. For Cathryn Lloyd and Steven McInnes, the two designers behind this year's program, the idea was simple: facilitation is not one thing.

"It can be working with agendas and timing and being quite linear in some respects," Cathryn says. "But it is also transformational." The theme they landed on, "From Agenda to Transformation," was designed to hold that whole range.

The program reflects it. Foundational sessions are for those building their craft. A second tier is for experienced practitioners who want to push further. And then there is the transformational category, which Steven describes as something different altogether.

"It is not about the doing. It is about the being. As you stand in the presence of a group of people, it is how your presence is experienced by others and how you hold yourself that actually impacts the dynamics in that room."

With six parallel streams running across nine sessions, attendees will need to choose. Steven has a name for the feeling that comes with that. "It is not just FOMO. It is COMA - the certainty of missing out." To bring people back together across those choices, the program builds in shared reflection spaces throughout, so that different experiences can be pooled and exchanged.

Participants at the IAF Asia Conference, Mumbai. The global facilitation community in action.

More Than a Conference Venue

The venue is part of the design. Deakin University's Waterfront Campus is a heritage building right on the water, with open spaces, a courtyard and a promenade.

"What is the space in which people are going to be connecting?" Cathryn asks. The answer, they hope, will be felt everywhere: in the sessions, over morning tea, during a venue walk on the first day, at the Games Night, and at the Welcome to Country on Tuesday evening.

Beyond the program itself, Cathryn and Steven have been intentional about every detail of how people move through the space and find each other.

"We are really helping people to connect," Steven says. "You get the networking, you broaden the community experience, and we are introducing people into the world of facilitation and the value that it creates."

For first-timers, both have the same message: you will not be left to figure it out alone. A venue walk at the start gives newcomers a chance to see the space and begin forming connections before anything formally begins.

"Each person will have their own experience," Cathryn says. "You choose your adventure."

What Keeps People Coming Back

For those wondering what to expect, Rhonda Sparks offers a picture from the inside. She attended her first IAF conference in Africa in 2008, with around 80 people gathered from across the world.

"It was highly participative. There was not a person standing up the front of the room talking to everybody sitting down."

Rhonda Sparks and Sheryl Smail, who first met at the IAF Africa Conference in 2008 and have co-facilitated together ever since. Sheryl will be at Geelong this October.

Nearly two decades later, she still comes back. What she has watched shift over that time is the geography of the community, from largely Anglo-centric to truly international, with growing participation from India, China, Latin America and Africa.

"The conversations are richer for it," she says.

If you had to describe the Geelong conference in three words? Cathryn offers: human, experiential, connection. Steven adds: expansive, insightful, celebratory.

"Facilitation is something the world needs," Cathryn says. "We need to have better conversations. We need to know how to work together well. When we can create environments and conditions for people to do that, that is a really valuable thing."

All photos courtesy of Rhonda Sparks.

*The IAF Oceania Conference 2026 takes place from 14 to 16 October at Deakin University Waterfront Campus, Geelong. For more information and to register, visit https://www.iaf-world.org.