2012 is shaping up to be a year full of more and more conferences for the not for profit and philanthropic sectors. There’s so much on that it seems hard to get any work done in between being inspired, invigorated, and feeling that there is too much information.

February kicks off with the Grantmaking in Australia conference presented by the Australia Institute of Grants Management, in Melbourne on 24 February and the Fundraising Institute of Australia Conference from 28 February – 2 March at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast with the theme of Dare to be Different.

March has the ACOSS National Conference in Sydney – 29 and 30 March

In May there is the the Connecting Up conference in Sydney from 1 -3 May and the Communities in Control conference in Melbourne May 28 and 29.

At the end of the July there is the Better Boards conference – 27 – 29 July in Melbourne.

August has the Community Foundations Forum which I believe is going to be held in Mackay.

September 4 and 5 – Philanthropy Australia’s Bianniual Conference in Sydney. Making Philanthropy Our Business

Philanthropy Australia also has a what’s on listing which includes international philanthropy conferences and one day workshops and the Fundraising Institute of Australia has a good events page.

A quick look at twitter.com also provides an overview of many conferences around the world in the not for profit sector which would be worth a look in if one could spend all year travelling – thankfully live tweets now make it possible for us to share in some of the insights available.

Here are some examples in no particular order of priority or endorsement:

Yale School of Management Philanthropy Conference Feb 3
Growing Philanthropy Conference March 13, Springfield Massachussets
Council on Foundations Conference April/May in Los Angeles

and of course there are the TEDx talks in Melbourne and Sydney (May 26)

This is of course only a cursory look at at what is coming up, but it gives an idea of the kinds of resources available.

What kinds of conferences and professional development and events do you attend? or What are your must attend events? Is there too much available to get your head around? What are your priorities in information gathering and networking for 2012? How do you budget for all of these?

I look forward to your thoughts.

Sharon