>[Red text updated 17 May 2011]

I guess the vicarious thrill of following how an event comes together can be as fun as the gig itself. I’m not talking about the over-saturated coverage of a certain unmentionable UK event, either.

I’m talking about AAI 4 and AAFF, of course (as I’m wont to do; previously here and also kinda here). The closing date for conference abstracts and panels is Friday 13 May, and the broader convening committee is excited about the many developments for the event and its extra-curricular activities. The broader organising committee for the cluster of November events is made up of:

  • AAI 4 convenor – Audrey Yue (UniMelb)
  • AAFF convenors – Indigo Willing (UQ) and Amadeo Marquez-Perez (15/15 Film Festival)
  • other AASRN advisors/hangers-on – myself, Jacqueline Lo (ANU) and Dean Chan (ECU)
  • MiFA Gallery curator/director – Mikala Tai, and
  • a bevy of RAs who are doing lots of the nitty-gritty stuff (hat-tip to David Crouch).
Not that we’ve all been in one room at any given time (except for that time in the pub…oh, wait…). 
Our confirmed keynotes at the moment are:
As well as this amazing line-up – which I never thought I’d get to see at one conference, let alone a conference that I’m involved in organising! – we’ve got several fantastic feature panels.

These include (so far…):

  • Food-blogging + cultural identity: This session is convened by Tammi Jonas, and includes food-bloggers Deep Dish Dreams aka @stickifingers, Half-Eaten aka @cloudcontrol, and Last Appetite aka @phil_lees as participants.
  • Asian Australian Politics and political representation: This session is convened by Jen Tsen Kwok, and includes excellent participants I can’t list yet because Jen’s still in the process of finalising the line-up! Yes, it’s annoying to tease… Well, I can now tell you that this session will feature Dai Le, Tsebin Tchen, Adam Bandt, and Lisa Singh – with the exciting possibility of a couple more high profile people.
  • New Asian Australian communities: To be chaired by the Director of the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute Professor Kee Pookong, this session will feature leaders from Melbourne’s emerging Asian Australian communities. 

Many grant applications have been written and we’re waiting on the outcomes. There are a few extremely exciting possible guests still in the offing, and we’ll also be finding out about those soon.

Meanwhile, if you want to present at AAI 4, make sure you get your abstract in!

I have foolishly agreed to present a paper. Which reminds me…I’m coordinating the submission of my panel’s abstracts! AHEM.

My panel submission, with my ace colleagues Jacqueline Lo and Dean Chan, is submitted! Hurrah for small miracles! If you were still really hoping to submit an abstract for consideration, we’re still accepting a few late ones. Be quick, though, as the programme’s already filling up!