Think Talks: Giving good ideas a bigger stage

I started Think with a simple idea: more people deserve a say in the conversations that affect their lives.

The first event was Think Greek, held in a small amphitheatre at The Commons in Melbourne. I liked the symbolism of that room. It reminded me of the old tradition of people gathering to swap ideas, question authority and work things out together.

That was what I wanted from the start. Give people the chance to speak, to push back on accepted thinking, to build their confidence and to take part in conversations that would otherwise happen without them.

Think has grown a long way since. Think Women, Think Pride, Think Culture, Think Voice, Think Social, Think Autism, Think Regional Futures and Think 3000 at RMIT have taken that first idea into different communities, institutions and parts of Australia. I’ve hosted almost every one of those sessions myself, and I’ve watched people walk into a Think room unsure of themselves and walk out having said something the country needed to hear.

Think has brought together community leaders, researchers, young people, policymakers, practitioners and people whose lived experience gets far too little recognition. Thousands have taken part, and hundreds of conversations have been recorded.

Those recordings have always been on YouTube. Very few people could find them, and fewer could use them properly. I wanted them to travel further.

A bigger stage

Today I’m launching Think Talks, a joint project of Just Gold and Aurum Foundation that brings the whole Think platform into one public home.

It starts with 598 talks, 63 speaker profiles, 21 topics and twelve curated collections.

A two-hour discussion might hold twenty good ideas. Now you can go straight to the one you want without sitting through the whole session.

Each talk has its own video, captions, transcript, summary and article. You can browse by speaker, subject, program or event, move on to related conversations, or go back to the full recording. Reports, roadmaps and other resources sit next to the discussions that shaped them.

Older conversations keep their original dates. I want people to see who was raising an issue five years ago, what they proposed, and how the conversation has moved since.

Accessibility is part of the design

I’m autistic, and I’ve had a very direct hand in how Think Talks works.

Videos don’t autoplay. Visitors can adjust colour intensity and text size, and the site respects reduced-motion preferences. Every talk has captions and a transcript, so you can follow the conversation without having to watch the video.

People take in information in different ways, and I wanted the platform built around that from day one.

It’s a practical example of what autistic-led design can do, and I’m proud of it.

From conversation to national action

The timing of this launch matters.

On 28 July, the Think Social Cohesion National Summit brought 160 leaders together in Parramatta. It was convened by SydWest , SSI and the Settlement Council of Australia,with Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia as media partner. I designed the summit and ran the live synthesis on the day, so that what the room said was captured as it was said. The summit looked at what Australia needs to do to strengthen belonging, participation and trust.

Last week, at the FECCA (Federation of Ethnic Communities'​ Councils of Australia) National Conference in Canberra, we opened public consultation on the Emerging Social Cohesion Roadmap.The consultation is available in English, fourteen community languages and Easy Read. It asks people across Australia to look at five proposed actions and help decide what happens next.

From 21 October, talks from the summit go up on Think Talks every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Anyone taking part in the consultation can hear from the people who spoke at the summit and see the thinking behind each proposed action.

This is what I’ve been working towards with Think: creating opportunities for people to contribute, and making sure those contributions have somewhere to go.

Someone speaks at a summit. What they say is recorded and shared. It feeds into a public consultation, and the consultation shapes a Roadmap for government and other institutions. The original contribution stays public, so anyone can check where an idea came from or argue with what was done with it.

What comes next

I’ve never seen Think as only a series of events. I want it to be a place where people find ideas, find their own voice, learn from each other and get a real chance to influence the decisions that shape their communities. I want the next person who stands up at Think to know their words won’t disappear when the room empties.

Think Talks gives that a permanent home and a much bigger audience. When someone stands up in a room and is heard, that matters. With Think Talks, what they said keeps reaching people long after they’ve left the stage.

We’ve spent years opening those rooms. Now anyone, anywhere, can walk in.

Explore Think Talks: https://thinktalks.org

Contribute to the Social Cohesion Roadmap consultation before 6 November: https://thinksocialcohesion.com.au

First published on LinkedIn, 20 October 2026.