Greetings from Sydney! Amy and I finally got here after missing our flight out of L.A. due to a long delay in Atlanta.

Dawn over Sydney

We arrived at 6:15 AM so we had time to rest up before things got started last night with a Who's Who meeting introducing INPUT board members and national coordinators from all over the world.

Who's Who Meeting

 We saw many old friends - Bill Gilcher, formerly of the Goethe Institute, Moss Bresnahan, former GM of our station, SCETV and now at KCTS in Seattle, Ron Hull of Nebraska (who has a new book about his life in public television coming out soon), Judy Tam of ITVS, the INPUT president, Yeong-Seon Kim of KBS (last year's hosts) and many more. Afterwards we met up with new friends, our U.S, delegates, all very excited to be here.

The U.S. delegates

Then we all headed over to the welcoming party, a rocking event! It began with a welcome to the country presented by a group of native Australian people. One man played the didgeridoo - beautiful! Another member of the group formally - and movingly - welcomed us, acknowledging that all of Australia is aboriginal land. I'm told this is a tradition now at most events, stemming from a formal apology that was made to the native people of Australia by the government several years ago.

Welcome to the country

 At the party I began to feel the full impact of this conference - the stimulating effect of meeting public media producers from all corners of the earth. I talked with a group of Pacific Islanders, all women, producers from Tonga, Palau and Vanuatu and Fiji; the representatives of El Salvador, next year's INPUT hosts; and delegates from Zimbabwe, Russia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa, Canada, Japan, etc., all with a deep belief in the power and importance of public media.

So - today INPUT begins in earnest, with the screening sessions. I'll go to as many as I can and report back!