Sights and Sounds
Gallery

Vivien Twyford

Vivien founded Twyford Consulting in 1988 and has managed its growth from a one person consultancy to a company employing eight people, and a Strategic Consortium of qualified consultant colleagues, in 2004. Her early career included administrative roles in the UK , as well as 5 years in the US and a year in Hong Kong . After settling in Australia in the early 1970’s she pursued a media sales and advertising career before enrolling first for a BA and subsequently for an MBA at the University of Wollongong .

Vivien is currently President of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) for the year 2004. She has served on the Board of IAP2 since 2001. She was the inaugural President of IAP2’s Australasian Chapter between 1998 and 2002. Vivien launched the IAP2 Certificate Course in Public Participation in Australia and New Zealand in 2002 and has trained well over 500 practitioners from government, local government and the private sector in the fundamentals of public participation practice.

She was part of the training review team that reviewed and updated the Certificate in Public Participation in Denver in February 2003. She will continue to offer this course in Australia , New Zealand , US, UK and other interested countries in 2004.

Vivien has been a community consultation and participation consultant since 1991. She has designed and delivered consultation and participation strategies around some very sensitive infrastructure and social service delivery projects around Australia . She has facilitated innumerable community meetings, workshops, focus groups and information sessions and uses a range of facilitative techniques, including World Café, Samoan Circle , Cardstorming, and Visioning. She has designed and implemented Open Houses, Site Visits and Field Days. She has established and facilitated many Advisory, Reference or Working Groups. She has also designed participative information gathering activities including surveys, comment forms, focus groups and interviews. She is an accredited mediator.

Vivien has broad experience in teaching. She has lectured on personal and organisational communication to both undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Wollongong and facilitated training programs in leadership and communication for clients in both the public and private sector around NSW and ACT. She has presented papers at a number of international conferences in Australia , New Zealand , the US and Canada .

In addition to her teaching and consultation work, Vivien is a director of IMB Limited, a banking and financial services company operating in Australia , and its subsidiaries and is Chair of the IMB Community Foundation Committee. She has recently been made a Fellow of the University of Wollongong . She is a past Chair of the Illawarra branch of the Australian Institute of Management, a past member of the Illawarra Regional Development Board and she holds a number of honorary directorships in local community organisations in Wollongong .