HOBART 2025 CONVENTION REVIEW
| Type of post: | Region 34 news item |
| Sub-type: | No sub-type |
| Posted By: | Karen Phillips |
| Status: | Current |
| Date Posted: | Sun, 13 Jul 2025 |
We hope everyone has had a chance to catch their breath after the whirlwind of activity that was Hobart convention 2025! It was wonderful to be back at Wrest Point, performing at such a lovely venue.
For this year, our Convention Steering Committee was comprised of myself, Therese Donlevy – Chair of Regional Convention, Competition Coordinator - Jenny Fay, Official Panel Liaison – Tracey Ezzy, Home Chorus Representative – Christine McShane and Events Coordinator – Cathy Sterling. We each played to our strengths and did the best we could in our roles to produce what we hope was a marvellous convention and competition experience.
We had 17 choruses and 20 quartets competing during convention, and let’s not forget our very entertaining Mic Testers. For the first time we had a quartet, Skylark, eligible for the new “Evaluation Only: Internationally Bound Division”. We also had three choruses take on the entertainment package that is Open Division, much to the enjoyment of our audience. We congratulate our 2025 Champion Quartet, Alouette, and 2025 Champion Chorus, Perth Harmony, both of whom are taking up the invitation to compete at Columbus, Ohio, USA in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Our judging panel was amazing and extremely hardworking: Valerie Taylor (Panel Chair), Kerri Mauney, Kay Bromert and Tori Postma. We’ve had many positive comments on the quality of the Master Classes and education classes run by our judges and I count us lucky to have had the benefit of their experience throughout our convention.
Our wonderful MCs – Wendy Haeckler, Wendy Leigh, Jan Lovegrove, Su Owen, Beth Pratley, Kirsten Richardson, Michelle Roy, and Tori van der Donk – were coordinated by Jenny Fay and Liliana Macarone.
Additionally, we had the support from all those chorus teams taking on tasks essential to the smooth running of convention. This year we had: A Cappella West – Registration Secretariat Aurora Australis – Competition Medals Bathurst Panorama – Regional Information Desk Brindabella – Transport Coordination Coastal a Cappella – Transfer Task Hobart Harmony – Afterglow and Harmony Bazaar Redland Rhapsody – Volunteer Coordination and Annie Freeman from the RMT handling the RMT Merchandise/Sales Desk.
Other key people who volunteered their time over the convention weekend and in the lead up to convention were:
Our Convention Survey was sent to all delegates and closed for responses on 13 June. Your responses (over 200!) have been collated and analysed in a report for consideration and action by the RMT and the 2026 Convention Steering Committee. We really appreciate the time taken by so many of you to respond and there’s a lot of good stuff (including compliments) and suggestions for improvement in 2026.
Therese Donlevy Chair of Regional Convention
For this year, our Convention Steering Committee was comprised of myself, Therese Donlevy – Chair of Regional Convention, Competition Coordinator - Jenny Fay, Official Panel Liaison – Tracey Ezzy, Home Chorus Representative – Christine McShane and Events Coordinator – Cathy Sterling. We each played to our strengths and did the best we could in our roles to produce what we hope was a marvellous convention and competition experience.
We had 17 choruses and 20 quartets competing during convention, and let’s not forget our very entertaining Mic Testers. For the first time we had a quartet, Skylark, eligible for the new “Evaluation Only: Internationally Bound Division”. We also had three choruses take on the entertainment package that is Open Division, much to the enjoyment of our audience. We congratulate our 2025 Champion Quartet, Alouette, and 2025 Champion Chorus, Perth Harmony, both of whom are taking up the invitation to compete at Columbus, Ohio, USA in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Our judging panel was amazing and extremely hardworking: Valerie Taylor (Panel Chair), Kerri Mauney, Kay Bromert and Tori Postma. We’ve had many positive comments on the quality of the Master Classes and education classes run by our judges and I count us lucky to have had the benefit of their experience throughout our convention.
Our wonderful MCs – Wendy Haeckler, Wendy Leigh, Jan Lovegrove, Su Owen, Beth Pratley, Kirsten Richardson, Michelle Roy, and Tori van der Donk – were coordinated by Jenny Fay and Liliana Macarone.
Additionally, we had the support from all those chorus teams taking on tasks essential to the smooth running of convention. This year we had: A Cappella West – Registration Secretariat Aurora Australis – Competition Medals Bathurst Panorama – Regional Information Desk Brindabella – Transport Coordination Coastal a Cappella – Transfer Task Hobart Harmony – Afterglow and Harmony Bazaar Redland Rhapsody – Volunteer Coordination and Annie Freeman from the RMT handling the RMT Merchandise/Sales Desk.
Other key people who volunteered their time over the convention weekend and in the lead up to convention were:
- Panel Secretary – Therese Cooney
- Judges’ Page – Dianne James
- Stage Manager – Aaron Hewitt
- Stage Hand – Wendy Rossiter
- Parade of Champions Coordinator – Liliana Macarone
- STAR Chorus Director – Louise Brannon
- STAR Chorus Coordinator – Sandy O’Neill
- Quartet Chorus Director – Linda Wareham
- Official Convention Photographer – Paul Redding and team
- Our audio and visual team – Andrew Harcourt (Creative Imagery) and Steve Fraser and Andy Murray from Wrest Point
- Marketing Coordinator and Program Design – Karen Phillips
- Communications Coordinator – Michelle Roy
- Team Coordinator – Linda Britts
- Education Coordinator – Bec Hewitt
- Cvent Coordinator – Lorraine Graham
Our Convention Survey was sent to all delegates and closed for responses on 13 June. Your responses (over 200!) have been collated and analysed in a report for consideration and action by the RMT and the 2026 Convention Steering Committee. We really appreciate the time taken by so many of you to respond and there’s a lot of good stuff (including compliments) and suggestions for improvement in 2026.
Therese Donlevy Chair of Regional Convention
