Workshop Facilitator: Peter Kenyon OAM, Director, Bank of I.D.E.A.S. 

Peter refers to himself as a community enthusiast and social capitalist. He is motivated by the desire to help create caring, healthy, inclusive, connected and enterprising communities, where all community members feel ‘they matter, belong and can contribute’, and where communities discover and mobilise their strengths and transform themselves. Peter has had a background as a youth worker, teacher, youth education officer, tertiary lecturer, farmer, small business operator and senior public servant. His employment experiences have included Director of Employment in Western Australia, Manager of the Community Employment Development Unit in New Zealand, Coordinator of the Natal KwaZulu Job Creation and Enterprise Strategy in South Africa and international youth and employment adviser to 26 countries. 

Through his social enterprise organisation, the Bank of I.D.E.A.S (Initiatives for the Development of Enterprising Action and Strategies), Peter has had over 35 years of experience working in the field of community and economic transformation. Such opportunities have enabled him to design, implement, test and refine a variety of change and renewal methodologies and tools in a wide range of rural and urban communities and local economies throughout Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa, Asia, Pacific, Middle East and North America. Project work has been undertaken in 59 countries.  Peter is especially passionate about small rural town reinvention and has worked with over 2000 rural communities seeking to spark their own ideas and invest themselves in building sustainable economic futures.