Heading in the right Direction?

Hi Everyone My name is Andrew McMillan and I'm a theatre director based in Melb. Truth be told, this is my first blog...ever and I thought it time that I made some sort of effort to get off my ass and put into action a few ideas and wishes I’d like to see occur next year. For some time now I’ve been moaning to my colleagues that we don’t have anything in Australia that allows directors to meet n’ greet and generally chew the fat about all things acting/directing. Well not that I know about anyway. Some years ago I came across the 'DirectorLabWest' website, which essentially provides a forum for US based emerging and established directors to meet once a year in a conference type environment and talk shop. (http://www.directorslabwest.com) It got me thinking. Why don’t we hold our own conference? Perhaps not a weekly event, but surely a weekend event once per year would be possible. So I'm putting it to you. Who’s interested in helping to get something similar off the ground? I don't know about you, but there are not a lot of opportunities for directors whether amateur or professional to network, discuss/debate ideas and simply recharge the batteries now and again. I'd like to see that change. Another of my passions is actor training and performance making methodologies with a focus on ensemble based approaches. Similarly, I’ve read my share of academic texts and would love to find others interested in sitting down over a glass of red and discuss or even debate training theory/approaches etc. I’m a fan of Zappra and Bogart and all things physical/improvisation. By the way, I’m not an academic, but its all fruit for fodder. Sadly, at the moment it’s all just floating around in my head. Lastly, if your a Melb based director interested in meeting other directors to either just get out of the house, discuss ideas or even read some scripts, drop me an email. I’d love to hear from you! Cheers Andrew amcmillan@gotalk.net.au