Think Social Cohesion
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About

How the Summit came about

It began as a conversation between SydWest and Just Gold about a community forum. With the convenors, it became the Summit held in Parramatta on 28 July 2026.

The peopleThe Think method
Kyriakos Gold, Elfa Moraitakis, Maria Dimopoulos AM and Violet Roumeliotis AM at the Summit
How it began

From a community forum to a national summit

Think Social Cohesion began as Elfa Moraitakis’s idea. In early 2026 SydWest was considering a community forum. Elfa saw that the question it would ask, what is holding this country together and what is pulling it apart, was bigger than one organisation and one region, and that an answer with any weight had to come from the whole sector. SydWest and Just Gold began conceptualising a summit together, and with SSI (Settlement Services International) and SCOA (Settlement Council of Australia) at the table as convenors, it evolved into what it became: a national summit, convened from Western Sydney, with SBS as media partner.

The three convenors are different organisations, and that is the point. On 28 July 2026, one hundred and sixty invited leaders sat at round tables at Business Western Sydney in Parramatta. Ed Husic MP gave the opening keynote and Louise Perry the afternoon keynote. Five panels carried the day, and every person in the room was part of every one of them. The Summit closed with a record of what one hundred and sixty people said, and the Roadmap on this site is drawn from that record.

The convenors

What each one brought

SydWestConvenorThe place and the people

Western Sydney, the communities it works with every day, and the standing to put a national conversation in Parramatta rather than Canberra.

Settlement Services InternationalConvenorScale and evidence

National delivery scale and the evidence on what migrants contribute to this country and what it loses when their skills go unused.

Settlement Council of AustraliaConvenorThe sector’s peak voice

The settlement sector’s peak voice and its reach into every state and into government.

Just Gold

Summit ArchitectThe room and the methodThe craft of gathering people well: designing the room, working across the intersections between communities and topics, and curating the conversation so every voice carries equal weight.

The people

Who convened it

The convenors

  • Elfa MoraitakisCEO, SydWest
  • Violet Roumeliotis AMCEO, SSI
  • Maria Dimopoulos AMCEO, SCOA
  • Kyriakos GoldSummit Architect. Founder and CEO, Just Gold

The Summit team

  • Dane MooresChief of Advocacy and Public Affairs, SSI
  • Georgia PrattisGeneral Manager, SCOA
The Think method

A blueprint for democratic dialogue

Date28 July 2026
PlaceBusiness Western Sydney, Parramatta
In the roomOne hundred and sixty invited leaders
ProgramTwo keynotes and five panels
  1. 2021Think is designedAn equaliser: a simple way to discuss topics and the intersections between them, where no voice counts for more than another. It began as Think Talks and Think Panels.
  2. The pilotThink Greek
  3. Tested in small roomsThink Pride, Think Culture, Think Sport, Think WomenWith the support of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.
  4. The test that matteredThink VoiceRun at the critical time of the Voice referendum.
  5. With RMITThink 3000A full conference: two days and 34 speakers.
  6. On the roadThink Regional Futures in Shepparton
  7. 2026Think Social CohesionAll of that knowledge came to SydWest, and this is where Just Gold brought its latest tool, Thinkr.

Think is Just Gold’s blueprint for democratic dialogue. It was designed in 2021 as an equaliser: a simple way to discuss topics and the intersections between them, where no voice counts for more than another. It began as Think Talks and Think Panels.

The pilot was Think Greek. The format was then tested in small rooms at Think Pride, Think Culture, Think Sport and Think Women, with the support of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne. The test that mattered was Think Voice, run at the critical time of the Voice referendum. With RMIT, Think 3000 then turned it into a full conference: two days and 34 speakers. Think Regional Futures took it on the road, including to Shepparton.

Communities want to talk. The harder question was how to listen to everyone in a safe way, and Just Gold’s answer was AI. Thinkr is the latest tool.

In a Think room the program is built around personas, the roles an argument needs to be tested properly, and they are set before a single speaker is invited. Every contribution carries the same weight, whatever the title of the person making it.

Think is agile. It works with the room, the topic and the moment, and the format changes to suit all three. There is normally an open floor. At Think Social Cohesion there was not, for four reasons: the size of the room, the difficulty of the topic, the moment the country was in, and a multilingual audience. Instead everyone contributed from their phone, in their own words and their own language. Thinkr read the room and put it back to the facilitators mid panel, while it could still change the conversation. Disagreement stayed in the record.

What happens next

The Roadmap is open for consultation

Just Gold’s impact program supports the whole Think Social Cohesion program, including this website.