Introducing the iPRES 2025 Care Team

The iPRES 2025 Care Team Co-Leads from Left to Right: Susanna Joe, Ish Donney, and Carly Lenz.

Care Team is the newest addition to the iPRES organising committees and is unique to our 2025 conference. Care Team’s purpose is to ensure that attendees are supported, that their wellbeing is considered, and to facilitate a clear process for handling any Code of Conduct breaches, should they arise. We work closely with the Local Organising, Attendee Experience, and Accessibility Committees.

The team is made up of three co-leads: Susanna (she/her), Ish (they/them), and Carly (she/her). We are also looking for a group of volunteers to boost our numbers over the conference to give us the best coverage during the events. You will be able to spot Care Team Reps around the different venues as we will be wearing colourful lanyards and Care Team badges. In virtual sessions, chat monitors will also act as Care Team Reps.

Throughout the conference week, a member of the Care Team will be on call and you’ll be able to contact us by phone/WhatsApp, as well as email and a Google Form - so no worries if you don’t manage to spot one of us in person! Any general wellbeing queries, such as “where is the closest pharmacy?" [1] or “what do you call Tylenol here?” [2], can be addressed via the #helpdesk-virtual and #helpdesk-wellington channels on the conference Slack.

For more information about our Code of Conduct, including how breaches will be handled, and what Care Team can offer in terms of support, check out the Code of Conduct page on the conference website.

We hope very much that the Care Team won't actually be needed during iPRES 2025, but we're here just in case!

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[1] The closest pharmacies to Tākina are Wellworks Pharmacy (75 Taranaki St) or Bargain Chemist (73 Manners St). Tākina is also very close to the New World Supermarket (279 Wakefield Street) which stocks basic painkillers and over-the-counter medication.

[2] Tylenol is known as Paracetamol in Aotearoa New Zealand, and most dairies (i.e. corner stores) and supermarkets will sell it as such. The most popular name brand is Panadol.