Organisers of this year's UniQ conference say last weekend's two full days of workshops and panel discussions were well attended, with LGBT leaders from around New Zealand debating key issues and telling their personal stories. "Everybody learned quite a lot, with all the workshops going very well. I'm very pleased with how it went," says UniQ Auckland co-president David Do. MP's Charles Chauvel, Rodney Hide, Chris Finlayson and Metiria Turei formed a panel discussion on the topic 'What are we doing in our communities?' Hearing of their differing perspectives on important LGBT issues was considered the highlight of the weekend for many attendees. Do says he also learned a lot at the transgender section of the conference. "It was powerful the way the speakers shared their own stories of gender transition. That was particularly valuable." Massey University's Mark Hendrickson's workshop on The Lavender Islands study of 2,000 gay men and lesbians provided useful hard data on Mental Health, drug and alcohol issues within our community. Around 80 people visited Auckland for the conference. "We had Otago, Victoria, Palmerston North, Waikato, and Auckland – so we covered most of the UniQ's that we know of, but unfortunately we couldn't get anyone from the Canterbury area," says Do. "I'd like to thank all the speakers who donated their time to come along and make a presentation. In particular [Auckland Uni researcher] Michael Steven's help throughout Saturday was very much appreciated." Conference organisers received thirty feedback forms from attendees. "The main thing we picked up was that the conference should be a little bit longer. Having it over two full days was rather too compact in the end, with not enough chance for discussion," Do concludes. Dunedin has been decided as the home city for next year's UniQ Conference. Ref: GayNZ.com, UniQ (m)