From a young participant:

• Many of the presentations were in language & structures intended for 'older people' and for 'academics', which younger people found hard to follow and boring. It is not just "what is said" that is important, but also "how it is said"

• Now I know this is late but I'd like to also add my feedback from 2009 conference if that's ok. Firstly i thought you guys did a great job and it is a tremendous idea you've created. It's definitely needed! So I'll share some of this feedback which also came from others who shared their thoughts with me and hopefully can assist in making it an even better experience for younger people.
• First feedback was that there was an 'over-representation' of Tongan and 'Older' speakers and covered more 'first generation' issues. Some of the younger ones commented to the likes of "it's more for the older generation who don't listen to us anyway" and "they keep trying to speak for us, when we can speak for ourselves" and i thought this was a good quote "they're the ones that are lost, we know who we are but they won't hear us".
• Second feedback is ensuring that people chosen to talk in a certain area, actually have the authority to speak or 'talk on behalf of' a particular cultural group. I'll raise the example of say Marit Vaimarosi and her take on the rotuman language. There has been a certain level of criticism about her work from the Rotuman community in general. Namely that alot of the translations her husband worked on are actually 'incorrect' and do not take into account the different dialects of the language influenced by the different catholic and methodist approaches. If her husband was speaking it would be different because he is Rotuman, speaks the language he could justify his interpretations. She isn't rotuman, doesn't speak the language but was explaining what she thought should be done with the language. I have nothing against her personally, i just thought it should be noted.

• How can participation from more of the islands be encouraged? Is NZ easier to get to than Australia? Can there be grants to specifically invite people from other islands?
• note that for Talanoa 09, three people from the islands for whom tickets were purchased did not come
• Can there be more "free space"? but how?

From another participant + her friends:

• Perhaps have only 2 presentations per session to allow for adequate "talanoa" after each presentation.
• Limit comments/questions to 2 minutes. We can learn to say things effectively and straight to the point within this time frame.
• I'm sure one of the attractions to the conference is the inclusion of theology in our explanation of things, however, I see the need to include other disciplines.  I guess it means, we need to be inclusive in terms of exposing Talanoa Oceania to other disciplines.
• this Talanoa was widely advertised through different community and university networks led by the Media Advisor of the University of Auckland.  I also sent the message out through the BRCSS video network here and Tangata Pasifika. At the end of the day, we can't force people to join.  We did have good reps from various disciplines, such as education, health, science, etc., although they did not present.
• We need to engage the community as a whole.  I'm not sure how to go about this, but a friend suggested that Talanoa Oceania meets every two years with each 'language/island group' having their own meeing in alternative years.
• Every time we advertised Talanoa here we emphasised that this is not an academic gathering, nor is it a theological/church event.
• It was good to see young members at the Confererence and I'm sure more of them are required to make their voices heard in terms of presentation

• Firstly I like to convey sincere thanks on behalf of my parish to Auck University (Nasili and Theology Dept) for the scholarships.  Actually we did not expect a great gift like this one however, it is really encouraging to our youth and to the parish as a whole.
• Secondly, I like to echo the idea that we were not there to agree with every presenters and be friend with  every view but to challenge and share honestly the issues and talanoa that can assist our people to settle effectively in Disapora. In other words, I think we did not come to the conference to talanoa things that can please everybody or say things that other people want to hear but to say things that can stir up the talanoa to analyse realistically the issues that are facing with our people especially our young people and children born in overseas' context. 
• Furthermore, I like to share the comments from my two teen daugthers. they really enjoyed the debates and arguments; they admired professor sitaleki finau for "rocking the boat when the ocean seems calm" especially  in his presentation and asking questions. It really fired up the debates and became hotter. In addition, I was really impressed the Talanoa especially when I saw that voices were raised,  tears, disagreements, argues, anger and so forth; and my reason for that is when the talanoa reached that situation I think we are honest and serious about ourselves and issues (sociological, theological and mental) that our people are struggling with in Diaspora.