The exploitation of opportunities for learning and collaboration is an essential ingredient in development of weather, climate and hydrological services. New technology has enhanced these opportunities, from regional to global scales. Through e-learning, webinars, etc, new opportunities have emerged for enhancing collaboration between service and research agencies (government and private) as well as academia.

The International Forum of Meteorological Societies (IFMS) was established to foster communication and collaboration between the world’s professional meteorological societies. It aims to create an efficient platform for exchange of ideas, thus contributing to the global connectivity mechanisms -- essential for progress in the earth sciences and thereby for improvement in community services.

As the membership of meteorological societies is open to all sectors, IFMS is in a unique position to foster collaborative and learning opportunities at the international level among government, industry and academia. IFMS also aims to support capacity building in service development. The SW Pacific IFMS region (essentially Region V of the World Meteorological Organization [WMO]) is represented on IFMS Council by an AMOS member. There are however only three professional meteorological societies presently operating in the region, viz. Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

AMOS and other Australian meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic institutions, between them have a strong capability to assist with new education delivery mechanisms and information sharing modules, specifically targeted and useful to the region. New financing opportunities may also be opening up for supporting such activities.

Many countries in the SW Pacific region are small island states. Hence it may be appropriate to consider the notion of a SW Pacific Regional Meteorological Society, similar to regional entities that exist in Europe (EMS) and South America (FLISMET). Such a society could provide a useful non-governmental complement to the multi-lateral work of the South-West Pacific Regional Association of the WMO.