On Thursday 30 September 2021, Wyndham City Council in Melbourne, Australia was recognised for their commitment to lifelong learning by the Alliance for Asia-Pacific Learning Cities (APLC).

In this issue of Ripples we pay tribute to Dr. Ken Thompson, Chair of the Hume Global Learning Community, friend and Executive member of ALCN. We also report on the results of the recent Wyndham Learning Festival and entrepreneurial learning in the City of Hume.

The role of learning cities in meeting today’s challenges for a better future has been a dominant theme in PASCAL work on learning throughout the period 2017 to 2021. This theme has been given urgency and direction by developments during this period, especially the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, while demographic change with ageing populations, the growing impact of the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, and the pace of change, in their cumulative impact have brought this sense of a time of disruption and turbulence with the world out of control.

This issue of the Bulletin is unusually long and diverse. Readers are reminded that it is an open access publication. Anyone is welcome to share it, in full or a particular article or passage, acknowledging the original PIMA source.

How will we remember 2021? The year of COVID-19 (variant Delta) and what it meant to oneself, one’s family, community, life, work, even country?. Maybe if we are in educational settings - school, community centre, or higher education institution (HEI) - for its transformative effect on teaching methods, market appeal, loss of income and insecurity of employment?