2023 Event Highlights
Day One Overview
After the opening discussion with Dee Isaacs, 4Sight - Part of SLR, Jade Kake, Matakohe Architecture and Alan Titchener member, Ngā Aho, on the notion of urbanism from a Māori community perspective at the conference dinner, the programme was launched with Dr Danièle Hromek, Director Djinjama, Sydney, Henriette Vamberg, Partner and Managing Director, Gehl Copenhagen, and Jason Twill LEED Fellow, President Urban Apostles, USA discussing their views on our urban future. We learnt that if we care for Country, it will care for us; action to solve the 'Bermuda Triangle of Health' for our young people; and we can feel homesick without even leaving our home.
This was followed by the always insightful Dr Tony Matthews, Griffith University Brisbane, who outlined how rare but impactful transformative stressors such as the pandemic and major weather events like floods and cyclones are catastrophic for cities because it exposes the weaknesses in our systems. The day followed with panels discussing a range of topics such as the impact of the deluge weather event on the city of Auckland; health and sustainability outcomes; and generational change within the urban development sector.
Breakouts covered our topics on Mana-enhancing, liveable communities and regenerative urbanism. The day ended with member associations answering our challenge on how they will contribute to the collective discussion and action on urbanism for Aotearoa, in addition to a reflection on what has happened within the sector from when we last met in 2018.
In the evening, our networking event held at Tāmaki Paenga Hira, the Auckland War Memorial Museum and was a great opportunity for quality time to chat and catch up with old colleagues and new.
Scroll using the arrows to checkout the photos from day one.
Key Takeout Summaries
Session chairs from each topic reported back to the group at the end of each day - click below for a summary of these key takeouts.
Day Two Overview
Our Friday programme opened with a panel discussion on urban mobility and accessibility with Chief Possibility Officer Minnie Baragwanath, challenging us to design for all abilities; and Chris Bruntlett, Communications Manager for the Dutch Cycling Embassy joining us virtually from the Netherlands to share his knowledge and practical lessons for making our cities better places to work and live. We also heard the developer perspective on necessary conversation the sector needs to have from the very experienced Bernadette Pinnell and Nigel McKenna. Then the political perspective, which was both challenging and collegiate, from the Hons Michael Wood, Julie Ann Genter, and Chris Bishop.
Our breakout sessions included topics such as the place shaping role of transport; delivering wellbeing in our neighbourhoods; urban regeneration projects where Eke Panuku have partnered closely with mana whenua; disruptive technologies; democratising city design; unpicking mythical Europe; the real value of land; medium density housing; a step change in growth management in Queenstown; urban designers as placemakers; and the four ingredients to revitalising urban spaces.
The day closed with a review of our key takeouts of the sessions, delegate polls and wordcloud describing your key message from the conference that included Hope, Change and How.
Scroll using the arrows to checkout the photos from day two.
Speaker Presentations
A limited number of speakers have made their presentations available for review.