State of the Cities – Unlocking the Data
27 to 29 May 2009 – Melbourne
What did the conference program address?
Conference speakers
Questions and answers from the message board
Charts and photos
The next State of the Cities – Unlocking the Data conference
Useful links contributed by speakers and delegates
27 to 29 May 2009 – Melbourne
The State of the Cities – Unlocking the Data conference was held in Melbourne from 27 to 29 May 2009.
About 100 delegates from around Australia and overseas heard a range of international and national speakers and shared their ideas in a series of interactive sessions.
What did the conference program address?
- Measuring cities’ progress on sustainability, transport, physical and social infrastructure, global engagement, tourism, city safety and security.
- Opportunities for improving the availability, quality and consistency of city related information to all levels of government.
- What cities can achieve by working together.
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Conference speakers
Ms Dorte Ekelund – The head of the Federal Government's Major Cities Unit in the Office of Infrastructure Australia. The unit coordinates action across all spheres of government, the private sector and the community to improve the prosperity, liveability and sustainability of our major cities.
Ms Kate Scrivens – Researcher at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she is part of the Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies. The project aims to develop more meaningful indicators of societal progress and ensure measures are used to inform citizens and policy makers.
Professor Jane Marceau – Visiting Professor at the City Futures research centre, University of New South Wales. She led the team which authored The High Road or the Low Road? Alternatives for Australia's Future which was the catalyst for the national debate about the importance of innovation for prosperity in the 21st century.
Professor John Wiseman – Director of the McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Peter Newton – Researcher in the Cities, Housing and Environment Program in the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology.
Ms Helen King – Manager Housing Planning at the Department of Planning and Community Development. She manages the Housing Growth Requirement initiative, which focuses on the provision of additional housing within Melbourne’s established suburbs.
Mr Rob Knox – Mr Knox leads Mercer's information business in Australia and New Zealand, which provides research initiatives combined with technology and expertise to help its clients deliver on their people strategies. He is also Principal in the business and is a member of Mercer's Operating Committee for the Australia / New Zealand business.
Jon Ward – Environmental scientist with 30 years experience. He is Manager of Environmental Policy for Toyota Australia, responsible for corporate environmental affairs, including climate change strategy, sustainability reporting and company wide EMS.
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Charts and photos
Charts, documents and photos from the three workshop sessions can be viewed and downloaded from Now for Future's website. Please use the password provided to you at the conference by Now for Future.
Questions and answers from the message board
We set up a message board at Unlocking the Data for delegates to ask additional questions of our speakers.
Q. One conference goer asked how to keep stakeholders involved in long-term projects? How to deal with the ‘time politics’ involved and how to fund? They also asked for any international evidence and advice?
A. Kate Scrivens from the OECD answered: Complicated question! As John Wiseman said this morning it’s all about managing relationships, which takes time. In Santa Cruz, the process of bringing different stakeholders together to discuss a framework and select indicators took two years. However, it meant that very solid relationships and ‘buy in’ had been created between public and private stakeholders. For information on this initiative google ‘Applied Survey Research Santa Cruz’, but please do look at the CIV website for advice.
Q. Asked to Rob Knox, Mercer: If you were developing a Quality of Life index for regional (non-metropolitan) cities what would be the three key things you would include?
A. Rob answered
- essential services (e.g. banking, postal, health, schools, etc.)
- connectedness to the major metropolitan [areas] (e.g. train, bus, air services)
- population growth and demographic shift (age)
- however, I would want to consult.
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The next State of the Cities – Unlocking the Data conference
The next conference is planned for post June 2011. The date will be confirmed in the coming months.
Useful links contributed by speakers and delegates
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