Women of ABP: The Future of Smart Cities - Smart or Dumb?

The concept of efficiently run ‘smart cities’, driven by increasingly powerful data networks, has dominated much of the conversation around how our urban conglomerations might develop in the future. However, smart cities come with their own set of challenges – from data privacy and surveillance issues to concerns around technology maintenance, costs, and the complexities of managing immense IT systems that run entire cities.

Join us for this panel conversation, as our speakers examine the idea of smart cities – and the importance of low-tech solutions based on ancient knowledge, which would move us to a closer symbiosis with nature. Is the future of our ever-growing cities smart, dumb – or a combination of both approaches?

Our speakers are:

Rebecca Finn - Director, UrbanFold

Rebecca is an urban designer and registered landscape architect with significant experience in the design of cities, towns and neighbourhoods across Australia and North America. She launched UrbanFold in 2020, a Melbourne-based urban design studio with the single, simple aim – to design places that elevate urban life. We work with clients and communities who plan for, invest in, design, develop and build cities. A landscape architect first, Rebecca brings with her a deep appreciation of the natural environment and ecological processes.

Clare Parry - Better Buildings Lead, HIP V. HYPE

As Better Buildings Lead with HIP V. HYPE, Clare seeks to provide advice on improving health, comfort and efficiency outcomes for our built environment. Clare believes that our buildings should serve us without detracting from the living systems we are a part of, and she seeks to harness opportunities and consider constraints to deliver a lower-carbon, more systems-integrated outcome. Clare’s favourite part of any project is challenging assumptions about how things ‘should’ be done; habits are hard to break and silos are the norm.

Madelyn Eads-Dorsey - Manager Project Management & Delivery, City of Stonnington

Madelyn oversees a team of 22 project managers, engineers and landscape architects who collectively deliver $70M in capital works throughout the City of Stonnington each year. She enjoys working in local government where even small projects have a huge impact on people. Madelyn was the project manager on the Prahran Square development which transformed an old car park into 9,000 square meters of public open space.

Tim O’Loan - Director (Cities), Aecom

Tim leads AECOM’s Cities program across Australia and New Zealand, which seeks to unlock critical urban infrastructure opportunities within our 'priority cities'. Tim has worked on significant national and international integrated developments and master planning projects in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Most recently Tim is focused on the Fishermans Bend Employment and Innovation District in Melbourne, the Melbourne Cricket Ground Deck Concept project, also in Melbourne, and is a proud member of the Creative Director team for the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

The panel conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A. Please note, we kindly ask that you submit two questions for the Q&A with your RSVP. Although providing questions is not mandatory, we look forward to your contributions. Your question will be anonymous and may be posed to the panel through the panel moderators. If time permits, questions will also be invited from the audience on the night.