I’m so excited to share with you the program for next month’s conference, The City Transformed: urban life at the end of the world as we know it.

With over 50 speakers from around Australia, including several of our wonderful MPs, councillors and Ministers, some globally-renowned experts, lots of amazing grassroots activists, and all sorts of people with inspiring ideas to share, this is a program (subject to change, I have to note) that I know will get lots of you booking your tickets straight away.

Along with the keynotes we announced last week from Mary Graham and Michelle Maloney, David Schlosberg, and Susan Harris Rimmer, I can now tell you about a whole lot more, including:

• a panel on Protest and the City with Senator Larissa Waters, the Human Rights Law Centre’s David Mejia-Canales and Violet Coco
• a session on Democratic Transformation Through Crisis with Mark Diesendorf on the ecological crisis, Dr Rajni Gamage and Anna Carlson on the experience of Sri Lanka in crisis, and Minister Emma Davidson on governing in the Covid crisis
• two sessions on the transformative capacity of urban agriculture with presenters including Food Connect’s Robert Pekin, Kuppibunda Kitchen’s Kara Pulou, Growing Forwards’ Tim Edmonds, Ainslie Urban Farm’s Fiona Buining and others
• two sessions on transforming transport to transform the city with Brisbane City Councillor Trina Massey, Pedal Power’s Dr Simon Copland, FoE’s Elyse Cunningham, the Climate Council’s Hollie Cheung and others
• two sessions on various aspects of how caring can transform cities and us, including Wendy Aghdam on engaging young people to avoid the justice system, Dr Emma Heard on how place-based arts can bring communities together, and Dr Kat Lucas-Healey and Dr Wendy Russell on community energy systems
• workshops on participatory governance with Jonno Sriranganathan, consensus decision-making with Senator Janet Rice, multicultural organising with Apsara Sabaratnam, Andrew Braddock MLA and Tharini Apolliine Rouwette, and imagining transformed cities with Dr Ed Morgan and Dr Natalie Osborne and colleagues.

And that’s just a taste of the 20 sessions across two days that we’re bringing to you at Griffith Uni South Bank on August 18 and 19.

Full program here

I can also tell you that the incredible and hilarious Mandy Nolan will be hosting our Friday evening event, with special guests including Michael Berkman and others to be confirmed!

For those who’ve been asking, yes we will make some of the conference available online. Unfortunately, technology and capacity being what they are, we will only be able to broadcast online (and receive comments and questions) from one room – the plenary hall. We will make cheap online-only tickets available soon for those who can’t make it to Brisbane / Meeanjin for the event.

For everyone else, I do strongly encourage you to get your ticket straight away. Places are strictly limited to just under 200, due to the capacity of the space, and we’ve already sold quite a chunk of them.

Get your ticket here today

Looking forward to seeing you soon for this fantastic event,

Tim