SPEAKERS

Jennifer Cook

Jennifer Cook has been creating magnetic places and experiences for over 20 years.  As a former city marketer, festival director and now commercial place strategist, she brings a holistic approach to creating high performing, future fit places that deliver enduring value for all stakeholders.
 
Jennifer’s experience encompasses high profile places across Australia and New Zealand, from retail icons such as Pacific Fair, Rundle and Queen Street Malls, to urban mixed use precincts such as Quay Quarter Sydney and Sydney’s Western Harbour.

She is a Director of Australia’s first placemaking consultancy, Village Well, a leading national and international voice in the creation of places that thrive and endure over the long term for over 30 years.

Mike Fisher

Mike is the Place & City Transformation Manager at ChristchurchNZ and operates his own consultancy UrbanTacticians working with public, private and not for profit partners across the globe. He previously established Riverside Market in Christchurch, was the Manager of City Planning & Development and Placemaking Coordinator at the Adelaide City Council and the Team Leader Urban Regeneration at the Christchurch City Council.

Mike has qualifications in planning and sustainable development from Imperial College in London and Massey University in New Zealand.  Mike is an adjunct senior fellow at the University of Canterbury and is a regional leader for PlacemakingX. Mike is a member of NZ Urban Design Forum and was formally the chair of Te P?tahi - The Christchurch Centre for Architecture and City Making.

Chris Titford

Chris Titford grew up in Tamaki Makaurau and is proud to be making in impact in the city centre in his current role of Programme Manager Place Activation and Placemaking, in the Development Programme Office at Auckland Council. He has over a decade of event and experience management in Auckland, Shanghai and Melbourne working across government organisations, entertainment groups, creative agencies, universities, and education networks. Chris is a believer in the power of place and the value of supporting communities to drive its development.

Malcolm Snow

Malcolm is one of Australia’s leading urban designers acknowledged for the breadth of his professional experience and advocacy for making better cities. With qualifications in urban planning and landscape architecture, he has led major city revitalization programs in Australia, Asia, and the United Kingdom both as a consultant and an advisor to all spheres of government. 

In a career spanning 48 years Malcolm has (with others) been the recipient of more than twenty-eight state and national level awards for design and management excellence including the Australia Award for Urban Design four times.

He has held senior executive roles in both the private and public sectors including numerous Board directorships. Before joining the City Renewal Authority as its inaugural CEO in mid-2017, Malcolm was a National Director of international consulting firm Urbis. He is the former Chief Executive of both the National Capital Authority in Canberra and South Bank Corporation in Brisbane and was for a decade, the Head of Design for the City of Melbourne.

Arturo Ruiz

Callan Cameron

Callan is a Director of propella.ai, a PropTech company delivering customer and location intelligence insights for placemakers, property owners and developers, and all levels of government in Australia.
Drawing upon decades of property and placemaking experience at Macquarie Bank, Charter Hall and Walker Corporation, Callan works with the team of data scientists and engineers at propella.ai to generate new insight into how places are being used, when and by who. Understanding your customer is fundamental to successful placemaking outcomes, so propella.ai deliver a unique combination of psychographic, demographic, home location and human movement data to inform and support placemaking and property strategies.
It’s just as important to understand the unique commercial ecosystem within which a place is located, so propella use proprietary datasets and methodologies to analyse the supply and demand of people, infrastructure and retail businesses within the catchment area, to make predictions on the type of amenity, services and experiences that will bring benefit to the community and help create sustainable retail businesses.
Over the last 5 years at propella.ai, Callan has delivered these human centric data insights on many of Australia’s largest and most complex office, retail, residential and mixed-use projects.

Associate Professor Janet McGaw

Janet McGaw is an Associate Professor in Architectural Design in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. She is an award winning architect, a visual artist, and has a PhD by Creative Works. Janet's research work, teaching and creative practice investigate ways to make urban space more equitable and sustainable. She uses methods that are discursive, collaborative and sometimes ephemeral. Her current focus, in collaboration with Indigenous research partners, is exploring the relationship between 'place', identity and health. Janet is a member of the Working Group for the Yalinguth.

Andrew Coward

Andrew is an experienced placemaker, built environment strategist, and engagement specialist with over 15 years of experience working across Australia, South East Asia and Japan. With a focus on the nexus between place strategy and ‘real world’, on ground implementation, his consultancy works with a range of major Australasian development and funds management clients, local councils, state governments and community organisations to create thriving, successful destinations and vibrant, connected communities. Andrew is the Sydney District Council Chair of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a founding member of its Asia Pacific Placemaking Product Council, a member of the NSW Government’s 24-Hour Economy Advisory Group and was previously an advisory board member of the Design Futures Council in Australia. His consultancy recently won the Best Main Street Place Activation award in Australia as part of the 2023 Main Street Awards.

Dr. Simona Castricum

Dr. Simona Castricum is an architecture worker, musician, and radio broadcaster working in Naarm—Melbourne on Wurundjeri land of the Kulin Nation. Her cross-disciplinary practice reimagines the tactile, virtual, and affective conditions within the realms of bodies, architecture, space, and politics. In architecture, Simona is a spatial design consultant developing design justice methodologies in research-led architectural design, history, and theory. Through her practice, D4TGD—Design for Trans and Gender Diverse, Simona consults with industry, governance and academia in gendered spatial design through research-driven advocacy. This fosters connections for trans communities to actively shape public and civic spaces according to their distinctive needs, aspirations, and connections to place, urbanism, and civic life.

Andrew Hoyne

Andrew Hoyne is the Principal of Place Visioning, Property Branding and Marketing agency Hoyne – which he founded in 1991.

His firm consults to major Australian, New Zealand and international asset owners, developers and local councils to create recognisable landmarks and destinations. These projects range from residential towers and master-planned communities to commercial developments, new mixed-use precincts, and even cities.

Andrew is a proponent of the categorical link between good placemaking and better social and economic outcomes.

This passion that has led him to write and publish The Place Economy; a three book series of world leading thought leadership which looks at best practice placemaking and property development. Andrew is a regular speaker at Australian and international conferences, including SXSW, TEDx, ULI USA, the International Place Branding Association, Place Leaders Association and Urbanity – in cities ranging from New York, Washington DC, Berlin, Dublin, Auckland and Singapore.

Hoyne have been pivotal in bringing a commercial lens to placemaking through their Place Visioning service, as well as creating world first services including their Placebook reports, High Street CRP program, Traderhood process and PropTech innovation called WellVal.

Rob Adams AO

Ella du Plessis

Ella du Plessis is leading the Place Making and Urban Design program at Logan City Council, which coordinates, prioritises and implements place making capital and non-capital projects and programs holistically to promote good urban design outcomes, develop and deliver a placed based program of centre activations, rejuvenate activity centres and support place based economic and community growth opportunities across the activity centres and Priority Development Areas in the City of Logan.
Ella is passionate about creating vibrant places and spaces with improved amenity for all people. With more than 20 years in private practice and over 10 years in local government she has extensive experience in the delivery of several award-winning place making capital works projects, community engagement events, statutory planning, strategic land use planning, urban design projects, policy formulation & delivery of community master and precinct plans in both Australia and South Africa.

Stephen Burton

Emile Rademeyer

Emile Rademeyer is Executive Director, Creative Strategy at VANDAL in Sydney, Australia. As an international leader in digital placemaking, VANDAL transforms physical places and spaces with digital art, placemaking and experiences that change human behaviour

Named as Expert Partner in Digital Placemaking for the City of Sydney, Emile ensures VANDAL delivers the most innovative projects using moving image, sound, art, interactive and augmented reality experiences for public, commercial and retail environments. 

Highly motivated with excellent communication skills, Emile’s recognised talent earns international respect and he is regarded as one of Australia’s most prolific creative trailblazers.

Angela Koepp

Angela Koepp has been providing community and place- led design and activation for over 15 years.  Angela is a generalist who is uncompromising in her belief that the value of place is achieved through genuine listening and practical implementation with long term benefits.

Angela integrates her passion and experience in place, urban design, city- shaping and community engagement experience across Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, from large infrastructure projects to CBD and regional revitalisation to new communities.

She is a Principal at Hatch, a global practice creating Great Places and providing Urban Solutions from the ground up.

Jennifer Neales

Jennifer is a Registered Landscape Architect and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects with over 30 years private and public sector experience in the delivery of award winning urban design and placemaking projects across Australia. Prior to joining Logan City Council she was the Asia Pacific Technical Director for both Landscape Architecture and Infrastructure with RPS Pty Ltd and led the urban design and precinct planning teams on many high profile infrastructure projects across Australia.
Jennifer combines key credentials and skills in project positioning, precinct planning, urban design, community engagement, stakeholder management and project delivery. The quality and depth of her creative design and communication skills has been recognised by many project awards and her election to significant industry leadership positions. She has a strong network of positive working relationships across government and private industry and is respected for her innovative ideas, collaborative design approach and strong presentation skills.
Over the past three years she has been responsible for the successful delivery of several award winning placemaking projects across the City of Logan.

Jessica Christiansen-Franks

Jessica Christiansen-Franks is an award-winning technology leader, unlocking the power of big data and social analytics to transform cities around the world. As CEO and Founding Director of urban analytics company Neighbourlytics, Jess has combined cutting-edge data science with decades of experience in urban design, to reimagine the future of citymaking and property development.

Jess co-founded Neighbourlytics in 2017, as digital transformation was starting to shape the future of citymaking and urban design. Now used by the majority of Australia’s leading property developers, asset managers, and urban planners, Neighbourlytics’ proprietary technology fills a critical data gap, revealing insights into the unique local identity of neighbourhoods. The ground-breaking technology has scaled rapidly, today providing data and insights for more than 20,000 neighbourhoods across twelve different countries. The platform allows users to track the lifestyle footprints of neighbourhoods in real time and understand the changing social value of key assets and precincts, in order to create places people love and feel connected to.

A qualified urban designer and landscape architect, Jess has dedicated her career to understanding the social implications of urbanisation, including identity construction in existing and emerging communities and the creation of social capital and connection. Prior to Neighbourlytics, Jess spent 15 years driving innovation across the property industry, working with companies, governments, institutions and civil society across Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. She has worked on some of the world’s most complex and notable urban development projects, including Ho Chi Minh City BRT Transport and Land Use Study, the Port Melbourne Waterfront Urban Design Framework, and Brisbane's Vibrant Laneways and Small Scale Spaces Strategy. A respected leader in her field, Jess has held various board and advisory positions including on the Smart Cities Council and the Placemaking Leadership Council. She is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia, and continues to be a trusted voice on innovation and digital transformation, and human-centred design across the industry

Tim Hunt

Using design thinking, Tim has a desire to put people at the centre of every strategic decision, continuously improving how humans interact with our cities after dark.

With a background in industrial design, Tim Hunt leads Arup’s Lighting, and recently the Digital team, in Melbourne. He likes to innovate and challenge convention to find new ways of approaching problems through creativity, research, testing and embracing new technologies.

Tim has worked across Arup’s Sydney, London and Melbourne offices which has given him both local and international experience across a diverse range of projects, including concept design and masterplan strategy for education, detailed design for award-winning sustainable workplaces, international retail lighting experience, and the design, fabrication, and commissioning of light art installations. This diverse, international portfolio has provided him with the ability to develop strong relationships and build trust with his clients, allowing him challenge briefs and push boundaries, working with them to solve challenges and create inspiring spaces. More recently, technology and applied research has enabled Tim to pioneer new ways of designing for after dark, demonstrating how participatory approaches can lead to more inclusive and culturally relevant placemaking initiatives.

Jason Tamiru

Jason Tamiru is a proud Yorta Yorta man passionate about his people and culture. He has worked with many of Melbourne’s most iconic performing arts companies, museums and festivals. As a producer he supports his people’s creativity by building frameworks that complement cultural expressions. Jason is influenced by anything and everything that stimulates his spirit and soul, and he works to inspire the same passion amongst his community and peers. He's worked at the MTC, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Malthouse Theatre, City of Yarra, Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sports and Recreation (MAYSAR), Melbourne Museum, North West Nations, and The Royal Botanical Gardens. He is a Creative Director of Yalinguth.

Kyle Barrie

Kyle is Stantec’s Practice Leader – Economics, providing strategic development and economic advice on a range of multi-disciplinary regeneration and infrastructure led projects across the public and private sectors. Kyle is responsible for developing Stantec’s Economics service across ANZ and operates throughout Stantec’s global business, building on his extensive experience of and reputation for giving strategic advice on multi-disciplinary projects, business cases, and regeneration projects. As an applied urban economist Kyle's expertise lies in understanding the relationship between economic development, land use, and urban public policy, with specific experience in securing infrastructure funding that has gone onto shape several local economies.

Nick Veitch

Nick is the Managing Director of Veitch Lister Consulting (VLC) and Founder of the geospatial analytics and insights platform Planwisely, an award-winning platform that empowers planners to shape better places by transforming data into real-world insights.

His 20+ year career has seen him develop experience in both management and technical roles – since 2014 Nick has been in C-Level roles across VLC, leading a multi-disciplinary team of over 65 professionals across Australia and the UK. 

Nick is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM) and is the Immediate Past National Chair of the AITPM Transport Modelling Network.

Jeni Paay


Professor Jeni Paay is a leading international researcher in Human Centred Computing. She is Professor of Interaction Design at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. She is Director of the Centre for Design Innovation in the School of Design and Architecture. She also a Program Director in the Innovative Planet Research Institute, for the “Future Urban Living” program. Jeni has a transdisciplinary background spanning architecture, computer science, and Human-Computer Interaction. Her research areas include Design Methods, Interaction Design for Mobiles, Applied Augmented and Virtual Reality, Digital Health, Interaction Design for Smart Spaces, Remote Collaboration and User Experience Design.

Dr Louise Grimmer

Dr Louise Grimmer is one of Australia’s leading retail researchers, focusing on main streets and shopping precincts, regional and small city retailing, small stores and consumer shopping behaviour. Louise received a Fulbright Scholarship and is Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management in the UK. She has a PhD in retail marketing and a Master of Arts in Public Relations and Communications. Louise’s research is published internationally and she is regularly featured in the national media. She has worked as a national radio presenter for the ABC, a newsreader for Australian Radio Network, she is the ‘Retail Therapy’ columnist in TasWeekend and her book ‘Beautiful small stores of Tasmania’ is forthcoming. Louise also runs the retail consultancy ‘Shopology’ working with local government, trader associations and retailers to revitalise local shopping areas and make retail places great for everyone.

Geoff Trensky

Geoff Trensky is a multidisciplined design practitioner having held senior roles client side and in a variety of well-known design studios consulting in digital experience, architecture, interiors, industrial design, interpretative environments, public art and wayfinding. Currently a Director of Urban Screen Productions, Urban Creative Agency and Perimeter Design currently contracted to several Victorian infrastructure and Local Government projects.

The natural point of departure of my practice is the experience of users. Who are they, what are their purposes and interests? 

A foundational theme underpinning the work is, as Charles Eames is famously quoted ‘recognition and understanding of the problem is the primary condition of the creative act’.

Supplementary themes are;

1. What exists that is excellent and what can be improved? 
2. What is the project context and what are the important relationships? (Bearing in mind this often extends outside of the project scope or boundary)

I’m curious about the semiotic cues informing decision making, movement patterns and behaviour. Knowledge we then apply to the creation of engaging and meaningful user experiences.

Heath Gledhill

A passionate integrated strategist committed to unlocking hidden value, overcoming financial and operational challenges and driving evocative yet practical solutions, Heath draws on his qualifications in both design, management and business, to drive successful project solutions. Heath brings to all project teams his experience in both the public and private sector. He utilises his broad knowledge by adapting to the multiple situations which complex and multi-disciplinary design generates on each project – understanding their respective agendas and sensitivities. He utilises his strong interpersonal and negotiation skills to ensure better collaboration and the successful delivery of projects. His success in assuring the client of a positive result is underpinned by a rigorous attention to detail, passion for delivery of project outcomes, together with excellent client relationship skills and organisation. Having spent much of his career on engaged with complex city shaping projects both Australia and internationally, Heath focuses on community-centred design and functionality, bridging the gap between engineering design, built form and the community, ensuring all design proposals are considerate of People, Movement and Place.