- I volunteered at and attended the Heritage BC & Arts BC conference on Granville Island called "PlaceMaking: Where Arts and Heritage Collide." It was a great event that was brilliantly conceived and well-placed! I was delighted to attend and play a small role.
- I went to the final Urbanarium Debate of the season Let experts Plan exploring the arguments of more public engagement versus more professional input - both were right. I subsequently got caught up on recordings of prior debates regarding equitable densification, legislating housing affordability, building fewer towers, and creating a City-wide plan in Vancouver. The debates are promised to travel throughout Metro Vancouver next season!
- I explored the Museum of Vancouver's (such a nice spot) exhibition and lecture on Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver.
- I was introduced to Gro-Carts (mobile gardens) at the Surrey Social Policy Advisory group among other innovative movements in Surrey. There were interesting side conversations around the stigma and social rules we have attached to grocery carts. I enjoyed the imagery of growing food inside the cart we usually haul groceries.
- While I have not read the new book yet, I went to the launch of James Hoggan's provocatively titled "I'm right and You're an Idiot: The toxic state of public discourse and how to clean it up." The most pressing environmental problem we face today is not climate change. It is pollution in the public square, where a smog of adversarial rhetoric, propaganda, and polarization stifles discussion and debate, creating resistance to change and thwarting our ability to solve our collective problems.
- I attended another great BC Non-profit Housing Association event. The Lower Mainland RENT (regional education, networking & trade show) which highlighted a lot of local affordable housing issues.
I attended:
- Tamarack's webinar on Promise Neighborhoods hosted by Michael McAfee, Vice President for Programs at PolicyLink and Co-Director of Promise Neighbourhoods Institute
- ULI's webinar on Using leadership and strategic thinking to create urban change with Kimber Lanning, founder and executive director of Local First Arizona
- Tamarack's webinar on Resilience and Space with Emily Munroe, Executive Director of 8-80 Cities and community space innovator
- Tamarack's webinar on Resilience and Measurement with Professor Josh Yates, urban analyst, cultural sociologist and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia
- Tamarack's webinar on Gearing up for Social Impact with Brenton Caffin, Nesta’s Director of Innovation Skills and Tim Draimin, Executive Director of Social Innovation Generation (SIG) National
- Learned more about the PlaceSpeak engagement website through a webinar introducing the many functions and feature - with the special benefit of verifying its users
- Charity Village's webinar on Questions Non-Profit Directors should ask about Fundraising and Marketing with Lelia MacDonald, Management Advisory Services (MAS)
- SFU's Next Generation Transportation webinar From Hair-Raising to Family Friendly: How Calgary built its cycle-track network. with Ryan Martinson, Stantec’s Calgary office
- American Planning Association's webinar on Bringing Planning to School with Jean Linsner, Gabrielle Lyon, PhD, John Martoni. and Jacqueline A. Reid, AICP
- Tamarack's webinar on Is your community ready for Collective Impact with Liz Weaver and Joseph “Jay” Conner
- Tamarack's webinar on Homecoming, Gifts and Rootedness: Coming Home to the wonder of a place based world with Sophia Horowitz, Researcher and author Placemaking Canada and Heidi Clelland Sauer, Landscape Architect Breathing