In PX115 our guest is Liz Mackevicius. Liz is an urban planner who has taken a new role as an organisational coach for those in the built environment industry. She will be leading the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) program ‘Pathway to Lead’. Information about the program, and the link to register for the session is: https://www.planning.org.au/eventsandcpdnew/additional-programs. It’s for consultants across Australia. An accredited organisational coach, Liz has built a reputation of strong but supportive coaching. She values accountability, acknowledging this is what helps us translate ..read more

In PX114, our interview guest is Anna Lowder, a co-founder and director of Hampstead, a New Urbanist community in Montgomery, Alabama, inspired by her experiences while living in London before returning to Montgomery. Established in 2008, the 416-acre master-planned residential and mixed-use development features homes, townhomes, condos, apartments, restaurants, shops, workspaces and a school, farm, and a lake. Anna helped Hampstead and Montgomery become the first neighborhood and largest city to adopt the SmartCode, an innovative zoning code that encourages diverse, mixed-use community for al ..read more

Episode PX113 of PlanningxChange is all about Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) aircraft, these are typically electric or hybrid powered, air taxis and the like. They have appeared in various science fiction films such as Blade Runner 2019 and Blade Runner 2049 (nicknamed ‘spinners’). They will soon be appearing above our cities and towns. Clem Newton-Brown our guest is CEO and founder of Skyportz (skyportz.com), the only Australian business developing a network of landing sites for a future air taxi network. Clem’s background as a former Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Member of Victorian Parlia ..read more

In PX112, our interview guest is Jessica Lee, a principal architect at Fender Katsalidis Architects (fkaustralia.com). Jessica discusses the ‘Alba’ project, the conversion of a 1970’s former office building into 150 rooms of age appropriate housing (retirement accommodation and aged care). The site is located within South Melbourne, an inner city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. The cost of the conversion was $125m (AU). Whilst not being significantly cheaper than a rebuild there were environmental savings according to Jessica. In the interview Jessica discusses the project from start ..read more

In PX111, our interview guest is Jesse Suskin, Head of Government Relations & Public Policy at Wing Aviation (https://wing.com). We talk all things drone delivery particularly the experience learnt in Logan Queensland, Australia where there has been extensive delivery operations over a lengthy time period. Wing Aviation is an offshoot of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. Jesse Suskin is the head of government relations and public policy in Australia for Wing, a company that sees a future where drone delivery is the safest, fastest and most environmentally friendly way to transport smal ..read more

In PX110, our interview guest is Professor Tim Parkin, we talk all things Roman, particularly their city life. Tim Parkin joined the Classics and Archaeology department at the University of Melbourne in 2018 as the inaugural Elizabeth and James Tatoulis Chair in Classics. Before this he had spent over 11 years as Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester (UK). Tim is a New Zealander by birth who was awarded a D.Phil. at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and who, since 1989, has worked in universities in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as spending over a year ..read more

In PX108, our interview guest is Dr Stefan Gruenert, the CEO of Odyssey House Victoria. Odyssey House Victoria is a state-wide, specialist treatment organisation dedicated to improving the lives of individuals who experience significant or long-term problems from alcohol and other drug use. Stefan describes the work of Odyssey House and the clients they serve. He talks of the various programs on offer. He describes how the OH facilities work and about the knowledge gained in providing effective treatment. Many drug and alcohol rehabilitation projects run the gauntlet of the development approva ..read more

In PX107, our interview guest is Kate Hardwick an exceptional planning professional originally from Australia who now works in South East Asia. Kate takes the listener on a fascinating journey describing her professional career. Along the way she offers tips to those starting out and also to those seeking a new direction after a number of years in the job. She talks of recognising and responding to cultural variations and social norms in many different countries. Also in gaining humility and the special ability often overlooked of actually listening and observing. Kate looks back on her early ..read more

In PX106, our interview guest is James Vincent who is the CTO at NCS NEXT Australia, a global digital, data and cloud services consultancy (https://www.ncs.co/en-au/next/). James is a senior people leader with 25 years’ commercial IT experience and an established authority in large-scale strategic transformation in enterprise environments and delivering business outcomes through technology. In this episode James shares four smart city technology solutions government could adopt to improve citizen services amid a rapidly growing urban population. Smart meters, sensor technology and AI in buildi ..read more

In PX104, our interview guest is Vanessa Schernickau, the Chief Executive Officer of the Geelong Regional Library Corporation (GRLC). The GRLC provides library and information services to residents and visitors across the Geelong region on behalf of five local government councils. The network consists of a central library, 18 community libraries, three mobile libraries and a website. It provides free, universal access to lifelong learning, reading and discovery.  The Geelong Library began in 1858 as part of the Mechanics Institute. Vanessa talks about her first library book and her l ..read more