Cities are laboratories for emerging ideas, innovation, prototyping, action and impact.

How can urban innovation districts harness and commercialise the knowledge, creativity and ideas from their most innovative and diverse people and institutions? How can startups, investors, SMEs, big corporates and innovators play a role in shaping places and culture where innovation thrives?

Innovation districts are reshaping and regenerating parts of Australian cities, creating and attracting new high quality jobs in accessible locations. The event will introduce Australian startups and founders to design ideas for future innovation districts, campuses and workplaces.

From Tech Central (NSW Government) to the Greenhouse at Circular Quay (City of Sydney), hear from experts in citymaking, design and architecture who will present and discuss their insights.

This Spark Festival event is hosted by the Sydney Global Shapers as part of the 10 Year Anniversary of the Global Shapers community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

SPEAKERS

HY William Chan
Sydney Curator, Global Shapers, World Economic Forum
Forbes 30 Under 30 Honouree in Industry, Manufacturing and Energy

Cr Prof Philip Thalis
Independent Councillor, City of Sydney
Founding Principal, Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects

Lucy Booth
Co-Founder and COO, Giraffe Technology
CEO, Urban Pinboard

Matthew Proft
Director, Tech Central – Innovation District, Greater Sydney Commission, NSW Government

Amy Persson
Head of Government Relations, Office of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

BIOS

HY William Chan is an architect, futurist and citymaker. For over a decade, William has empowered people to shape the cities of the future, championing social inclusion and climate resilience. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree with experience with the United Nations on sustainable cities and development. A Global Public Leadership Fellow with the World Economic Forum, he also leads the Global Shapers community in Sydney, driving impact and innovation with emerging social entrepreneurs and the local startup ecosystem. William is an independent candidate for the 2021 City of Sydney council elections.

Cr Prof Philip Thalis is an architect, urban design leader and advocate for design excellence in architecture and the public domain. Philip is the founding principal of Hill Thalis. Leading multidisciplinary teams, he planned the waterfront park and designed pavilion structures in Pirrama Park, framed the Sydney Green Games agenda with his competition winning proposal for the Sydney Olympic Village, and won the initial international competition for the Barangaroo site. In addition to practice, Philip is an independent councillor at the City of Sydney and professor of practice (fractional) at UNSW Built Environment.

Lucy Booth is an urban planner who has worked at COX Architecture for over 8 years on the design and delivery of large infrastructure, urban design and strategic planning projects. Lucy is the CEO of Urban Pinboard and a co-founder of a proptech company called Giraffe, a platform created to arm the development industry with computational design tools and data to make decisions about the built environment. She is passionate about finding better ways to understand the opportunity in cities and more effectively encourage collaboration and data-driven design and decision making.

Matthew Proft is currently a Director on the Tech Central – Innovation District project for the NSW Government, focused on ecosystem activation and delivering affordable work space in this district for startups and scaleups. Prior to this role Matthew led the NSW Government's startup funding programs. Prior to the NSW Government, Matthew was the founder of market entry consultancy for startups, together with more than 14 years in Interational trade focused roles in Australia and in S/E Asia.

Amy Persson is a public policy specialist who has worked across the private, public and not for profit sectors. Amy is currently head of Government Relations at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), which is an anchor tenant of Tech Central and instrumental to the precinct’s vibrancy. Prior to this Amy undertook various Executive Director roles in the NSW Government, overseeing the concept development for the Greater Sydney Commission, heading up the Cities Branch to better integrate transport, planning and social infrastructure decisions, and running the Behavioural Insights Unit and Office of Social Impact.

You may be photographed or video while attending this event: please approach the organiser if you have questions, concerns, or do not wish this to happen.

The event organisers may add you to a mailing list so they can follow up, and you can receive updates about their activities: this mailing list will have an easy-to-find unsubscribe button.

This event is part of Spark Festival and upholds the Spark Code of Conduct.