Events Round Up
There’s been a flurry of good quality seminars and professional events in Adelaide lately - thoughtful topics, strong speakers, and well attended. A reminder that while knowledge is power, perhaps people mostly just want to get together and talk!
Norman Waterhouse LG Conference
This month Norman Waterhouse once again hosted its Planning, Development & Environment stream as part of its Local Government Conference, providing a focused session attracting mostly local government planning professionals.
While I’m not usually one for case law updates, Gavin Leydon and the team are good at keeping the planning law stories moving quickly and with occasionally entertaining remarks. The serial offenders out there lopping significant trees and not caring about the criminal convictions or the fines is a worry…
UDIA Infrastructure Schemes - Government Progress, Industry Questions
The Planning Development and Infrastructure Act of 2016 enabled Infrastructure Schemes - to plan and fund essential infrastructure in growth areas - to be introduced in South Australia, but nine years on we still don’t have one.
David Reynolds of the Department for Housing and Urban Development gave a good overview of the Infrastructure Scheme model that exists, and was relatively candid about progress to date. Was the group of development professionals in room thinking: "if the idea is so good why can’t we get one finished?"
Mainstreet SA Twilight Tour - King William Road, Unley
Jensen PLUS are a long-time supporter of Mainstreet SA and we were excited to join the Twilight Walking Tour of the King William Road precinct in Unley, seeing and hearing about the streetscape, pedestrian movement, retail and business mix (and history), public art and emerging redevelopments.
The street and bars were busy with people (and sometimes traffic) and KWRd definitely had a buzz about it. We’ve recently been working with the City of Unley and the main street business groups on decorative lighting ideas for the City’s four main streets, so twilight was a great time of day to be there. Well done Mainstreet SA, more of these events please!
2025 National Transport Conference: Movement for Thriving Communities
Adelaide welcomed back the freshly rebranded Transport Professionals Association (formerly AITPM) for their national transport conference. We joined conversations on how movement and mobility shape community vitality - from active transport to integrated transit, place-based planning and equitable access. The story about Wellington NZ’s new bike network and the community engagement process to get there was a highlight.
Conferences like this are hard to make the time for… but valuable from both strategic and technical standpoints: hearing case studies from across Australia, new modelling tools, and debates about priority setting in transport investment. And we get to meet up with old friends! The bike racks outside the Adelaide Convention Centre were full during the conference - a good sign - and we’re expecting to see some new racks soon, ready for the next event.
EVOLUTION: PIA South Australia State Conference 2025 and The Good City
PIA’s one-day planning conferences pack a lot in, and MC Anna Deller-Coombs did a great job weaving it all together. Another well-attended day out at the racecourse for planners in SA, with some useful project case studies and topics on the programme.
Jensen PLUS were proud to be a sponsor of the event and to see our old friend and Noarlunga’s old friend (and master planner) John Byrne. On his visit he gave a wide-ranging talk advocating for urban design in planning and what he called ‘’The Good City’’. It’s a phrase we like and maybe we’ll use sometime…thanks John.