PUBLIC REALM & URBAN SPACES Smart Class 2022

Sponsored by
Brightly Software
Project Centre
Telensa

Details

The public realm is defined as the space around, between and within buildings that are publicly accessible, including streets, squares, parks, footpaths, pavements and open spaces. These are the everyday spaces that we move through and socialise within, the places where we live, work and play. Approximately 85% of residents feel that the quality of public space and the built environment has a direct impact on their lives and on the way they feel. A smart space is a physical or digital environment in which humans and technology-enabled systems interact in increasingly open, connected, coordinated and intelligent ecosystems. Multiple elements – including people, processes, services and things – come together in a smart space to create a more immersive, interactive and automated experience for a target set of people and scenarios.

A brand new addition to our events portfolio, PUBLIC REALM & URBAN SPACES Smart Classes show key buyer side stakeholders how to harness innovation, technology, data science and design to create the next generation of smarter spaces and places in our cities and regions.

Qualifying delegates include commissioning, procurement, trialling, partnering and policy leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers, planners, place makers, architects, green space managers, urban designers, highways & street scene, transport & mobility and high streets & regeneration professionals from councils and local authorities (city, borough, metropolitan, district, county and combined); people and place partnerships; developers, landowners and creators of privately owned public spaces; prime contractors and city centre management companies; DfT, DEFRA, MHCLG, EA and supporting governmental bodies; transport authorities, highways agencies and public transport operators; civic organisations and community groups; and other key players from the public realm ecosystem with responsibility for managing, maintaining and operating our streets, squares, forecourts, parks, pathways, retail centres, car parks, airports, ports, travel hubs, hospitals, housing estates, campuses, communal gardens and the assets contained within these public or semi-public spaces.

Core themes range from connected LED street lighting, intelligent lighting of buildings, smart IoT enabled lamp posts and litter bins, smart urban furniture (benches, chairs, tables etc) and greening solutions (living walls and pillars, green corridors etc), and utilizing data to transform unused or ‘dumb’ spaces, to digital displays and signage (for streets, shop fronts, parks etc), interactive road crossings, parking and traffic management, civil enforcement technologies, outdoor fitness systems, innovative playscapes, and the future role of 5G in the proliferation of digital technology in the public realm. We’ll explore deploying digital technologies, data driven insights and progressive design to support a variety of objectives (e.g. bringing nature and the environmental benefits to the built environment; addressing crime and safety; reducing street clutter; managing kerbs and drainage; calming traffic, and promoting cycling and active travel; improving maintenance regimes; encouraging behavioural change and inclusivity; increasing commercial opportunities; creating clusters, flexible workspaces and innovation districts; protecting legacy and heritage etc) and also examine how innovation can help the public realm to implement temporary changes and adapt to a Covid and post-Covid world (e.g. predicting footfall with technologies designed to monitor density; optimising navigation routing to help balance necessary urban traffic with pedestrianised zones; maintaining social distancing with electronic tags, track and tracing applications, and CCTV; repurposing spaces and recovering high streets; using 3D visualisation and digital twins to understand the implications of change).

PUBLIC REALM & URBAN SPACES Smart Class 2022 will be hosted in London at Greencoat Place Conference Centre on Thursday July 7th. Delegates will hear from industry movers, shapers and disruptors during initial rapid-fire thought leadership presentations, before moving on to in-depth consultations with experts and peers during the roundtable discussions. In addition, the Smart Class will feature up to 3 keynote presentations from major buyer side stakeholders (e.g. progressive city and borough councils, a place partnership, POPS creator, development corporation or public body of government) giving real world insight into their collaborative initiatives, digital journeys and adoptions of transformative technology and design. This half day in-person event is free to attend for bona fide delegates satisfying our registration criteria.

Speakers

“Enhanced People Focussed Environments through Intelligent Lighting and Temporary Greening and Seating Measures” – In this keynote presentation, Clarisse Tavin, Group Manager – Major Programmes and Projects, from the Policy and Projects Division at the City of London, will discuss 2 major pieces of work that she’s developing in the Square Mile:

  • The innovative City Lighting Strategy is the first borough wide Lighting Strategy in London and provides full and flexible control of the LED fittings. Remotely operated lighting complements the look of historic buildings, improves energy usage and helps tackle light pollution. The Strategy developed with Speirs Mayor Architecture Light looks at a shift of thinking in celebrating and balancing light and darkness. Clarisse will explore how smart lighting technology can be used to provide enhanced and more flexible lighting after dark, improve the environmental impact as well as health & wellbeing, and protect wild life – without compromising safety and security.
  • Parklets and the Greening and Seating measures delivered during the pandemic to support social distancing and businesses in making the City more welcoming as well as providing a flexible outdoor space. Clarisse will explain how providing safer spaces and a welcoming environment for people walking and dwelling in the City can contribute to supporting businesses in their return to work, and the City’s post-pandemic recovery.
- Clarisse Tavin

SHIFT: London’s Living Testbed and Building the World’s 1st ‘Inclusive Innovation District’ at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park” – Global climate, economic and social crises present an imminent and unprecedented threat to our towns and cities. But with every challenge comes the opportunity to innovate. SHIFT’s mission is to bring people together to find solutions to these challenges and build better, healthier and more sustainable cities for future generations – and it’s aiming to do so using the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a living testbed.

10 years on from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the creation of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has seen world class sporting and entertainment venues built, new neighbourhoods and business districts erected and inhabited, and unrivalled award winning parklands planted. The setting at the Park includes 560 acres of the perfect blend of public realm, roads and cycle paths, rivers and canals – largely under public ownership and management which presents the opportunity to trial new technology and products that can improve our collective experience of the city.

Shift is the Park’s innovation programme and collective of world-leading organisations, thinkers and creatives who are united by a shared vision to tackle global crises and improve the future of urban living for all. Founding partners include University College London (UCL), University of the Arts London (UAL), London College of Fashion, Loughborough University in London, Lendlease, Here East, Plexal and the London Legacy Development Corporation.

By combining resources, expertise and networks, Shift aims to attract global investment to Stratford, turbocharge innovation and find solutions to local problems that can be scaled up and applied globally. At the heart of SHIFT’s approach is the public/communities and sustainable outcomes are at the heart of innovation. The key focus areas are response to the climate emergency in cities, health and wellbeing and transport of people and goods. This keynote from Francesca Colloca – Head of Innovation – SHIFT for the London Legacy Development Corporation – will detail the approach to inclusive innovation and highlight some of the key innovation trials happening on the Park.

- Francesca Colloca

“Growth, Drivers for Change and the Importance of Public Realm for City Centres: A Case Study of Central Milton Keynes – Practice and Opportunities” – Given drivers for change such as the covid pandemic, sustainability, health and wellbeing, and changes to the way we shop, the need for high quality public realm within city centres plays an increasingly critical role. This keynote from Neil Sainsbury, Head of Placemaking at Milton Keynes Council, will outline how the significant forecast growth for the city provides an additional key role for high quality public realm, not only to address these drivers for change but to support and provide for this growth. The presentation will explore existing ideas and proposals provided by developers as well as Milton Keynes Council and will also outline unique opportunities presented within Central Milton Keynes to repurpose existing public realm.

Neil’s presentation will provide examples of ‘smart’ street furniture in the city centre and show how a public realm handbook will bring clarity to what is required within the bulk of the boulevards, gates and streets. Neil will also outline the work his team are currently undertaking with transport colleagues to design a smart mobility hub along one of the main CMK boulevards and explain how this could act as a prelude to wider transformation of the same boulevard.

- Neil Sainsbury

“Bright and Connected Public Spaces” – Hear from Matthew Kelley and the team at Brightly how, through the use of IoT, councils are able to create connected systems which deliver better outcomes for the communities they serve.

With examples ranging from street lighting and litter bins to fibre networks, through to connecting service users to assets operating in their community, this presentation will explore how you can enable Smarter Assets to deliver Sustainable Communities.

- Matthew Kelley

“Lewisham Town Centre Regeneration – A Holistic Approach to Public Realm” – Leo Hammond and Daria Kaczorowska from the Landscape and Urban Design Team at Project Centre, together with Seamus Adams Head of Commercial Operations and Development at Lewisham Council, will be showcasing their approach to designing the public realm within Lewisham Town Centre across a range of scales.

Project Centre and Lewisham Council have been developing a holistic approach to the public realm through commissions at three different scales for Lewisham Market, Lewisham High Street and an overarching Urban Design Strategy. With Lewisham undergoing significant growth in terms of population and status, as recognised in the London Plan which identifies the town centre as having the potential to be of Metropolitan Importance, the projects re-examine the focus, fabric and role of an inner city town centre. Drawing on the history and pipeline of new development, Leo, Daria and Seamus will be sharing their experience and knowledge about:

  • Engaging with diverse local communities and businesses
  • Collaborating with local stakeholders and land owners
  • Quick wins
  • Art and culture
  • Creating an urban design vision and masterplan
  • Public realm visioning including: biodiversity gain and green grid, air quality improvements and carbon net zero
  • Funding
- Leo Hammond, Daria Kaczorowska, Seamus Adams

“The Business Case for Smart Street Lighting”– In this presentation, Telensa will explore the business case for moving to smart streetlights, drawing on their considerable deployment experience.

Richard will examine both the qualitative and quantitative benefits that connecting streetlights to central management software can offer a council and consider how the shift to this technology is now considered mainstream.

- Richard Chaplin

Agenda

  • 8:30 am - 9:00 am Registration, Networking and Refreshments
  • 9:00 am - 9:30 am Introduction and Opening Keynote
  • 9:30 am - 10:40 am Expert Presentations
  • 10:40 am - 11:00 am Keynote Speaker 2
  • 11:00 am - 12:40 pm Roundtable Discussions and Consultations
  • 12:40 pm - 1:00 pm Keynote Speaker 3
  • 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Close and Lunch Networking

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Supported by
City of London Corporation
Lewisham Council
London Legacy Development Corporation
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Milton Keynes Council

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