Our Picks for Melbourne Assembly this October
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There’s a glut of thought-leader and inspo festivals — especially when it comes to cities and placemaking. It begs the question: why should Right Angle help birth another one in Melbourne Assembly?
Mainly, it came down to partnering with The Age. For a start, they have a massive audience, and the more citizens reading, thinking, and talking about where they live, the better. They're also packed with exceptional journalists — people skilled at asking good, crucial questions and prompting material conversation. That kind of dialogue feels far more engaging than watching another smart person deliver a canned keynote, so we made conversational ability our core test for who made the lineup.
Here are a few of our favourite voices on the lineup and why we think they’re great:
Bill de Blasio
There is no other city that feels like New York City. No other city has the same productive energy, functioning like a giant dreamcatcher for humanity. No other city has the brand to command attention, excite people and attract investment quite like New York. Bill de Blasio served two terms as Mayor and has a really clear-eyed, practical view of how cities need to make people feel something.
Jess Miller
Jess is the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney and one of the most energetic communitarian citymakers we know. In a world of politicians holding on for too long, obfuscating and playing the safe numbers game, Jess stands apart because she says what she means and means what she says.
Sarah Lynn Rees
We’ve worked with Sarah Lynn Rees on some monumental urban projects and the way she asserts the importance of designing with Country and incorporating First Nations perspectives is really wonderful. Her type of thinking can take us beyond the obvious and into the meaningful.
Carlos Moreno
Carlos is the founding father of the 15-minute city movement and a legendary urbanist who played a massive role resuscitating liveability in Paris and elsewhere across the world. He’s an academic with a great, crazy energy and missionary zeal. While there are still plenty of questions at Right Angle around how the 15-minute city model works in practice, we’re very eager to hear Carlos in conversation.
Liam Wallis
Liam is a straight talking, hyper-effective and sustainably minded Melburnian – the full package. His company HIP V HYPE blends consultancy to government and property developers with actually being property developers themselves. We love that he lives out what he believes in.
Rohan Silva
Rohan lives in Fremantle these days but cut his teeth in London starting one of the world’s first and best co-working initiatives called Second Home and working as a Senior Policy Adviser to David Cameron. He is smart, gentle and has an optimistic energy that makes him very precious for the times.
See more about Melbourne Assembly and see the full list of speakers.
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