1. ReportSustainable Places = Sustainable Communities Tuesday 30 March 2010 Context The People Changing Places programme aims to improve regional demand and capacity for high quality urban design by engaging communities in an intensive and cohesive programme of creative and practical activities. The City of York Council wants to improve public realm in the city and will be creating a public realm strategy to support this.Sustainable Places = Sustainable Communities was the culmination of the one-year People Changing Places programme based in York. This event was the final milestone to share good practice from the programme and from across the country to a national audience.Overview The aim of the conference was to explore how to creatively engage communities in the regeneration of their towns and cities.Objectives Raise awareness about Yorks future vision and the PCP programme Raise awareness about sustainable communities Provide an opportunity for a cross section of professionals and community members tonetwork Explore how local talents and energies can be unlocked in our cities Deliver a practical and creative conferenceDelegates The conference attracted 64 delegates from across the country including: York, Derby, North East Lincolnshire, Newcastle, Kirklees, Coventry, Lancashire, Calderdale, Burnley and Leeds amongst others.Delegates included representatives from: arts, culture, heritage, regeneration, Local Authorities (traffic, environment, planning, development, business, economics), renaissance, built environment, landscape architecture, community leaders, Society for Blind People, community based services amongst others.Interaction Prior to the conference delegates were asked to bring an image representing their community which were then displayed throughout the day to stimulate more conversations.

2. Beam also created a tag on Twitter adding links to speaker websites and interesting case studies. Throughout the event Mike Cooper from Cooper Creative interviewed delegates and speakers and uploaded key quotes from speakers and questions from delegates. This enabled others to interact with the conference and add their own questions and case studies even when they couldnt be there and has the possibility to act as a space for further debate for delegates after the event. Over 2,500 people saw the tweets with a number of interactive responses.Speakers Beam invited built environment professionals and community leaders to contribute:Helen Farrar, CABE Regional Representative Chaired the conference. After introducing the event the Chair talked about the Egan Wheel for Sustainable Communities and tasked delegates with creating a new wheel for Sustainable Places by the end of the day.David Warburton, Head of Design and Conservation and Sustainable Development for the City of York Council provided a warm welcome to delegates and an overview of their approach to the sustainable development of York.David Hills, Architect DSDHA and Jane Field, Head of Programmes and Services Beam presented good practice from the People Changing Places programme focussing on the YourSpace event. Alison Sinclair who participated throughout most of the PCP programme talked about her experience. After participating in the programme I came to the conclusion that it would be wrong to put it back to how it was and Im now open to taking it forward Alison Sinclair PCP participant.Martyn Coltman, Chairman of the Bridlington Renaissance Partnership and Bridlington Town Team delivered an interesting presentation about investing in the public realm focusing on the Town Team/renaissance approach. Culture leads Renaissance Martyn Coltman.Alison Drake, Chairman of the Castleford Heritage Trust delivered an inspirational presentation about communities taking the lead and her personal role as a champion. Get people behind a dream Alison Drake.Keynote speaker George Ferguson, Former President RIBA and Chairman Acanthus Ferguson Mann Architects explored how to create sustainable places and engage people in the design process. My only rule is dont be afraid to break the rules George Ferguson. All speaker presentations can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/BeamOrangery/presentations or http://p-c-p.squarespace.com 3. Workshops Within all the workshops, delegates were tasked with considering three key elements that could feed into a new wheel for Sustainable Places. Creative Engagement was facilitated by David Hills and Jane Field. Delegates were given a scenario for a large development site where there was a lot of resistance from the local community. Delegates worked in groups to develop a programme of creative engagement. Key comments from the session: Engaging with schools young people and through them parents Local design competitions to decide own futures Specific events to engage all a road show to take consultation out to people Unlocking local characters over a longer period to make it sustainable Dont let professionals drive what was coming out of the communityOne delegate stated they had gained an understanding of consultation and another said they gained a view of the process from a different angle.Unlocking Local Talents, Alison Drake Delegates went speed dating to find out everyones perspective on how to unlock local talents. After this delegates participated in a group discussion. Key comments from the session: Value the local culture and dont be afraid to call it a talent/gift Be prepared to share power (even with money) Shared ownership - all in together the good and bad elements Open up communication flow listen to people with talent Recognise everyones talents and gifts artistic, business, local knowledge etc Collective memory of individualsFeedback included delegates Gaining an understanding of the passion and talent that exists in not only communities but also in professionals in their desire to make sure talents are seen and heard.The Impact of Investing in Public Spaces, Martyn Coltman Martyn provided a more detailed insight about the investment in Bridlington and then delegates explored key issues in pairs. Key comments from the session: Leadership based around individual Succession how will it be sustained? Assets identify current assets Have a legacy develop ownership and memory 4. Never run out of projects If it comes from the community then it sustains interest and involvementOne delegate stated that Succession was the most key point and the most difficult to achieve.Sustainable Futures, George Fergusson Delegates were asked to consider pros and cons for a new edge-of-town supermarket and explore how this would affect the local community. Key comments from the session: Ensure unbiased creative engagement Sustainable principles of energy, waste, resources, transport. Connectivity and communication Ameliorate impact by mix of uses. Restrict impact.One delegate commented that they had gained an understanding of how building design should not just concentrate on a limited space, but should also engage the surrounding area and people and another stated It was helpful because I found out more about sustainability, I understand that if we want quality of life we need to continue improvement.New Wheel for Creating Sustainable Places * Created by delegates 5. Feedback The majority of people felt that the content was relevant and that the conference was delivered in a format that suited their learning style. All delegates rated the event as a 4/5 as enjoyable and informative. Most delegates stated that the workshops they attended were well facilitated.Nearly all delegates said they had heard examples of different approaches to engaging communities in the regeneration of their towns and cities. One delegate commented that it was interesting to hear speakers talking about their own experiences and that they were inspiring.One key element of the event was bringing a cross section of people together and all delegates who fed back felt that they had the opportunity to network with people from different sectors and from across the country. One person commented that they had met an architect and others that shared opinions about sustainability and getting to know what their process is and they have offered help if I have any queries in the future.We also asked delegates what they felt they had gained from attending the event and how they would use what they had learned. We received a number of comments about how the speakers were inspirational which had given them the confidence to share ideas, push forward community policies and encourage people to really engage communities in regeneration. Others stated that they will cascade the information to their colleagues and that the event had broadened my knowledge about the importance of involving communities and sustainable issues in design.Other comments included that the event was well organised, informative and friendly.We also questioned those who had previously participated in the PCP programme about their experience: has broadened my outlook, Inspirational, enlightening, enjoyable and good networking. However, there was one delegate who felt that the YourSpace structure had no relevance to its environment.Conclusions At the end of the conference Helen Farrar posted the question How do you keep vision going? and commented that the idea of town team has important role to play. The Chair reminded delegates to learn from one another and most importantly use what is already there but make sustainable.