Keynote Speakers

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Melinda Dodson

Immediate Past National President
Australian Institute of Architects
ACT

Melinda Dodson has been practicing as an architect for over fifteen years in Canberra and Adelaide, delivering a number of award-winning projects. Awards she has received include the Australian Institute of Architects (the Institute) ACT Young Architect Prize in 2005, the American Institute of Architects President's Medal in 2009, and the 2010 Instyle Design Award

Melinda is Principal of Melinda Dodson Architects. Melinda was most recently Principal Architect and Sustainable Urban Renewal Business Leader with multi-disciplinary international practice GHD, and prior to that Principal Architect with Daryl Jackson Alastair Swayn Architects (Jacksons).

As business leader for GHD , Melinda lead a team in the development of their Sustainable Communities capacity using City Information Modelling. Over the years she has managed teams, large and small, through all stages of project delivery including brief writing and feasibility studies, design, documentation, and contract administration during construction.

Stephanie Donald

Dean, School of Media and Communication
RMIT
VIC

Stephanie Hemelryk Donald is a respected international scholar. She was educated in the UK and in Singapore. She worked in the 1980s and early 1990s as an actor and production assistant in the UK. Stephanie's first degree was in Chinese at the University of Oxford and her doctor of philosophy thesis was on Chinese film. She has been working in the Australian higher education sector since 1997, and her career has spanned research, teaching and management responsibilities. Her research and writing focuses on film, media, children's experience, and the Asia Pacific region. In recent years Stephanie has worked specifically on urban branding, intra-regional perspectives on cosmopolitanism and migration, and the idea of class in China. She is currently Dean of the School of Media and Communication at RMIT, Melbourne.

Stephanie is an Honorary Professor of Chinese Media Studies at the University of Sydney. She was a member of the management committee for the ARC Asia Pacific Futures Research Network in 2009 and was President of the Chinese Studies Association from 2007-2009. Stephanie was also a member of the China Research Centre foundation committee.

Jane Frances-Kelly

Program Director – Cities
The Grattan Institute
VIC

Carolyn Miller

Panellist ABC's The Gruen Transfer
Writer

Carolyn is a highly regarded and well known figure within the Australian creative industries. As a regular panelist on the ABC's The Gruen Transfer, she is a recognised authority on creative persuasion and is also a writer for both Drum Media and designfederation.net.

She has been working in the Advertising and Marketing industry for over 12 years, and is was until recently Marketing Director for Merivale. She has had considerable experience in both hosting symposiums and delivering exciting and engaging keynote addresses, including Creative Sydney, PHAA Social Media Symposium, and APMRG member events, to name but a few.

Carolyn presents keynote presentations about the impact of a creative environment on professional and personal output and has the capacity to showcase examples of environments from the highly creative spaces that she has not only worked in, but also been responsible for creating.

Dan Pitera

Executive Director
Detroit Collaborative Design Center
USA

Dan Pitera is a political and social activist masquerading as an architect. He is presently the Executive Director of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. With the view that "design" is an essential force in establishing human relations, the Design Center is dedicated to fostering university and community partnerships that create inspired and sustainable neighbourhoods and spaces for all people. The sustainability and regeneration of any neighbourhood lies in the hands of its residents. Thus, the Design Center provides not only design services but also empowers residents to facilitate their own process of urban regeneration.

Mr. Pitera was a 2004-2005 Loeb Fellow at Harvard University. He was a finalist for both the 2008-2009 Rafael Vinoly Architects Grants in Architecture and the 2006-2007 James Stirling Memorial Lectures on the City. Under his direction since 2000, the Design Center was included in the US Pavilion of the 2008 Venice Biennale in Architecture and recently was awarded the 2009 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Design Excellence for the St. Joseph Rebuild Center in New Orleans. The Design Center was the recipient of the NCARB Prize in 2002 and 2009 and was included in the international exhibit/conference ArchiLab in 2001 and 2004 in Orleans, France. The Design Center has also been the awarded the 2002 Dedalo Minosse International Prize. In 1998, Mr. Pitera was the Hyde Chair of Excellence at the University of Nebraska. He has lectured and taught extensively throughout the North America, South America, and Europe. He likes "fallout shelter" yellow...

Enrique Penalosa

Former Mayor
Bogota, Columbia
Consultant Urban Vision and Sustainability Strategy and
Senior International Advisor
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
Columbia

Enrique Penalosa is an urban strategist whose vision and proposals have significantly influenced policies in numerous cities throughout the world.

He currently is President of the Board of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy of New York. He has lectured all over the world in governmental, academic and citizens' forums. Penalosa's ideas have been featured in many of the world's most important media and he has also published articles in numerous periodicals and books.

As Mayor of Bogota, the 7 million inhabitants' capital of Colombia, Penalosa profoundly transformed the city, turning it into an international example for improvements in quality of life, mobility and equity to developing world cities.

Maha Sinnathamby

Chairman
Springfield Land Corporation
Qld

Maha Sinnathamby, a Civil Engineer, is the Chairman of Springfield Land Corporation and the visionary behind the Greater Springfield project. He has worked for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Maha has been directly involved as the major shareholder in over AUD 23 billion worth of projects throughout Australia. For his contribution to regional development he was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 by the Governor General of Australia; Ernst and Young Master Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003; Australian Institute of Management Medal for Management Innovation by the in 2007 and for his services to education, the University of Southern Queensland recognised him with an Honorary Doctorate in 2007.

Tony Wheeler

Founder
Lonely Planet Publications
NSW

When Maureen and Tony arrived in Sydney the day after Christmas 1972, after a six month Asia overland trip from Europe, they had 27 cents left between them. In late 1973 they started Lonely Planet Publications to publish Across Asia on the Cheap, the story of their trip from London to Australia. They spent the following year travelling around South-East Asia and in early 1975 published their second book, South-East Asia on a Shoestring.

From those early guidebooks Lonely Planet Publications has grown to become the world's largest independent guidebook publisher with more than 500 titles in print, over 400 staff and offices in London and Oakland as well as the head office in Melbourne. Last year they sold a majority interest in Lonely Planet to BBC-Worldwide, but are still closely involved with the company and regularly travel to check out their books and other travel products, investigate new travel possibilities or simply to experience something new. In early 2009 Tony also hit the road with a film crew from Lonely Planet TV to film the Laos program for their forthcoming series The Roads Less Travelled.