The Scottish Government is to introduce legislation during this parliament to encourage Community Wealth Building as Scotland's core approach to economic development.  A consultation on the proposed Bill has just concluded.  The aim is to enact new - or amend existing - laws to accelerate this form of economic development in Scotland.  What is Community Wealth Building?  How will it reform who takes decisions locally on what is spent - and on how, where and for what purpose?  The Bill's aim will be to bring economic transformation and to create empowered, resilient local communities.  Therefore, change is coming which will affect current decision makers in the public sector and their other sectoral partners.  Who will lead decision making in the future and how will communities be involved in that process?  How will this affect your organisation?

This conference will take place online.

Scotland's public services provide critical support to every age group, community and area of activity. They are essential to wellbeing, the economy, public safety and quality of life. However a tsunami of challenges to our services already exist, with many more on the horizon. The labour market is constricted, creating acute staffing shortages. COVID has left services struggling to catch up and keep up with demand. War has driven economic instability and UK government fiscal uncertainty suggests serious funding issues for public services. The context seems to be that change is now permanent. So what can those leading and delivering our critical public services do to cope with the challenges of now and prepare for those which are coming? How can they harness smart service design approaches and core elements of delivery to provide services which remain resilient, reliable and relevant? What opportunities exist to work differently and better in trying to do more with less?

The conference will take place online.

Scotland's need for capital investment in infrastructure is well researched, documented and signposted.  However, our ability to deliver in core areas such as net zero, transport, housing, digital infrastructure and projects supporting public service delivery is now acutely challenged by the state of our public finances following pandemic, war, recession and budget recklessness.  So, how bad is the picture on our infrastructure prospects and what can be done to prioritise spending, innovate on funding, attract additional investment and find new ways to partner in project delivery?

This conference will take place online.

Access to an affordable home and the ability to live in it without financial anxiety is one of the most basic needs for any individual or family. However, in Scotland we face a dual crisis - insufficient supply and lack of affordability in housing coupled with a spiralling energy cost emergency. The housing crisis is driven by structural failures in supply. The energy cost crisis results from massive price rises, energy company failures and instability in energy markets. The combination of both of these is toxic to the finances and life chances of families and individuals throughout Scotland. How do governments, local authorities and housing and energy suppliers act to fix this?

This conference will take place online.

The Scottish Government wants to partner with Scottish councils and others to deliver 20 minute neighbourhoods in Scotland. Its intent to do so is included in the 2020-21 Programme for Government and many places in Scotland do seem to have the building blocks needed to become 20 minute neighbourhoods. However the same is also true of many other communities globally – and yet few have so far succeeded. So what does it take to move from just proposing 20 minute neighbourhoods to really delivering them on the ground in Scotland?

This conference will take place online.

By 2050 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Scotland’s urban places have mountains of data but also infinite demand for services, living spaces and economic activity. Placemaking is one obvious answer to making more sustainable, rational decisions on where and how we live. COP 26 showed that without change, many communities globally will die and others everywhere face a dismal future. However public bodies, private companies and our people all act separately. Individual plans, decisions and actions often work against each other. Left untouched we will make poorer decisions, storing up problems for the future rather than placemaking better ways of living now. Therefore, we need to collect and harness valuable data to see the true picture of how our urban spaces are working and being used. That in turn needs to inform joined-up decision making to make better, viable, sustainable places. The question is, how do we achieve that?

Online

Planners, developers and communities are anxious to secure a well-balanced national planning framework for Scotland through NPF4.  However, no final decisions have yet been made and Scottish Government continues developing policy proposals with stakeholders.  This webinar explores the key themes emerging from the NPF4 development process and explores what all stakeholders need to know about what is coming next.

Online

This webinar explores and explains the purpose, value and practice of placemaking. It will discuss the objectives of placemaking in the shaping of services and projects, the opportunities for placemaking in Scotland afforded by a place-based funding programme and how to deliver effective placemaking in practice.

Online

This webinar will explore the effects and consequences of the COVID pandemic for how we live and work in our city and town centres and our high streets. It will examine the opportunities for transformational change in the centre of our urban spaces and will consider current thinking and initiatives to turn threat into opportunity as dramatic structural changes are already unfolding.

Online

This webinar will discuss the immediate and long term effects of coronavirus upon our cities and city-regions with a focus on the potential of data, the meaning of smart cities post-Covid and approaches to smart city region economic recovery in the key engines of our economy.

Online