2018 NZILA Firth Conference

"We know ourselves better when we know where we came from" - a great line from Nelson Byrd Woltz landscape architect Thomas Woltz on day 2 of the 2018 NZILA conference which wound up on April 13.

There's been lots of positive feedback from the conference including this from another of the international speakers, Sacha Coles (Aspect Studios,  Sydney) on his instagram account.  "Mind blowing rich couple of days in Auckland made possible through keynote presentation at the NZ International conference. Many cultural lessons, gritty city bits, and fantastic co-presenters. "

Thomas Woltz presented alongside Boffa Miskell's Rachel de Lambert about the 100 year master plan for Auckland's Cornwall Park under the water and ecologies theme.  He spoke of the huge importance of learning our lessons from the past. 

Other international speakers made a big impact on day 1 of the conference. Themes of culture and community in the morning and water and ecology in the afternoon were covered by a wide range of industry experts.

Dr Julian Bolleter is Assistant Professor at the Australian Urban Design Research Centre at the University of Western Australia. As first speaker at the conference he had some strong words.

Another of the overseas speakers on day one was U.S. urban planner Ryan Gravel, founder of Sixpitch - here's a taster from his speech - telling delegates why his work matters.