Places Matter – Sustainable Towns and Cities in the COVID-19 Reopening

Chambers Ireland is hosting a virtual round-table on the topic ‘Sustainable Urban Spaces and Supporting Local Economies’ on 20 May, from 2pm-4pm. The event will discuss best-practice in supporting our town an city centres in the post-pandemic re-opening with architects and experts across their Chambers, community groups and local authorities.

Sharon O’Gara (A/Senior Executive Architect and Urban Designer with Kildare County Council) will be speaking about her urban realm work to support towns and villages in County Kildare and highlight the work of the RIAI Urban Design Committee and the Town and Village Toolkit. Other panellists include Mags Downey Martin (CEO of Ballina Chamber) on the Greening Ballina work, Marian O'Donnell (Media and Public Affair Manager at Dublin Chamber) on their 15 Minute Cities research. The session will be moderated by Ken Tobin, CEO of Tralee Chamber.

This webinar will be an opportunity to share good ideas, profile best practice and talk about what local economies will need in the coming weeks and months. Chambers Ireland also look to the longer term, and what the SDGs means for local economies. In particular, how we can work towards the  Goal of Sustainable Cities and Communities. This Our “round-table” will be a two hour session, with two panels of experts from across our

The second session will be on Using Culture and Age Friendly Design to Support Sustainable Towns and Cities. Panellists include Margaret O'Brien (CEO of Ennis Chamber) who will talk about the work in Ennis and their recent Drain Art Project, Aaron Copeland (Creative Director at A Playful City) on their work to promote age-friendly design, Paul McGuirk (Head of Enterprise at LEO Cork City) to talk about Cork City Council’s Place-making Fund. Kenny Deery (CEO of Galway Chamber) will moderate the session and bring the perspective of Galway, as outgoing European city of Culture.

The RIAI is not issuing CPD Certificates for this webinar.  Alternatively, on completion of the webinar download the Structured Webinar CPD Evidence Report and upload it to your MyRIAI CPD record as evidence of your participation in this course.