Conference Agenda

Speed Networking
This speed networking session will allow delegates to introduce themselves and swap business cards with other conference attendees.

Address by the Chief Engineer

• Delivering the Infrastructure for Canberra’s Future

Adrian Piani, ACT Chief Engineer, ACT Government

Keynote Address from the City Renewal Authority

• Revitalising Central Canberra
• Influencing Design-led People Focused Sustainable Development

Malcolm Snow, Chief Executive Officer, City Renewal Authority

Kevin Carrucan, Principal, Architectus

Commonwealth Avenue Bridge Renewal Project

• As one of two major crossings over the Lake, the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge is one of the busiest transport hubs in Canberra.
• The proposed improvements to the Bridge are essential to extend its life and to meet the current and future transport needs of our National Capital.
• Project Overview and Updates  

Greg Tallentire, Project Director, National Capital Authority

Keynote Presentation from Suburban Land Agency

• Delivering People-focused Neighbourhoods across the ACT
• Creating Great Places through Greenfield Development and Urban Renewal

John Dietz, Chief Executive Officer, Suburban Land Agency, ACT Government

Measuring Urban Health

Putting the urban health and wellbeing at the centre of major projects and infrastructure investment is now widely understood as being critical to maintaining the physical and mental health of both the current and future Canberra community. But how do we measure what good health and wellbeing means for the whole of that community? What indicators, methods and tools can be applied,  and how can these work at both the Territory and individual project scale? We will look to our work within both the UN-Habitat Global Public Space Programme and here in the ACT to provide a framework for understanding this crucial goal.

Obelia Tait, Director, Inhabit Place

Introducing Bluebeam and it’s use across the project lifecycle

• Digitise your plan reviews, approvals faster and more accurately - Speed up all your processes with software for civil engineering, land planning and public development project collaboration. Studio in Bluebeam Revu allows you to securely review, mark up, and modify plans and permits at the same time. Effortlessly edit drawings and documents with industry-standard markups and symbols, then save or share custom civil toolsets so clients and project partners are always on the same page.
• Quantify your estimations faster - Help your preconstruction teams quantify estimations faster by using visual search in Revu. Effortlessly count assets, create legend lists and take linear or area measurements. Take quick, precise measurements and dynamically link totals from multiple PDFs to Excel as you draw, ensuring faster, more accurate estimates for sitework items.
• Get actionable data insights and manage your assets in one place - Automatically track all markups placed on a PDF, including author, date, color, plus associated comments and statuses. And export data to your preferred BI tool to get valuable insights into project progress and performance. Maintain your communities’ assets and keep everyone on track by using the data in your plans to seamlessly search and quantify how many assets you have.

Ben Byrnes, Professional Services Lead for Structural Engineering, VinZero A2K Technologies

Canberra’s Housing Growth Roadmap

Housing affordability has become perhaps the single biggest problem that Canberra faces. Over the past 20 years, both house prices and rents have been growing at a faster pace than average income levels. This threatens the ideal of a fair go for all and drags on economic productivity as workers struggle to find suitable housing in locations close to employment and services. This 20-minute presentation would:

• Paint the picture of Australia’s tight housing market compared to other OECD countries
• Provide an overview of the indicators of housing supply and demand in Canberra
• Establish the capacity for housing growth under current planning controls
• Discuss opportunities to unlock additional housing supply

Mehra Jafari, Director, Policy and Analytics, Mecone

Road Safety and Safer Road Infrastructure Priorities

The ACT is engaged in a number of significant projects. Some of these are obvious: future stages of the light rail, War Memorial extensions, new hospitals and stadia. Others, such as electric vehicle charging and active travel infrastructure, and micro-mobility systems, are less widely discussed possibly because they are dispersed through the community and delivered with less public sector involvement. Each major project has an impact on road safety. Safety impacts of major projects, and measures to enhance safety in delivering projects, are discussed. This is in the context of our shared vision for zero road fatalities and serious injuries. 

Dr Rod Katz, Chair - ACT, Australasian College of Road Safety

Time | Cost | Quality | Carbon | Community – the ‘how’ of delivering resilient infrastructure for the ACT

City Infrastructure needs to sit in the built environment in a way that serves humanity. It needs to be visionary, cognisant of a resilient future, consider the whole of a society from the marginalised to the entrenched, whilst also being commercially responsible. In this presentation I will explore how to take the right steps at the right time to transform ambition, policies and plans into sustainable and resilient built outcomes. We will explore the time-old triangle of time | cost | quality and extend this to a circle that includes carbon | community. The ACT Govt has outlined the vision and the ambition for the Territory. The latest Budget and Infrastructure Plan/s have given clarity to ‘the what’.  Next is ‘the how’.

Dr Therese Flapper, General Manager - Canberra Region, TSA, Immediate Past President Engineers Australia Canberra

Gender Sensitive Urban Design Toolkit

Anna Chauvel, Co- Founder and Director, Place Laboratory
Richmond Henty, Senior Project Manager, Urban Team, Infrastructure Delivery, Transport Canberra and City Services

Speed Networking
This speed networking session will allow delegates to introduce themselves and swap business cards with other conference attendees.

Maddison Fisher, Materials and Carbon Specialist, Footprint Company, TSA

Irene Scott, General Manager Bridges and Structural Engineering, pitt&sherry
Michael McGrath, Senior Director – John Gorton Drive and Molonglo River Bridge Project, Transport Canberra and City Services
Steven Glover, Engineering Manager - Southern Region, BMD Constructions

Tackling Housing Affordability: The Architect's Role

While architects may not have direct control over macro-level factors that influence housing affordability, they can play a crucial role in advocating for certain measures and implementing strategies that contribute to addressing the issue of housing affordability.

Often it is not only about housing affordability.  The challenge is often about densification and providing the missing middle for a new community. It’s about finding inner city locations and intensifying development in a sustainable way. It’s about the speed of construction, nimbleness and the ability to deliver diversified housing at scale.

It’s about searching for innovation by looking at new housing typologies, innovative construction methodologies, and materials that can lower costs without compromising quality. 

This conversation will advocate for positive change and cover:

• Design Efficiency
• Cost-Effective Materials and Construction Techniques
• Sustainable Design and Energy Efficiency
• Adaptability and Future-Proofing
• Advocacy and Collaboration

Gary Henighen, Associate Principal, Architectus

Driving Canberra's Economic Growth and Prosperity through Business

• Leading discussion and advocating issues that impact businesses in the ACT

Greg Harford, Chief Executive Officer, Canberra Business Chamber

Hospital Projects: Bridging the Gap between Pre-Construction and Construction

Time after time, all the important planning, risk mitigation, and option analysis done in the pre-construction phase to inform the reference design and assist the Principal in making decisions related to the project get sidestepped. More often than not this information does not make it to the Contractor because we insist on them 'informing themselves' only to incur additional costs, time blowouts, and ultimately to not meet expectations. Could we be doing things better?

Matthew Gygi, RPS Practice Lead, RPS Group

Professor Lachlan Blackhall, Entrepreneurial Fellow and Head, Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, Australian National University

Panel Discussion
Infrastructure Priorities: Shaping the Future of the Australian Capital Territory

• Prioritising Infrastructure to maintain Canberra's liveability, productivity and sustainability
• Role of the Building and Construction Sector in Driving ACT's Economic Growth
• Role of the Property Industry in driving ACT's Economic Growth
• Overcoming challenges facing the building and construction industry
• Supporting the growth and development of new and established industries

Dr Therese Flapper, General Manager - Canberra Region, TSA, Immediate Past President Engineers Australia Canberra
Michael Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer, Master Builders ACT
Shane Martin, ACT and Capital Region Executive Director, Property Council of Australia

Shaping the Future of Australia’s Construction Industry through Technology

• Exploring BIM and AI in Construction Projects

Dr Saeed Banihashemi, Associate Professor of Building and Construction Management, University of Canberra

Andrew Barr MLA, Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Tourism, ACT Government