In-person Event Sessions

Speakers:

Elder Laureen (Blu) Waters/Istchii Nikamoon 

Nenookaasi Ochrym, Afro-Indigenous Singer and Activist 

In partnership with the Infrastructure Institute, the Community Solutions Network will showcase how creative mixed-use projects convey the future of collaborative and intentional city building. This hybrid session and in-person exhibit focuses on the potential of creative development in public places, integrated with smart tools and technologies that support social infrastructure and climate resilience. 

Live French translation is available

Speakers:

Matti Siemiatycki, Director, Infrastructure Institute, University of Toronto  

Phat Le, Architectural Designer, Infrastructure Insititute, University of Toronto 

Sarah Chan, Planning and Design Lead, School of Cities, University of Toronto  

The school ground design at Irma Coulson Public School has set new standards in stormwater management, topography, vegetated landscapes, material usage, retainment, seating and outdoor learning.  Professionals in design, engineering and risk management will share the challenges, collaborative relationships and ideas that brought the Climate Ready Schools vision to life at Irma Coulson. 

Speaker:

Heidi Campbell, Sr. Program Manager, Evergreen 

 Evergreen is committed to a national urban transformation, starting with reimagining the Evergreen Brick Works site and programs with partners from across the country. Join us for a collaborative workshop in the discovery phase of a design process involving select interdisciplinary partners, practitioners, and community leaders with unique perspective on the future of city-making in Canada. 

Speakers:

Matthew Claudel, Founder, Field States 

The first of two sessions for urban Indigenous organizations and community organizers to share specific needs and challenges they face making meaningful urban spaces for Indigenous people. This will be a closed session for community sharing. We invite everyone to join the public panel discussion in the afternoon to hear about Indigenous engagement and support. 

Join us for an outdoor experience at Evergreen Brick Works, where we will explore how you can integrate participatory, child friendly, nature-based approaches into your practice. We will share our experiences integrating arts-based and inclusive approaches in the design of outdoor public spaces, including parks, school grounds and childcare centres. We will provide an opportunity for you to share your experiences with your fellow placemakers. Child participation lies at the heart of creating more connected communities and climate resilient public spaces and is an essential part of ensuring a truly equitable and inclusive stakeholder approach. 

Speakers:

Paula Gallo, B.Ed., M.Sc.Pl., Recreate Place 

Annie Vandenberg, B.Ed., Recreate Place 

Join us for an insightful session on the importance of measuring and evaluating the impact of public places, which is key to assessing our planet's health, and people's well-being and transforming public spaces. Speakers will present various ways of approaching this work to tell the stories of outcomes related to well-being, climate resilience, and sustainability. Measuring the impact of public spaces can support decision-making and be a powerful approach to achieving a more sustainable and inclusive future.

Speakers:

Kady Cowan, Founder, Sustainability Studio  

Laura Smith, Project Manager, Park   

Mike Davis, Managing Director, Davis Pier 

We will engage attendees using participatory futuring and collective imagination tools, as well as Sacred Civics foundational keys for unlocking our ability to dream about how we can build our cities, communities and regenerative bioregions. Alongside learning from living demonstrations of 7GenCities, this session will enable us to explore ways we can work together to radically transition the civic, social, natural, digital and physical infrastructures. This is needed so that urban communities and ecosystems can thrive in just, inclusive, regenerative and caring communities for the next seven generations. 

Indigenous and Afro-futurity perspectives and methodologies, decolonial and Truth & Reconciliation principles and actions, and land-based perspectives will be woven throughout. This Imagining 7GenCities session will be an important imagination space in our collaborative work to extend the boundaries of what is possible and help raise public ambition for manifesting and building the field of 7GenCities. 

Speakers:

Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook, 7GenCities 

Jayne Engle, 7GenCities 7GenCities 

By always starting with the specificity of the place where we live and with a focus on local people — growers, makers, artists, builders and doers of all kinds — the work of Shorefast seeks to deepen the relationships between people and place. This approach has enabled a regenerative model and sparked entrepreneurial momentum that provides an economic foundation for culture and community to flourish.
 
Zita Cobb, Founder & CEO of Shorefast, will share her learnings on Shorefast’s journey to-date and how the future may unfold when local communities are prioritized in economic decision making.

Speaker:

Zita Cobb, Founder and CEO, Shorefast  

This session will offer examples of affordable and mixed-income housing that can also contribute to healthy, liveable, and inclusive communities. In conversation with our panelists and the audience, we’ll explore three unique projects and unpack what it takes to build vibrant communities while creating a powerful sense of place and belonging.

Live French translation is available

Speaker:

Dina Graser, Senior Project Advisor to Evergreen 

The second of two sessions for urban Indigenous organizations and community organizers to share specific needs and challenges they face making meaningful urban spaces for Indigenous people. Open to all conference participants, this diverse panel of Indigenous voices will help guide the group into thoughtful conversations around supporting urban Indigenous inclusion in public places. 

Speakers:

Gabrielle Fayant-Lewis, Co-Founder, Assembly of Seven Generations   

Ryan Besito, Kinship Support Worker, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto 

The impact of a school ground renovation on a community can be challenging to capture through conventional evaluation methods. Principals, on the other hand, see and hear all. Irma Coulson’s Principal, Cheryl Hayles, sits down with Evergreen for an in-depth conversation to better understand how the Climate Ready School’s Pilot has impacted her students, staff and community. 

Speakers:

Cheryl Hayles, Principal, Irma Coulson PS 

Cam Collyer, Executive Lead, Evergreen 

This workshop will walk participants through AI for the Resilient City: a scalable analytics and data visualization platform for extreme heat and urban heat island effect. This tool helps build understanding of the impacts of extreme heat on our communities, the role of green public spaces and infrastructure in cooling our built environment, and the importance of public space in a warming world. 

Speakers:

Zoya Sodhi, Sr. Program Manager, Evergreen  

Joshua Welch, Program Officer, Evergreen  

Join Koroush Rad, Evergreen’s new Director of Planning and Development, and architects and landscape architects from top Toronto firms LGA and DTAH for this active, “walk & talk” style workshop. We will tour the Evergreen Brick Works site and hear about plans to transform and maintain the place in response to changing community needs.  

We will be exploring the site and quarry via accessible paved or granular-level paths. Please wear weather-appropriate clothing and appropriate footwear. This is a rain-or-shine event. Contact conference@evergreen.ca for any accessibility needs. 

Speakers:

Kourosh Rad, Director of Planning and Development, Evergreen 

Megan Torza, Partner, DTAH   

Drew Adams, Sr. Associate, LGA Architectural Partner 

Terence Radford, Principal, Trophic Design 

To be announced