[getsmart-l] Only 1 Week Until Leading Edge Conference - Register Today!

[Marty Collier]

Architect, professor and author Avi Friedman heads up a stellar roster of more than 35 international, national and local experts at Leading Edge 2006 , the Niagara Escarpment Commission's Conference on Sustainability, Healthy Communities and Biosphere Research in Burlington October 4-6.  Sure to be this fall's most cutting-edge planning event, Leading Edge zeroes in on crucial issues driving the public agenda in Ontario: smart growth, green development, transportation policy, foodland & countryside protection, municipal finance, energy, governance and media affairs. These topics figure large in the upcoming November municipal elections.



Malmö Mayor Ilmar Reepalu comes from Sweden to talk about his town's remarkable turnaround from industrial city in crisis in the early 1990s to a model of sustainability today.



Followers of the provincial Greenbelt and Places to Grow should not miss University of Pennsylvania professor Tom Daniels, author of When City and Country Collide: Managing Growth in the Metropolitan Fringe.  He presents a solid list of straightforward and action-oriented solutions to the clash between urban and rural areas.



Geologist David Hughes will provide a compelling case as to why planners and politicians can no longer ignore peak oil and other energy issues when dealing with land use and transportation challenges.



Pioneering economist Mark Anielski and internationally respected finance consultant Enid Slack headline a session on municipal finance and genuine wealth assessment. They talk about new tools to improve land use decisions, stop urban sprawl and redistribute wealth while keeping an eye on the bottom line. 



The conference features more interactive sessions on:

·       Transportation policy and design (with Richard Gilbert, Fanis Grammenos and Dan Leeming), 

·       Green development (with Mike Labbé, Barry Lyon and Alex Spiegel)

·       Stakeholder and governance solutions for smart growth (with Paul Bedford, Karen Farbridge and Brad Graham), 

·       The role of the media in planning (with Christopher Hume, Susanna Kelley and Signe Ball), 

·       Understanding the working countryside (with Elbert van Donkersgoed, Jeanne Maurer, Nettie Wiebe and John Whitaker).



A three-day package to Leading Edge 2006, including meals and entertainment, is an incredible bargain at $350, with one- and two-day packages also available. Visit www.escarpment.org/leadingedge2006.htm for more information and online registration.











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