ICLRD Conference 2011: The Changing Business, Community and Spatial Planning Landscape: Doing More with Less

20-21 January 2011
Radisson Blu Hotel, Ballincar, Sligo

The past 12 months has come to represent a time of change for the island of Ireland – with the evolving economic situation leading to debates on

• the need for implementing a period of austerity and
• the opportunities this scenario creates for renaissance and resurgence.

The International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) will be hosting our Sixth Annual Conference on the 20-21 January 2011 in the Radisson BLU Hotel, Ballincar, Sligo, at which these scenarios will be considered in more depth.

Sponsored by the Special EU Programmes Body, this year’s conference theme was The Changing Business Community and Spatial Planning Landscape: Doing More with Less.  It focused on the changing budgetary, legislative and policy landscape and the practical realities of reduced budgets across the island of Ireland.  The conference also looked to emerging opportunities in innovation to build recovery and economic competiveness, as well as practical solutions to address the oversupply of land and housing.

This two-day event was organised around four sessions:

1. Planning for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Growth
2. Planning for Homes and People: New Challenges, New Agendas
3. Planning for Shared Innovation: Infrastructure to Support Innovation-Led Recovery
4. A Changing Landscape: Networking, Collaborating and Achieving Greater Efficiencies.

Please find attached a detailed programme.

As in previous years, we are bringing together an exciting group of presenters that will be of interest to policy makers, academics, practitioners, community development agencies and business networks. Confirmed speakers include

• Nicholas P Retsinas of the Harvard Business School;
• Dermot Byrne, Eirgrid;
• Frank McDonald, The Irish Times;
• and Ministers Michael Finneran of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Conor Murphy of the Department for Regional Development.

This year we are delighted to announce that the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) have agreed to count attendance at this event as Continuing Professional Development for their members; and we hope to come to a similar arrangement with the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) over the coming weeks.

Our ICLRD annual gatherings are growing in reputation and are now considered as leading fora for debate, networking and cross-learning on the themes of inter-jurisdictional collaboration in spatial planning and local and regional development.

If you would like to attend this important conference, complete and return the booking form (along with payment)  to Eimear Donnelly, before 12 January 2011.

If you cannot attend on this occasion, but have a colleague who would be interested, please pass on this invitation.