Afternoon Canberra 2020 Session

The morning session of the Canberra 2020 Summit was a little disappointing. I was frustrated by the process of using a face to face forum, which limited the discussion to one speaker at a time. It seems bizarre that in the 21st Century we would be working this way. However, the rapporteurs did a good job of note taking. By the time the points had been transcribed to white boards at the front they made a lot more sense and were much more coherent that the discussion sounded to me.

I quickly tried the record the themes:

Active citizenry: Included and engaged
Recognized city of excellence: regional creative hub
Linked internationally, nationally, and regional
Designing and planning for its future
Making it easy to make choices and participate
No "No Lost People"

Indeginious Future:
Communities and families Inclusion
Community Saftey

Economic and Digital IT:
City for Asia Pacific / Hub of Innovation
Form "Infrastructure ACT"
Radical rethink housing and planning
Refocus the public sector to risk and outcomes

Creative future:
Healthy futures
Sustainablity and the city: Design the city around pub.ic transport; Implement bio regional planning; Move to best practice building; Become carbon neutral
Education and skills: Become a capital city for education and culture; Life long learning; redesign the notionof "school"

The lunch break discussions were almost more useful than the formal sessions. Some issues which came up were the changing demographic of Canberra, transport needs (such as a Canberra Sydney fast train Saturday. Also one of the ACT Government staff commented that they would at least like a day off for having to work; like the federal summit, the ACT public servants working at the summit are unpaid.

Another issue which came up was how to communicate the outcomes of the ACT 2020 Summit and accept further input. The ACT Government's plan was to put the outcomes on the Chief Minister's web site and invite input. The Moodle web site I set up for the Open 2020 Event seems to have been well received and I might see if the ACT Government would like a similar one.