Past Speakers
The 30th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 8, 2022
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Samir Sinha
Topic: "A Place for All of Us - Coming of Age in a Post-Pandemic Society
The 29th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 8, 2018
Keynote Speaker: Ms. Kadie Ward, Economic Development, Foreign Trade, Business Development & Marketing Professional
Topic: “Intimacy, Sensuality & Mystery! How Toronto is Succeeding as a Global City”
The 28th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 8, 2018
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Mitchell J. Silver, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Topic: “PARKS: Scarcity, Equity, Safety, Affordability, Priority! Are we achieving what we can and must from our parks in an accelerating intensifi cation context?”
The 27th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 9, 2017
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Anthony Townsend, Founder of Bits and Atoms, Author of “Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia”
Topic: “The Future is Now”
The 26th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 10, 2016
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Noah Toly, Senior Fellow for Global Cities at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Professor at Wheaton College and Free University of Berlin
Topic: “Toronto vs. the World! How do we measure up?”
The 25th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 12, 2015
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Robert J. Sawyer, Toronto-based, Hugo award-winning, futurist and novelist
Topic: “Cities on the Edge of Forever: A Future-Forward Journey Through Our Next 25 Years”
The 24th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 13, 2014
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Robert Bell, Co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), frequent contributer to academic journals and noted speaker who has appeared on ABC World News and The Discovery Channel
Topic: “The Broadband Network Ate my Plan! Digital & Physical Infrastructure & the Future of Cities”
The 23rd Planning Dinner:
Date: November 14, 2013
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Taras Grescoe, Frequent contributor to the New York Times, The Independent, and National Geographic Traveler and author of Straphanger
Topic: “Toronto’s Future Depends on Transit”
The 22nd Planning Dinner:
Date: November 8, 2012
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Peter Kageyama, Community and Economic Development Consultant based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Co-Founder and Producer of the Creative Cities Summit
Topic: “Better Cities Through Citizen Engagement – Leveraging Community Involvement into Tangible Action”
The 21st Planning Dinner:
Date: November 10, 2011
Keynote Speaker: Ms. Kennedy Lawson Smith, International Expert in Downtown Economic Development Planning, and Founder of Community Land Use and Economics Group (CLUE)
Topic: “The Future City: Economic Development Strategies for a Changing Society”
The 20th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 16, 2010
Keynote Speaker: Ms. Ellen Dunham-Jones, Architect and Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Topic: “Adapting Suburbia for the 21st Century”
The 19th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 2, 2009
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Fred Kent, President of Project for Public Spaces, New York, NY
Topic: “Placemaking as a transformative Agenda”
The 18th Planning Dinner:
Date: December 1, 2008
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Brent Toderian, Planning Director, City of Vancouver
Topic: “Creative City Building and the Future of City Planning”
The 17th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 26, 2007
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Benjamin Barber, Political Scientist and Author
Topic: “The Forces Shaping Our Global City”
The 16th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 14, 2006
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment
Topic: “Sustainability and Tradition in the 21st Century”
The 15th Planning Dinner:
Date: November 15, 2005
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Joel Kotkin, Irvine Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
Topic: “The Evolution of the Global City”
The 14th Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday November 16, 2004
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Andrew Altman, Director of Planning, Washington DC
Topic: “The Challenge of Developing an Open and Inclusive City”
The 13th Planning Dinner:
Date: Monday November 24, 2003
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Larry Beasley, Director of Current Planning, City of Vancouver
Topic: “Re-inventing Cities for People”
The 12th Planning Dinner:
Date: Monday October 28, 2002
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Helmut Jahn, Internationally renowned Architect from the Chicago, Illinois firm for Murphy/Jahn Architects, Inc.
Topic: “Urban Architecture – Space – Form – Technology”
The 11th Planning Dinner:
Date: Wednesday November 14, 2001
Keynote Speaker: Ms. Alicia Mazur Berg, AICP, Commissioner of Planning, City of Chicago
Topic: “Chicago’s Renewed Livability and Vitality”
The 10th Planning Dinner:
Date: Monday November 27, 2000
Keynote Speaker: The Honourable Tony P. Clement, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Topic: “Smart Growth: Opportunities/ Challenges for Ontario”
The 9th Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday November 16, 1999
Keynote Speaker: The Honourable David Crombie, Chair, Waterfront Regeneration Trust, Chair, Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid
Topic: “City Building in the 21st Century – Catalysts, Challenges and Opportunities”
The 8th Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday November 12, 1998
Keynote Speaker: Mr. John Barber, Urban Affairs Editor, Globe & Mail
Topic: “A Sense of Place . . . Culture, Multi-culture and Planning in Greater Toronto”
The 7th Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday November 25, 1997
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Alan Tonks, Chair of Metropolitan Toronto and the Toronto Transition Team
Topic: “A New City . . . The Transition Begins”
The 6th Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday November 19, 1996
Keynote Speaker: Mr. John Farrow, Canadian Urban Institute
Topic: “Great Planning Disasters – A look at our Past, Present and Future”
The 5th Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday November 14, 1995
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Tom McCormack, GTA Task Force Member
Topic: “The Supercity: Applying Lessons Learned From Other North American Markets Towards Improving the Competitiveness of the GTA”
The 4th Planning Dinner:
Date: Wednesday November 10, 1993
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Douglas Colbourne, Ontario Municipal Board Vice-Chair
Topic: “The Ontario Municipal Board – From Kennedy to Kruger and Beyond”
The 3rd Planning Dinner:
Date: Thursday October 20, 1992
Keynote Speaker: Ms. Madelaine Drohan, European Business Correspondent for the Globe and Mail’s “Report on Business”
Topic: “Olympia and York’s Canary Wharf”
The 2nd Planning Dinner:
Date: Thursday October 24, 1991
Keynote Speaker: Mr. John Sewell and Mr. Paul Godfrey
Topic: “Changing of the Guard – Election ‘91 – The Impact on Planning and Development in Metropolitan Toronto”
The 1st Planning Dinner:
Date: Tuesday October 23, 1990
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Ray Spaxman, the First Planner-in-Residence
Topic: “Quality of Life in Toronto and Vancouver – A Planners’ Scorecard and Forecast”