Conference Speakers

 Towards the Child Friendly City featured a wide range of expert and engaging presenters, workshop leaders, and panelists, from Europe and around the world.

Marvin Rees
Mayor of Bristol

Councillor Helen Godwin
Cabinet Member for Women, Children and Young People, Bristol City Council

Dr. Kate Bishop
Associate Professor and Discipline Director of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Petter Åkerblom
Landscape Architect, Senior lecturer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SLU, Sweden

Dr. Tom Allport
Consultant Community Paediatrician,  Community Children’s Health Partnership, University of Bristol, England

Ozlemnur Ataol
PhD candidate, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

Dr. Cathy Atkinson
Curriculum Director, Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology, University of Manchester, England.

Guilia Barra
PhD student in urban planning at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Simon Battisti
Director, Qendra Marrëdhënie (Relationship Center), Tirana, Albania

Professor Aude Bicquelet-Lock
Royal Town Planning Institute, UK

Dinah Bornat
Co-director, ZCD Architects, and design advocate for the Mayor of London, England

Alex Bottrill
Principal Urban Designer, England South, Sustrans, England

Dr. Jackie Bourke
School of Geography, University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Marion Briggs
Co-ordinator, The Alliance for Childhood, UK

Amica Dall
Co-founder, Assemble, UK

Charlotte Derry
Playful Places, England

Dr. Luke Dickens
Lecturer in Urban Futures, King’s College London, England

Benedicte Dubiez
Sustrans, Bristol, England

Claire Edwards
Practitioner and researcher, Sydney, Australia

Vicky Edwards
Senior Playworker; Founder and Coordinator of The Playworkers Travelling Journals, UK

Wendy Ellyatt
CEO, Save Childhood Movement, UK

Janne Eilsø
Educational Consultant, KOMPAN Play Institute, Denmark

Alice Ferguson
Co-founder and Director, Playing Out CIC, UK

Flora Fernandez
PhD student in Architecture, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Michael Follett
Director, OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC, England

Alain Flandes
PhD Student in Architecture, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Laurel Gallagher
Co-director, Urban Wilderness CIC, England

Jeanette Fich Jespersen
Head of the KOMPAN Play Institute, Denmark

Aleksandr Frontov
Chair of the Landscape Bureau AFA, Moscow, Russia

Tim Gill
Independent scholar, writer and consultant, author of No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society, UK

Josip Grgurić
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Croatia

Dr. Sophie Hadfield-Hill
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, England

Samantha Harman
Play Services Manager, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, England

Amy Harrison
The Architecture Centre, Bristol, England

Dr. Penny Hay
Research Fellow, Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, Senior Lecturer in Arts Education, School of Education, Bath Spa University, England

Eva Hoßfeld
University of Bremen, Germany

Anna Horton Cremin
Artist, co-director, One Five West, Manchester, England

Carolyn Ireland
Sustainable Transport Officer, Southampton City Council

Mary Jackson
Projects Manager, Learning through Landscapes, UK

Michaela James
Researcher, The ACTIVE Project, Swansea, Wales

Tracey Jobber
Senior play development officer, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, England

Sarah Jones-Morris
Director, Landsmith Associates, Bristol, England

Dr. Matluba Khan
Research Associate, University College London; Co-founder, A Place in Childhood, APiC CIC, Scotland

Professor Peter Kraftl
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, England

Dr. Penny Lawrence
Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, University of Roehampton, London, England.

Christine Yuihwa Lee
Founding Member, Taiwan Parks and Playgrounds for Children by Children, Taiwan

Purva Ladge
Researcher in Environmental Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, England

Leticia Lozano
Co-founder, Director, MACIA Estudio, Mexico City, Mexico

Marianne Mannello
Assistant Director: Policy, Support and Advocacy, Play Wales, Wales

Anna Mansfield
Director of Strategy and Research, Publica, England

Josephine Martin
Pioneering Places Project Manager, England

Dr. Mel McRee
Bath Spa University, Bath, England

Dr. Patrick Meehan
Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and Education Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University, England

Nafsika Michail
Landscape Architect, PhD researcher, Active & Healthy Cities, University of Northumbria, Newcastle, England

Cherie Morgan
Head of Strategy and Development, Play Scotland, Scotland

Tasniva Rahman Mumu
PhD student in Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh, UK

Eddie Nuttall
Senior Playworker, Felix Road Adventure Playground, Bristol, England

Sabine Oberrauter
Project Assistant, Austrian Mobility Research, Austria

Elske Oost-Mulder
OBB, The Netherlands

Marta Palacios
Project Assistant, Austrian Mobility Research, Austria

Beata Patuszyńska
PR professional in the real estate sector, Warsaw, Poland

Sean Peacock
PhD researcher, Open Lab, Newcastle University, England

Sérgio Porto
Masters student in Architecture, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Daniel Rees-Jones
Play Development Officer, Scrapstore Play Services, Bristol, UK

Dr. Yupeng Ren
Lecturer, Yantai University, China

Aminah Ricks
Founder, Future Planners, NY City, USA

Jeff Risom
Chief Innovation Officer, Gehl, Copenhagen, Denmark

Dr. Wendy Russell
Senior Lecturer in Play and Playwork at the University of Gloucestershire, and independent researcher, writer and consultant, England

Phil Royal
Campaign Manager, Children’s First Alliance, secretary for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood, UK

Taylor Sawyer
PhD Researcher, Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Céline Schmidt-Hamburger
University of Bremen, Germany

Manuel Jacinto Sarmento
Associate Professor, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Wim Seghers
Play space policy consultant, City of Antwerp, Belgium

Yuanyuan Shi
PhD candidate, Department of Landscape Architecture, The University of Sheffield, England

Athina Georgiou Shippi
PhD Candidate, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Ingrid Skeels
Playint Out, and Room 13 Hareclive

Dr. Matt Smith
Senior Lecturer in Applied Theatre, University of Portsmouth, England

Dr. Maria Sokolova
Child psychologist, MSUPE, Moscow, Russia

Gareth Stacey
Play and Youth Support Team, Wrexham Council, Wales

Professor Alison Stenning
University of Newcastle, England

Anna Szilágyi-Nagy
Vice-president, kultúrAktív; PhD student, University of Tübingen, Germany

Sergey Tatarinov
Executive director, The Landscape Bureau AFA, Moscow, Russia

Ben Tawil
Ludicology, Wrexham, Wales

Gabriela de Pina Trevisan
Assistant Professor, School of Higher Education, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

Joanne Ursell
Turner Contemporary Navigator, England

Arjan Vreugdenhil
OBB, The Netherlands

Simon Wasser
Senior Project Officer, Sustrans London

Sally Watson
PhD researcher, School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape, Newcastle University, England

Debbie Watson
Professor of Child and Family Welfare,
Head of Children and Families Research Centre, University of Bristol, England

Holly Weir
Researcher, University of Westminster & The Young Foundation, London, England

Rob Wheway
Play Advisory Service, England

Rae Whittow-Williams
Principal Project Officer, Greater London Authority, London, England

Marie Williams
CEO of Dream Networks CIC, PhD Student at UCL, Institute of Global Prosperity, UK

Dr. Sara-Jayne Williams
Bristol; University of the West of England

Dr. Jenny Wood
Co-founder, A Place in Childhood (APiC); Research Associate, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland

Yvonne Wren
Director, Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit, North Bristol NHS, England