Planning the next century

The phrase ‘long term’ can send some people running, and let’s face it, commitment can be intimidating. Setting long-term career goals, creating long-term financial plans, keeping up a long-term relationship—all of these things may not make the top of your priority list when you
are focused on finishing the paper you have due tomorrow!

For the students of Dalhousie’s School of Planning however, the idea of long term is far from contemptible. In fact, they have chosen "long-term planning" as the theme for their upcoming conference IMAGINE, organized by students in the Master of Planning program. One of these students is Alisma Perry, whose role has focused on promotion for the March 10 to 12 event.

The IMAGINE conference—which is free to attend—is designed to be relevant to all students, as well as the general public. “We tried to get a range of speakers from different backgrounds,” explains Ms. Perry. These include political science, resource management, geography, Earth science, architecture, environmental studies, sociology, and journalism — reflecting  the interdisciplinary nature of the planning field.

Really really long-term planning

Ms. Perry says she is “excited to see how the different ideas presented feed into each other over the conference's three days, and how it all culminates in the final panel discussion on Saturday afternoon (March 12)”.

She also looks forward to hearing keynote speaker Bruce Tonn, a professor at the University of Tennessee, on Thursday March 10. “His work on really, really long-term planning was what inspired this conference topic, so his opening keynote will set the tone for the whole conference,” she predicts.

Just how long is long term in this case? Well, visit the IMAGINE conference’s web page (http://planningconference.dal.ca/) and you will be asked to “Imagine your world... your city... in 100 years...” (Yeesh! I am having trouble imagining my life post graduation in just one year).

Typically, community planning considers a 25-year time frame. Yet nowadays science is able to make increasingly far-reaching predictions about global issues like climate change, and planning should reflect that.

Why critical

In case the idea of mapping out the next century seems dubious to you, the conference will explore not only how long-term planning works, but why it is so critical in today’s world.

“As students in any discipline we should be imagining the long-term impacts that current actions will have on the world, and also the long-term potential for positive results from our actions,” says Ms. Perry.

IMAGINE is not about predicting what will happen in 100 years, but rather an opportunity to explore what we would like to happen, and how we can ensure our current decisions are helping move us towards that.

For more information, or to register for the conference on March 10 to 12, visit
http://planningconference.dal.ca/.