On the 17th January 2024, Digital Futures and the Manchester Digital Strategy Research Network partnered up to organise a free event to explore the latest ways to visualise cities.
The event brought together over 60 businesses, organisations, and academics willing to share their insights on how we can use digital technologies to improve city planning, design, resident engagement, and management.
Held at the Alliance Manchester Business School, attendees were introduced by Megan Lawless, Senior Digital Strategy Officer at Manchester City Council, who gave a talk on Manchester Digital Strategy’s socially focused approach to technology.
Megan then gave the floor to Dr Grant Wilson, Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at The University of Birmingham. Dr Wilson presented on his case study: 'Birmingham's digital twin – the story so far' which detailed his experiences developing a digital twin in the Tyseley Environmental Enterprise District. The discussion was then opened up to the rest of room, wherein attendess could ask any questions.
Watch Megan's introduction and Grant's presentation here:
A World Café session then took place, where attendees grouped together to tackle pertinent questions surrounding opportunities for using visualisation to improve the city. The objectives of this workshop were:
- To identify the key challenges and opportunities for using visualisation to improve city planning, design, resident engagement, and management in Manchester across the key Digital Strategy themes of people, place, and sustainability.
- To develop concrete use cases for visualisation projects that could be implemented in Manchester across the key Digital Strategy themes of people, place, and sustainability.
- To strengthen relationships and collaboration between academic and public sector professionals working on city visualisation.
Full details of the workshop, including its discussions and outcomes, can be found in the post-event report featured below:
After a highly successful and lively workshopping session, attendees were invited to network over refreshments. Soon after, the event was brought to a close.
The University of Manchester's wider Digital Futures network is highly interdisciplinary and operates across the whole range of the University’s digital research - connect with us and keep in touch: