Simon Schama, Sir Michael Pitt & Mechtild Rossler to speak at European Landscape Conference

Historian and BBC presenter Professor Simon Schama will be the guest speaker at the first-ever UK Landscape Conference.

Liverpool One

The conference opens on 8 November with the presentation of the six shortlisted entries for the UK Landscape Award and the announcement of the winner. At the conference dinner on 9 November, Schama will share his perceptions about how landscape has changed since he wrote Landscape and Memory, 15 years ago.

The conference will feature an array of high-profile speakers. Rene Bihan of SWA Group, San Francisco, will share his company’s experience of working in China, where the government is backing ambitious, large-scale projects to transform and reshape blighted industrial landscapes. Dr Mechtild Rossler, Chief, European and North America Section, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, will talk about Global Landscape Heritage and the challenges for conservation.

Steve Quartermain, Chief Planner at DCLG, will speak about how planning is being reformed under the new government, while Sir Michael Pitt, Chair of the Infrastructure Planning Commission, will speak about its work to date in implementing the Planning Act 2008.

The Heritage Lottery Fund will discuss its commitment to landscape with tips on securing funds, and the Landscape Institute, together with Natural England and ICOMOS-UK/IUCN-UK, will lead a session on valuing ecosystem services, ‘Putting a price on landscape’.

On 10 November, the conference will conclude with a specially chartered ferry trip up the Mersey commentated by Walter Menzies, CEO of Mersey Basin Campaign.

The awards ceremony, conference dinner and the Mersey tour are included in the conference price of £185. For more information on the conference, or to register, click here.

Talking Landscape