Steven Burgess Book as a speaker/entertainer for your next event

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Key Points for Steven Burgess

  • Steven Burgess is a leading contributor to the planning, design and development of liveable cities.
  • Steven brings 30 years’ experience as an engineer and urban strategist to his understanding of long-term relationships between urban form, mobility and vitality.
  • Steven Burgess is renowned for being an inspiring presenter who motivates and inspires audiences about the future of our cities, and what we need to do to make them more liveable.
  • Steven Burgess is the author of Complete Streets - Guidelines to Urban Street Design, and is a contributor to international street making guides, NACTO Global Street Design Guide and Auckland Street Design. He is currently working with Bloomberg Philanthropies on developing street safety techniques in 10 nominated cities across the globe.
  • Steven Burgess regularly provides comments to the media about street design, city shaping, walking and parking, and is also regularly engaged by organisations and industry associations to run masterclasses on these topics.
  • Steven Burgess has won a variety of speaking (AITPM & IPWEAQ) and project awards (PLACE Leaders Asia Pacific, AILA, AITPM).

Topics for Steven Burgess

  • Town centre revitalisation
    How cities, towns and villages can be better places with more people focused movement and place considerations.
  • Managing growth
    How do I get ahead without ruining a great place? Talking, movement, place and prosperity.
  • Parking - The Achilles heel of city management
    How and why we get into trouble, and how to fix it.
  • Street making
    How important streets are in active successful places, and how to go about making them.
  • The future of suburbia V - The next Australian City
    What will the NEXT Australian City look like? How will suburban work and housing change our urban landscape?

Testimonials for Steven Burgess

In 2023, the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) held a workshop called, 'People, Places and Parking' with Steven Burgess and MRCagney. Steven was our key speaker for the workshop where he gave his views on what has shaped the current approach to parking around the world and how managing parking and kerbside space more effectively can unlock economic opportunities and support more active travel. Steven provided an informative presentation and participated in an engaging conversation with the workshop participants. Steven understands the system well and provided useful tools for better parking management that supports wider transport and land use objectives. Steven also presented to elected members and connects well with them. Prior to workshops, he takes the time to understand the local context so his examples are fruitful and inspiring for participants to action.
Team Lead, Streets for People, Urban Mobility
Transport Services
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency

Steven provided a high-energy, insightful and engaging presentation to kick off our conference. He also added a great deal of value to a panel session.
Local Government Professionals Australia 

Ipswich City Council recently engaged Steven for a multi-day opportunity to educate both internal council officers and local external stakeholders. Steven’s ability to link traffic, parking and prosperity through an enthusiastic and provoking style, all backed by solid data, was well-received by every audience member. More so Steven’s presentation encourages continued conversation and action to help create a city that offers economic growth for years to come. Steve’s presence on the stage is engaging and his passion shines through from his wealth of knowledge and expertise in city shaping.
Ipswich City Council

Auckland Transport recently held our Parking Strategy Panel Debate where we had the good fortune of securing Steven Burgess as a key speaker, linking in from Australia via Zoom. Steven was extremely accommodating and easy to work with, and his affable demeanor was on display as he shared knowledge on how best to create resilient, attractive, livable cities in the modern era. His views were considered, articulate and informed, as was his engagement with the audience questions. Steven was a pleasure to work with and a privilege to host at our online event.
Auckland Transport

Steven Burgess is a good friend of the Planning Institute of Australia and he is repeatedly requested to present at our events. His content as a keynote speaker is captivating. He provides not only the latest best practice and technical information on traffic, parking and how to build great places, but he so intimately knows his subject matter that he manages to provide conclusive evidence that influences change in the most sceptical of audience members. All done in his effusive and energetic style. He was one of the outstanding keynotes at our 13th Annual NSW PIA conference at Wagga Wagga in March 2022.
PIA NSW Division President and Northern Convenor

The Association for Sustainability in Business Inc. were extremely fortunate to have Steven Burgess deliver a keynote address at the 7th Making Cities Liveable Conference. It is clear that Steven shows great passion, and has a refreshing approach to transport and design of cities. His presentation was dynamic and thought provoking. Delegate feedback on his presentation was overwhelmingly positive. Delegate’s comments included: “I loved Steven Burgess. He was very engaging and thought provoking” “Steve Burgess - great story, and a great presenter”; “Steven Burgess’ presentation on streets was very animated, informative and entertaining”; “Steven was fabulous as he is certainly an expert in his field. Active transport/walkable cities is a topic I am very interested in and his style of presentation was entertaining and gets you reenthused in something you're already enthusiastic about!”.
Conference Secretariat
7th Making Cities Liveable Conference

When Steve Burgess sets foot on the stage, he captivates the audience. In speaking to the function of streets and their preeminent functions in social engagement as well as handling traffic, he distils the essence of his narrative to a clear irrefutable case, whilst simultaneously being able to back-up his argument with technical data. Steve proved himself one of the standout keynote speakers at this year’s Planning Institute of Australia State Conference, evidenced by the follow-up audience interest in having him return to address various agencies.
FPIA, Convenor Planning Institute of Australia (WA) Urban Design Chapter

Steven Burgess has spoken at several Expotrade infrastructure events across Australia, speaking very passionately on the need to reconnect people with the streets outside their own front door. Steven has an ability to get the cogs of thinking to be practically visible in an audience. He is a highly engaging and animated speaker who is able to capture the interest and attention of delegates throughout his presentation. His expertise and knowledge also extends him very well to panel discussions and I would not hesitate to recommend him as a guest speaker.
Conference Producer
Expotrade Australia

Steven Burgess is an exceptional speaker, fully conversant with the issues concerning his topic, direct and concise in his delivery, easy to listen to, responds to questions well, and while the presentation was delivered with the utmost professionalism, Steven still manages to set the audience at ease with his laidback style. I have no hesitation in recommending Steven as a guest speaker to any industry group, and I look forward to re-engaging him as a presenter to our members in the future.
Cairns Branch President,
Urban Design Institute of Australia (UDIA)

Our relationship with Steven has been built over an extensive period of time. In more recent times Steven has facilitated at our many complete Streets workshops across Queensland and soon on a national basis. He has has presented at 16 workshops and several branch conferences. As an organisation that specialises in training workshops and conferences we are very particular about the standard in which we present ourselves through our facilitators. Feedback from program attendees is always very positive. Steven has a terrific presence and an ability to engage the audience while maintaining a very informative level of discussion.
CEO
Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (QLD) (IPWEAQ)

Steven Burgess was a presenter at the ‘Working Well Together: Putting Partnerships on the Map’ summit held on the Sunshine Coast. Steven was an outstanding speaker on the day with a great combination of engineering knowledge and experience, a realistic and very
‘human’ approach to remind participants of the meaningfulness of streets. This was delivered with an incredibly engaging presentation style that resonated with the whole audience regardless of their qualification or occupation.
Sport Recreation and Wellbeing Manager
Sunshine Coast Council

UDIA Sunshine Coast recently had the privilege of having Steven Burgess speak on ‘Good Streets, Good Places – The Lost Art of Street Design’ at a member’s breakfast attended by over 60 professional people. Steven is an excellent and engaging speaker who is very
knowledgeable on his topic. He delivered his presentation in a direct and concise manner and it was well received by the audience. Whilst Steven is professional in his delivery he manages to capture the audience’s attention with his laid-back style of presentation. I would recommend Steven as a guest speaker to any organisation.
Branch President UDIA
Sunshine Coast