Sir Peter Hall

The TCPA tonight honoured the great contribution to British planning by Sir Peter Hall, whose 80th birthday has also been celebrated this week by UCL where he is an ever-present influence. David Lock led the tributes, which hailed SPH's vision of places designed for people and their complex lives, when too many were thinking of cars. The very pleasant evening ended with a rendition of Love, Life and Liberty, a poetic and musical reminder of what planning is all about: land.

Place East London

Just ahead of the launch of our Tech City report, I was asked to speak at the Place East London conference on what the cluster could mean for East London jobs. I said our in-depth analysis shows the much-hyped cluster is larger than anyone had previously thought, but the entrepreneurs within it are less diverse than London SMEs or British digital economy firms. To open access to a wide group requires rethinking the entrepreneurship culture, making financing easier for people without contacts to rich people, encouraging skills training and networking in local populations, and a more female-friendly environment (a theme from my undergraduate anthropology degree).

I came after Sir Robin Wales who spoke about Newham's great efforts - and success - about getting local people into jobs with some of the new employers (not least Westfield) coming to town. GLA Chief of Staff Sir Edward Lister told how the £9-24 billion cost of the Olympic Games will be the "least expensive of the projects" planned to upgrade infrastructure in East London.Newly annointed London Legacy Development Corporation Chief Daniel Moylan closed the event vowing that the park would not become a "shard of prosperity" - like Canary Wharf.

How the Olympics can help... Lille?

In the Paris metro, I was handed a promotional leaflet "on the road to the Olympic Games".... for Lille. Interesting that the Northern French city is hoping to attract some of the tourists flocking to London. The 10 reasons is offers are standard enough: it's not far from London (80 minutes), the food is good, it's a change of scene, culture, shopping etc etc.  

Digital Shoreditch

Kam Star's Digital Shoreditch is a boutique conference for East London's digital geeks. Fed by the hype and energy of the government's Tech City initiative, the much talked about event is growing - and likely to gain in strength. The acoustics of Hackney House weren't brilliant, but the crowd was attentive and committed and the speakers (including Centre for London's Rob Whitehead talking about our Tech City research project) were top class!