Community Wealth Building: where the economy works for people

5th November

Northern Irish pounds in a magnifying glass

In this session we will explore what the economy means for people and place.  In recent years, there have been big shifts in how our economy works with more people becoming self-employed, big-name brands disappearing from our high street and the rise of online commerce and big tech.  At the same time, whilst cities like Belfast have changed dramatically in recent years in how they look and feel, we’ve seen a demise in traditional industry and many challenges of poor health and poverty remain.   How do we make sense of these changes – what does economy even mean anymore and what do alternative approaches to economic change look like?

This event after showing a short introductory video will hear from several speakers with keen interest in promoting and developing local community wealth building opportunities – after which attendees will have the opportunity to work in groups to explore what should be our next steps.

Sandwich lunch will be provided before event.
Lunch between 1.30 – 2 pm. Event 2 – 3.30 pm.

Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) 

Facilitator:  
Sarah Longlands, Chief Executive of Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) 

Community Wealth Building: where the economy works for people

5th November

Lunch: 1:30pm - 2pm | Workshop: 2pm - 3:30pm | Europa Hotel

Carol Lemmens - Arup

Carol is Arup’s Global Advisory Services Portfolio leader and interim Europe Property Business leader.

He was instrumental in developing Arup’s position paper to define the circular economy in the context of the built environment and developing Arup’s work as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s (EMF) knowledge partner for the built environment. He continues to work to raise the awareness of the circular economy approach from general first principles to practice by identifying the many challenges, enablers and opportunities available to Arup and others in making the circular economy a reality. Carol regularly contributes to Circular Economy and thought pieces, presentations and interviews globally. Most notably, Carol was invited to give a key note address to the United Nations General Assembly at their Circular Economy event, in October 2018.