Innovation Talks
MAVlab Innovation Talks is a new event series that will act like innovation acupuncture by showcasing inspirational public sector work and the extraordinary practitioners leading it.
Monthly events will be hosted online, convening a collection of international luminaries with leading local practitioners sharing work from around Victoria and the world.
Talks will focus on themes of community health & wellbeing, climate futures, future gen, connected places, tomorrow’s infrastructure, local leadership and emerging tech and data practices.
Upcoming event
MAVlab Innovation Talks #5: Emerging Roles for Trials and Transformation
- Date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025
How can local councils drive experimentation and the adoption of helpful new technologies in ways that are cost-effective, safe, sustainable and genuinely valuable for both council and community? In this MAVlab Innovation Talks event, we’re zooming in on the critical enablement roles that make this kind of innovation possible — people whose job it is to unlock curiosity, build capability, and drive transformation from the inside out.
During this event you’ll hear from Mandy O'Toole and Alireza Toran Pour at the City of Melbourne who will share insights from their newly created City Sensing Lead role, and Justin Daly, the Emerging Technologies Lead at Mornington Peninsula Shire, who has helped pilot a variety of new digital and AI tools, showing what’s possible when councils create space for experimentation.
Past events
MAVlab Innovation Talks #4: Beyond the Survey
- Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Catch up on a conversation we hosted in May with Michael Beattie, Community Engagement Coordinator at Banyule City Council, Pip Smith, Coordinator of Community Engagement and Sujayne Downie, Community Engagement Officer at Yarra Ranges Council. You’ll learn how they are leveraging a variety of tactics and tools, experimenting and innovating with community engagement methods beyond the survey, enabling rich community engagement to help drive more resilience, inclusive and thriving communities.
MAVlab Innovation Talks #3: AI Innovation in Local Government
- Date: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Catch up on a conversation we hosted in April with Lisa Ippolito, Continuous Improvement Project Specialist at Whitehorse City Council and Sahar Farzanfar, Project Lead for MAVlab’s AI in Planning project. You’ll hear about an example of creative AI adoption at Whitehorse City Council as well as get a sneak peak into the highly collaborative AI in Planning project led by MAVlab.
MAVlab Innovation Talks #2: Digital Storytelling for Community Conversations
- Date: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Catch up on an exciting discussion we facilitated with Kelly Henderson, Team Leader Digital Innovation at City of Wellington and Helen Walpole, who leads a data design studio at City of Melbourne, exploring innovative examples of digital tools for storytelling to drive community trust and involvement with council projects.
See the Our Changing City video that was shared during Kelly Henderson’s presentation:
MAVlab Innovation Talks #1: Connected Places with Nathalie de Vries and Jocelyn Chiew
- Date: Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Catch up on a conversation we hosted between two living legends of public sector design, visionary architect Nathalie de Vries (the DV from the world-renowned Dutch architecture practice MVRDV) in conversation with Jocelyn Chiew, Director of City Design at the City of Melbourne.