urban therapist

Motivational speaking

Phil enjoys getting a conference off on a high, or sending delegates home with a spring in their step. His presentations are high in energy and movement, involving lots of imagery, challenging questions and unusual insights, drawn from broad range of sources and disciplines as well as his own range of practical experience. His presentations fall within three broad areasCreative approaches to place-makingThe creative economyThe Intercultural City

An outside eye
Cities invite Phil to spend several days or an extended period giving a critical eye to what is going on. It may be focused on a particular problem, but can often be more innovative and effective when not hedged with preconceptions, as unexpected insights may then arise. Phil asks questions ‘what’s going on here?’ and ‘why do you do it this way?’ and ‘what might be possible if you and them worked together?’ He takes a holistic look at the city identifying connections and gaps. The city of Stavanger invited him investigate whether it was prepared for what might happen after it had been the European Capital of Culture. Helsinki is currently asking Phil to tell it what the city is like through the eyes of a foreigner.

Place-making
Phil joins or leads larger cross-disciplinary teams to engage in masterplanning of localities, towns or cities. His contribution is to understand the ‘soft infrastructure’ os a place: its past, memories, relationships, blind-sports, hope and anxieties. This complements the work of hard infrastructure professionals. He has done this in many UK cities, but also recently in advising the Norwegian government property agency. He writes persuasive and often challenging documents, for example in South Tyneside and Dewsbury.

Creating models and methods
Ideas are only any good if they can be clearly communicated and readily translated into ways of working that give results. Phil enjoys taking a new conceptual framework (such as the intercultural city where he is working with cities form 11 countries) and translating it into policy models which can be understood across different cultures and professional disciplines (ie the intercultural grid). Then developing these into action plans which can be evaluated, compared and improved (ie the intercultural city benchmarking tool).

Innovative thinking
Following in the tradition of Comedia, Phil likes to go outside of and beyond the issues that are at the top of everyone’s agenda here and now, to find the issues they will need to think about a few years hence. He was a pioneer in the fields of social enterprise, urban regeneration and the cultural industries in the 1980s. In the ‘90s he at the forefront of thinking on ‘the creative city’, which is now so ubiquitous. His current work on the intercultural city is now following a similar pattern. He enjoys collaborating with foundations, think tanks, academic departments and policy forecasters on this regards.

Order titles by Phil Wood
here