The 2025 Living Streets Aotearoa Walking Summit
Join us at our 2025 Walking Summit, where the theme is “Walkable Communities for Wellbeing". The summit is being held as a one-day virtual event online on Thursday 6 November. This event will share best practice for working with communities, prioritising pedestrians, guidance and policy for making our streets safer for walking, showcasing innovations and exploring the health benefits of creating walkable streets.
Our Summit will highlight changemakers for walking, featuring impactful campaigns and the tireless work of community advocates striving for healthier, walkable spaces. Attendees will also hear inspiring stories from past finalists and recipients of our Golden Foot Walking Award.
Keynote Speakers
We’re excited to announce our keynote speakers for the Walking Summit: Dr Alice Miller and Dr Eva Neely!
Dr Alice MIller is a medical doctor and PhD student in public health at the University of Otago. She will be presenting about her research on the “Road Lobby”, a group of trade associations across the road transport sector that work to influence transport policy to lobby for vehicle transport and make the case against public transport and active transport. Read this interview with Alice on our website to learn more about her research.
Dr Alice Miller, PhD student at University of Otago
Dr Eva Neely is a senior lecturer at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington. Her research sits at the intersection of mother/parenthood, place, embodiment, and health. She is especially curious about the experiences of parents in cities, and how walking with children can reveal both the challenges and opportunities of sub/urban life. At the Walking Summit, she will share the emerging research platform of Parent-Centred Urbanism (Facebook link), showing how paying attention to parents’ walking journeys and use of sub/urban space can help us imagine more welcoming, accessible, and caring cities for everyone.
Draft Programme
Keynote speakers:
Workstreams:
1) Walking for Wellbeing
Walking is important to wellbeing because it can improve physical and mental health, enrich community connection, and is a resilient and sustainable mode of transport. Speakers will talk about the many health and wellbeing advantages of walking and how walking can be better encouraged and supported for all of its benefits.
2) Footpath and pedestrian-centred design
Footpath and urban design are key features that enable or impair the ability and choice to walk. Panelists will share best practice and guidance from all stages of pedestrian-centred design and examples of improving existing design to prioritise the needs of pedestrians
3) Creating Walkable Streets
This session will highlight the work that councils, transport organisations, and community groups are doing to make streets more walkable. Whether it be through infrastructure, policy, or community engagement, these panelists will discuss examples of changes that put pedestrians first and make recommendations about how to improve walkability in Aotearoa.
4) Making our streets safer for walking
Making sure that streets are safe and feel safe is essential for all pedestrians, and a critical factor in more people choosing to walk. This stream will feature experts in road safety research, policy, and implementation. The panel discussion will focus on features that improve safety and the perceptions of safety for pedestrians on our streets.
5) Changemakers
The Changemakers session will celebrate community advocates and campaigns that put walking first. Community advocates, opinion leaders, and everyday walking champions will share their experiences and inspiration to advocate for walking.
Contact Us
For any enquiries, please contact:
Walking Summit 2025 Organisers
walkingsummit2025@theconferencecompany.com
Phone (NZ): +64 9 360 1240 | Phone (Australia) 1800 193 405
Previous Walking Summits
Find out more about the 2023 Walking Summit and all our previous summits!