Digital & Data

NISSA SHAHID

Nissa is a chartered planner and an expert in digital transformation and innovation within the planning and development field. She has a background in planning consultancy and technology within the built environment. She has a strong track record in shaping, delivering and securing strategic projects and programmes, most notably in the field of digital planning (i.e. Plantech). She has demonstrated her ability to secure funding through complex bidding processes (such as ESPON and Innovate). In March 2020, she was recognised as a ‘Women of Influence’ by The Planner magazine due to her contribution to the digitisation of the planning sector whilst working at the Connected Places Catapult.

As Digital First Lead for the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, Nissa is leading on the development of technical solutions for the Authority’s first digital Local Plan. At the core of Nissa’s role is democratising and widening the plan-making process through technology, ensuring that the Local Plan meets the needs of its varied users.

Contact Nissa via their LinkedIn profile.

HOPE MCGEE

Hope has extensive experience in community work combined with economic development skills in fundraising, planning, and programme administration. Her career spans technology, fashion, and social enterprise, and most recently led her to complete an MSc in Urban Economic Development at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit. Her research focus is on participatory planning and policy, addressing post-pandemic recovery, spatial justice, and developing an economic democracy framework that reimagines London's high streets through the social value of the commons.

Contact Hope via LinkedIn

HELEN MARKIDES

After studying urban development planning and architecture, Helen developed a career across policy, project management, monitoring and evaluation in both public and private settings, gaining almost a decade of experience in roles focused on improving outcomes for people and places.

Following many years working on international projects, Public Practice offered Helen the opportunity to work in and for her home city of London and to bring her technical skills squarely back to placemaking and the built environment. In her placement for the GLA, where she was Infrastructure Data and Innovation Lead, Helen worked in partnership with boroughs, utilities, and digital teams to ensure data and innovation programmes inform strategic planning and drive collaborative working for London's infrastructure.

Helen led two digital projects: London’s Underground Asset Register (LUAR) and the Infrastructure Mapping Application (IMA). LUAR is a pilot project at City Hall funded by the Cabinet Office that brings together data from utilities, transport providers, telecommunications companies, and boroughs to digitally map our below-ground infrastructure. As a champion for data sharing and innovation, Helen’s role also involved influencing the infrastructure sector, bringing together the GLA, central government, regulators and think-tanks to build support for mandating data sharing, as well as speaking at conferences and writing blogs.

She described how her Public Practice placement enabled her to fulfil long-held hopes for the future of our cities: “If the public and private sectors are encouraged to share data in a standard format, councils could plan more strategically, anticipate change, and move towards smart cities – my role at the GLA is a small but meaningful step towards these ambitions.”