The time has come for a new conversation about development. A conversation supported by a suite of digital products throughout the life of a project.
We believe that good development should be celebrated, not feared, and that an open, transparent dialogue between the development sector and the community will lead to better places for our future.
UrbanTalk is a property development and community engagement platform that supports the approval, construction and sales process, connecting developers to the community and building consumer confidence in their products.
With experience in both planning and media production, UrbanTalk is an informed, contemporary response to the broken landscape of community consultation.
UrbanTalk is the culmination of three decades of planning and media production experience.
Our approach revamps community consultation, removing the sometimes confrontational and negative aspects of the process. In its place, we create multimedia products that allow industry professionals to communicate on their terms with valuable tools, that can be used for the entire development timeline.
Our core pillars guide us and inform our every decision. They make UrbanTalk what it is and give you an insight into our core beliefs.
Our products make difficult topics simple, without losing meaning or detail. Our goal is to make the conversation about urban development accessible and inclusive for everyone.
We promise to be a middle ground. We’re not choosing sides or promoting projects. Instead, we provide a platform where facts can be shared, ideas harnessed, and improvements discussed.
Everyone and every project has a space with UrbanTalk. We invite the community to be a part of a positive, inclusive, engaging conversation.
Our eyes are set on the future and the excitement it brings. We embrace new technology and exist to create better cities, built out of better conversations.
UrbanTalk is for both the development sector and for local communities where a development has been proposed.
Developers can explain their projects and reach out to the community for their ideas and comments. Local communities can find information about new developments and join the conversation.
UrbanTalk was shaped and created from three decades of planning and community engagement experience. We use a seamless digital approach take a front foot in having a robust dialogue about development.
UrbanTalk gives the development sector the power to engage the whole community, stop development shock, prevent approval delays and reduce costs, using digital engagement tools to communicate clearly and with longevity to break down the climate of mistrust.
UrbanTalk invites the community to join the development conversation, providing clear, unbiased and easy-to-access information and an authentic channel for community views and concerns to support the design of projects in your neighbourhood.
UrbanTalk is made up of passionate individuals who believe in development but could see that engagement wasn’t working, losing its integration with the design process. With only one moment in time to express, their views, often after design is finalised, communities were frustrated.
Leading change are our Managing Director, Belinda Barnett and Creative Producer, Cooper Lindsay.
BTP (HONS),CERT MKG (UTS) MPIA
After three decades of development sector leadership, Belinda Barnett knew that something had to change.
As CEO of Urban Concepts, Belinda’s planning expertise and communications skills had been supporting a formidable list of clients, including government and globally-recognised private sector companies.
A leader in the planning communications industry, Belinda could see that traditional community engagement wasn’t working as well as it used to. She also saw that the development sector in general was not benefiting from digital multi-media technology as she knew it could.
Belinda believes that good development should be celebrated and not feared, but could see a gap emerging between the development sector and the community.
It was time to reframe how we engage, it was time to bring engagement into the digital age, to make it more readily accessible and appealing to younger age groups who look to videos and podcasts for their online experience. It was time for UrbanTalk.
See Belinda’s Curriculum Vitae.
After completing a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney, Cooper Lindsay pivoted to content creation and completed a Bachelor of Film at SAE. Cooper has spent the past three years creating engaging content in a variety of formats including short films, music videos and promotional content.
Now the holder of a Remote Pilot Licence, Cooper is both the Creative Producer and Chief Remote Pilot at Urban Concepts, bringing community engagement into the digital world through video, drone imagery and podcasts.
UrbanTalk has selected Orange Sky as our Care Project. Orange Sky is a non-profit organisation providing free mobile laundry and shower services to people experiencing homelessness. Orange Sky was founded in a Brisbane garage by two 20-year-old mates, Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett. In late 2014, the boys built the first laundry van, Sudsy, installing a couple of washing machines and dryers in the back of their old van.
We love that community connection and conversation is at the heart of Orange Sky. It resonates with us because having meaningful conversations is also at the heart of UrbanTalk.
We will show our support to Orange Sky by volunteering our time at Orange Sky Laundry Vans and through our donations. $24 helps provide a load of laundry for someone doing it tough. We will donate $50 for every UrbanTalk Product Tour undertaken (that’s 2 loads of laundry) and $100 from every UrbanTalk sale (that’s 4 loads of laundry).
We are excited that by helping local communities to understand new development and planning projects that we can also support, those doing it tough.
UrbanTalk acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of this nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
Suite 1A, Gunshot Alley, Suakin Drive,
Georges Head, Mosman, NSW, 2088
