Featuring the Hon. Catherine King MP, Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Development, and the NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully, the Dialogue’s Airport City Summit will mark 1,000 days until the much-anticipated opening of Sydney’s first 24-hour airport in late 2026.
In partnership with Federal, NSW and Local governments, we’ll discuss how best to leverage the economic opportunities this once-in-a-generation piece of infrastructure and surrounding Aerotropolis will deliver for Greater Western Sydney.
There will be a major focus on development in our Southwest, with the Dialogue planning to host a specialised Southwest Sydney Development Forum that will look at some of the challenges facing greenfield development and the infrastructure, and services, required to support the needs of growing communities in the south-west.
This important annual event for Western Sydney’s healthcare professionals, community representatives, researchers and care providers will examine the infrastructure, services and support needed to meet the health needs of the region’s rapidly growing population.
Held in collaboration with the local health districts, the GWS Future Health Forum will tackle the health and medical challenges faced in the region and ensure health sits at the heart of all major planning and investment decisions.
Following the inaugural event in 2023 that brought together government communication leaders and newsroom decision-makers, this popular event will return with a strong line-up of influential journalists, editors, political spin doctors and industry decision-makers as we explore the evolving media landscape and the rewriting of the Western Sydney narrative.
The region’s premier infrastructure, property, transport and planning event will return in 2024 to examine the bold ideas and investment needed to meet the region’s diverse housing challenges, transport connections and urban renewal ambitions.
Local, state and federal politicians will once again come together with leading developers, planners and researchers to provide insights for driving productivity and connecting a growing population to key services, jobs and social amenities.
Throughout the year, the Dialogue will again host our boardroom lunches, featuring prominent and influential ministers and political leaders from Local, State and Federal Government. Tailored to inform our business partners, these exclusive events offer invaluable connections and insights for business, tertiary and community leaders.
Our 2024 speaker lineup includes Rose Jackson, NSW Minister for Water, Housing and Homelessness, Prue Car, Minister for Education & Western Sydney, Jason Clare, Federal Minister for Education, Josh Murray, Transport for NSW Secretary, Jennifer Westacott, Chair of Western City & Aerotropolis Authority, Gail Connelly, City of Parramatta CEO, John Graham, NSW Minister for Jobs, Roads & Tourism, Jihad Dib, NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government and Jim Betts, Federal Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
Staged in Wollongong to launch the Dialogue’s new research paper, this event will bring together government, infrastructure, education, transport and community stakeholders to foster greater collaboration between the Illawarra and Greater Western Sydney and examine the mutual opportunities for growth.
This year the Dialogue delivers its most ambitious and in-depth policy piece to date – Beyond the Boom, a landmark thought leadership initiative that will examine how best to continue the bold future vision for GWS.
Beyond the Boom seeks to cast a new narrative for Greater Western Sydney, looking to harness the value of the current infrastructure boom to deliver outcomes for the region, its economy and its people.
Working in collaboration with stakeholders across government, the research has been supported by our Beyond the Boom Patron, Deputy Premier Prue Car, and our Eminent Persons Group – Jim Betts, Lindy Deitz, Kiersten Fishburn, Geoff Roberts AM, Professor Michelle Trudgett and Professor Jennifer Westacott AO. The group is chaired by Professor Peter Shergold AC.
The Dialogue is embarking on its second East London Study Tour. This week-long tour will take thought leaders from tertiary education, business, the not-for-profit sector and more from our region to examine the success of East London’s transformation from a region with potential, to a thriving global hub.
We will learn lessons about governance and strategic planning, development, social and affordable housing, transport and major infrastructure, decarbonisation and the green economy, arts, technology and education and urban regeneration.
Limited opportunities to join this landmark tour are still open. Please see our website for details.
For the third year in a row, the Dialogue will be running the Collaborative Leadership Program. This unique week-long initiative offers professional development for an invited cohort of existing and emerging leaders from organisations with an interest in Greater Western Sydney.
Last year, 39 people were given the most in-depth immersions into the institutions and local communities of Western Sydney, including the Clontarf Foundation at Mt Druitt and Savannah Pride at Shalvey PCYC. The group learned lessons from the leaders who have shaped the region and were given the tools to be change agents for the region themselves.
For any inquiries about the Collaborative Leadership Program, including the 2024 program, please email events@westernsydney.org.au
This popular Western Sydney guide will be returning in 2024, but this time with some extra flavour. The next edition will be a ‘food lover’s guide to Greater Western Sydney’ to be published as a book and online guide celebrating the best the West has to offer.
It shows off the people and places that contribute to the West’s culinary character and showcases GWS as a cultural destination, foodie paradise and investment opportunity.
In 2024 we are launching the GWS Corporate Affairs Roundtable. This new professional networking collective will be offered exclusively to Dialogue partners to allow our public affairs professionals to collaborate professionally and come together socially.
Members will explore existing and potential issues from a comms perspective, share intelligence, promote their work and expand networks.
We are planning three in-person events this year for our GWS Corporate Affairs Roundtable members to come together, hear from industry leaders and deepen professional connections.
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We acknowledge and honour Aboriginal People who have cared for Country in Greater Western Sydney for at least 60,000 years and acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we gather today.
The Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue thanks these Traditional Owners and we pay our respects to their Ancestors and Elders – past, present and emerging.
We also acknowledge the vital role played by our Local Aboriginal Land Councils, the modern custodians for all First Nations people who currently live in our region, home to one of the largest urban Aboriginal populations in Australia.
