REP Research Seminar - Presenting in person - Dr Wei Yang, CEO Digital Task Force for Planning. Title: A Digital Future for Planning – Spatial Planning Reimagined

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Abstract: The seminar, A Digital Future for Planning – Spatial Planning Reimagined, explores how the planning profession must evolve in response to growing global challenges, including climate change, inequality, and the increasing convergence of physical and digital environments. Reflecting on the post-war origins of modern planning, speaker contrasts its former sense of purpose with today’s more complex and interconnected context.

The talk argues for a renewed planning ethos grounded in compassion, creativity, and public value, combined with the confident adoption of digital innovation. Technologies such as AI and data-driven tools are presented as enablers of more integrated and forward-looking approaches, but their impact depends on how they are applied in the public interest. Ultimately, the talk calls for systemic transformation within the profession, through new skills, methods, and civic engagement, to re-establish spatial planning as a key force for delivering sustainable and equitable futures.

Bio: Dr Wei Yang OBE OBE FAcSS FRTPI Hon FRIBA

CEO, Digital Task Force for Planning, and Chair, Wei Yang & Partners

Dr Wei Yang OBE is an internationally renowned town planner and urban designer who champions a place-based, whole-systems approach to tackling the grand challenges of our time.

Wei is Co-Founder and CEO of the Digital Task Force for Planning, the world’s first innovation-led social enterprise pioneering the systemic transformation of spatial planning in the digital era, and Chair of Wei Yang & Partners, an award-winning masterplanning practice based in London.

Actively promoting joined-up thinking across professions, Wei served as Chair of the Construction Industry Council from 2023 to 2025 and as President of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 2021. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and an Honorary Professor at University College London.

Wei holds several board-level and advisory roles across multiple sectors. She is a Board Member of the British Library and Chair of its Capital Portfolio Committee, and the Global Planners Network representative to the UN-Habitat Professionals Forum. She was a member of the New Towns Taskforce (2024–25) and an Expert Adviser to the London Plan Review (2024). In recognition of her contributions to town planning, she was awarded an OBE in the 2025 New Year Honours.