Our journeys through life and careers are about people at the heart. I am increasingly aware of this as I reflect. It was therefore a most welcome opportunity this weekend to head to The Black Heart in Camden Town, London. Will Pedley will be known to many of you as the current Transport Planner of the Year. That was one of my reasons for relishing some time with him on Saturday.

But it wasn’t the only reason. Will and I had much common ground to discuss in a ‘Triple Topic Talking’ session at this illustrious venue.

We both love heavy metal. We both want to see further change in orthodox transport planning. We are both deeply concerned about climate change.

It was my first time in The Black Heart and I hope not my last. It was the perfect setting for this TTT session. With live music playing elsewhere in the venue there were metalheads in abundance and the warming sound of gutteral voices, guitar riffs and drum beats as accompaniment to our conversation.

What we both recognised was the wonder of delving deeper into who people are and what makes them who they are.

From this autoethnographic qualitative research involving a sample of two, I conclude that professionals who have metal in their hearts are energised to seek change from business as usual in support of climate action. If there is appetite to support a much larger sample being assembled at The Black Heart on a future occasion to substantiate these findings, I would be delighted to take part.

#allaboutthepeople

#decideandprovide

#climateaction

#heavymetal