On 31 October 2017, 17 MELAssociates hosted 85 people at a MELA Gala Event to celebrate the launch of their book, Connections: 12 Approaches to Relationship based placemaking. The guests came from the public, private, cultural, academic and community sectors in a mix of conversations and new connections. The highlight of the evening was the Speed Dating the Author activity in which guests were divided in to 3 themes to speed date 3 authors in that theme. The themes were Building Trust; Bridging Communities; and Designing for Diverse Place identities. During the event, a slide show of MELA’s most recent projects was screened which you can see here.