Rate My Professor Garry O'Dell

Garry O'Dell holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Leisure and Tourism from the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he was a part-time doctoral candidate from 2012 to 2021 in the Discipline of Tourism within the Faculty of Business and Law. His PhD thesis, titled 'Filtering the Contradictions: Interpreting Events Regulation by Local Government Public Servants as an Activity System in the Hunter Region NSW 2012-2016,' investigates the complexities, inconsistencies, and contradictions in local government regulation of events using cultural historical activity theory. Prior to this, he earned a Bachelor of Town Planning with Honours from the University of New South Wales. Currently listed as a research student at the University, O'Dell also serves as a Senior Contract Researcher at the Hunter Research Foundation since mid-2021.

O'Dell's extensive career in town planning spans over four decades, starting as a Development Assessment Planner in 1981 and advancing to roles such as Senior Strategic Planner and Development Services Manager. From 1994, he was Director and part-owner of a multi-disciplinary firm comprising architects, planners, landscape architects, and ecologists, and from 2009 to 2015, Principal Planner and sole practitioner of his planning consultancy. His research specializations center on land use planning and regulation for events and temporary uses, bureaucracy, red tape, and local government decision-making, with a focus on the NSW Hunter Valley. Key publications include 'Bureaucracy, Red Tape and My Rules: Event Regulation in the NSW Hunter Valley' (conference paper, 2017), 'What Rules?: Local Government Land Use Decision-Making for Events in NSW,' 'Festivals, Red Tape and Bureaucracy: Exploring Land Use Regulation for Events in the NSW Hunter Valley,' and 'Conceptualizing Local Government Land Use Decision Making for Events.' He delivered presentations such as 'Events Regulation in the NSW Hunter Valley' at the Local Government NSW Tourism Conference in 2017 and was a finalist in the University of Newcastle's 2016 Three Minute Thesis competition with 'What, Which, Whose My Rules? Local Council Regulation of Festivals, Concerts and Markets.' O'Dell is a founding member of the Australian Regional Events Alliance, and his Google Scholar profile notes interests in cultural historical activity theory, land use planning and regulation, temporary uses, and events, with one citation.