Urban Future - events

Urban Future 2024: Ready for Rotterdam! #UF24

Urban Future — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 12:19:51 +0100

Time: Jun 05 – Jun 07
Location: ROTTERDAM AHOY, Ahoyweg 10, 3084 BA Rotterdam, Netherlands

Urban Future has become Europe’s most-attended and inspiring conference for city changemakers, drawing more than 2,000 attendees yearly. It is a series of events, field trips, sessions and workshops where everything revolves around sustainable urban development. The main question is: How do we make our cities better?

From 5 to 7 June 2024, the city of Rotterdam will welcome CityChangers from all over the world at the main conference venue – Rotterdam AHOY. The entire first week of June will be filled with side events and social happenings throughout the city and beyond.

What is it all about?

The #UF24 core themes include Climate Adaptation, Building Sustainable Cities, Social Aspects of Transformation plus Leadership and Personal Growth. The overall goal of the event is to accelerate the transformation to sustainable cities by connecting relevant stakeholders, regardless if they are representing municipalities, start-ups, NGOs or business industry leaders. Check out the full programme following this LINK.

Rotterdam is the place to be for CityChangers!

This will be Netherlands' first time hosting such an electrifying gathering after it was held successfully in cities such as Stuttgart, Helsingborg and Oslo, since its inception in 2014. Rotterdam was selected to partner with Urban Future because of its leadership role in circular economy practices, its focus on energy reduction and technological innovation, and its general commitment to sustainability.

Who is the event for?

The Urban Future participants come from politics, business, industry, non-government organisations (NGOs) and associations. There are specialists from fields such as mobility, energy, real estate and construction, urban planning or resource management who meet at Urban Future at eye level – regardless of organisational form or hierarchy. They exchange ideas about how change succeeds or fails, visions, knowledge and concrete experiences and on how life in our cities can become more sustainable.

“Anyone with a passion for making their city a better place simply cannot miss this event as an attendee in June.” Gerald Babel-Sutter Co-Founder and CEO of Urban Future.

About Urban Future:

Conference? Festival? Event? Urban Future is everything! It is Europe’s most inspiring event for people who drive change to make our cities more sustainable. Be it mayors, architects, mobility experts, city planners, scientists, sustainability managers, representatives from start-ups, environmentalists, innovation experts or others. What unites them is their passion for better cities.

About Rotterdam:

Strategically located in Western Europe, Rotterdam is a bold, forward-thinking and entrepreneurial city that welcomes and supports ambitious companies and organisations aiming to start or expand their business or to organise congresses or business events. Rotterdam is continuously reinventing itself, focusing on innovation, sustainability, digitalisation and inclusivity while providing nourishing conditions for world-conscious companies daring to do things differently. 

Media accreditation: For accreditation as an official press representative, please follow the LINK.

Urban Future 23 Stuttgart June 21-23

Urban Future — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:21:32 +0100

Time: Jun 21, 2023 00:00 CEST – Jun 23, 2023 00:00 CEST
Location: Stuttgart

Join us in 2023 to experience Stuttgart’s unique transformation process – be it urban mobility, energy, housing or social interaction.

To be sure, the City’s transformation process is already under way. Stuttgart has installed over 160 photovoltaic systems on municipal buildings, which make up roughly 15 percent of the total output installed in the city today. Alongside the City Hall’s solar panels, bees have been producing tasty urban honey since 2014. Yes – every little helps!

In June 2023, Stuttgart invites the CityChangers community to present the progress made so far, the obstacles, and the instructive detours on the path to a sustainable urban transformation. Visit Germany And join us for Stuttgart 23 to find out how they are driving change the Stuttgart way.

Hej Helsingborg! Urban Future 2022 - FINALLY MEETING PEOPLE AGAIN

Urban Future — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 18:39:22 +0100

Time: Jun 01, 2022 09:00 CEST – Jun 03, 2022 13:00 CEST
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden

Urban change-makers meet in Helsingborg. Say "hi" to this mid-sized city in Sweden – which is one of the most innovative and rapidly changing cities in Europe.

Urban Future is proud to kick off Helsingborg’s H22 City Expo. Welcome to an amazing 3-day program and a chance to meet the decision-makers, influencers, and change agents who work tirelessly to make cities more sustainable. Be inspired by the best, gain critical skills and know-how, and get to understand important trends.

On June 1-3, 2022, the global community of urban shapers will meet in Helsingborg, Sweden. This mid-sized city, located on the Swedish coast overlooking Denmark, is one of the most innovative and rapidly changing cities in Europe.

This will be your most valuable week of the year. More than 2,000 of the most brilliant urban shapers, leaders, entrepreneurs, sustainable cities, media professionals, and talent are getting together: to share change-making experience and talk about the failures you will never find in reports. That’s the recipe for accelerating urban transformation.

Join your fellow sustainability heroes

Welcome to our best programme to date!

We’re excited to show you the sessions and tracks we have planned for you! In our programme we have distilled the combined expertise of over 450 leading urban shapers. They have helped us tailor the content exactly to our CityChangers’ needs. These tracks will equip you with the tools you need to grow as a change-maker and create more impact with your work.

Topics you’ll love!

NEW DISTRICTS IN THE MAKING
Truly sustainable neighbourhoods: buildings, mobility & energy

CHANGING STRUCTURES
How you can unleash your city’s innovation power

SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Impact entrepreneurs re-shaping urban sustainability

LEADERSHIP & SKILLS
Improve your skills to create faster and more effective change

Looking forward to seeing you!

Urban Journalism Academy (UJA) during the URBAN FUTURE Conference 2019

Urban Future — Fri, 24 May 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Time: May 24, 08:30 – 12:30 CEST
Location:

Introduction

UN-Habitat and Habitat Norway have the great pleasure to invite to an Urban Journalism Academy (UJA) during the URBAN FUTURE Conference 2019.

The UJAs are pioneering and innovative initiatives promoted by UN-Habitat to further the knowledge and understanding of international and national journalists and media professionals of the social and economic issues facing cities in the twenty-first century.

The aim of this UJA is to meet and discuss urban challenges with leading urban professionals, bureaucrats and politicians that have been invited to deliberate better urban futures from a new angle: the Northern one. The event in Oslo seeks the engagement of journalists, media professionals and others who are interested or involved in urban development and the challenges facing Northern cities. Stronger engagement of journalists and media professionals on urban challenges encourages greater democratization, transparency and increases the awareness amongst the wider public.

The first UN-Habitat UJA was an innovative experience - developed in 2014 in conjunction with the Seventh session of the World Urban Forum held in in Medellin, Colombia - with the participation of more than forty journalists from all over the world and with the presence of representatives of internationally relevant media as Aljazeera (United Kingdom), The Guardian (United Kingdom), Inter Press Service (United States), La Nación (Argentina) and El Pais (Spain). Since then, more than 30 UJAs have been held in various parts of the world.

UJA objectives

Strengthen journalists’ and media professionals’ capacity to analyze the overall process of urbanization by sharing with them substantive knowledge about the main issues of planning and management of cities, as well as by providing them technical expertise in gathering and examining urban data and indicators.

To share outstanding experiences of communication for development in urban contexts as well as a selection of interesting examples of sustainable urban transformation projects.

To make urban development issues and challenges clear and accessible to the general public, beyond the professionals, researchers and public authorities, bringing the urban debate closer to the average citizen.

Reinventing Cities: The Winners

Urban Future — Wed, 22 May 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Time: May 22, 16:00 – 18:00 CEST
Location:

Reinventing Cities is an unprecedented global competition to drive carbon neutral and resilient urban regeneration. The competition is designed to serve as a model for cities around the world, demonstrating how the alliance between cities and business can shape the future delivering healthier, greener and economically viable urban development.

The competition invited invite architects, urban planners, designers, developers, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, neighbourhood collectives, innovators and artists to collaborate and compete for the opportunity to transform underused sites into new beacons of sustainability and resiliency. On 22nd May, C40 will unveil the winners of the competition at sites in the cities of San Francisco, Chicago, Reykjavik, Oslo, Madrid, Milan and Paris.

At the Urban Futures Conference in Oslo, mayors and senior city officials from across Europe will discuss the winning projects. The speakers will share unique insights into how the Reinventing Cities competition can inspire even faster emission reductions from buildings within the world’s great cities.