The Urbact Annual Conference

The event will bring together URBACT partners and urban actors coming from all over Europe. Interactivity will be the keyword: each participant will have the opportunity to coproduce the conference outputs. The Conference will be introduced by Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy, Charles Picqué, Minister-President of the Brussels Capital-Region and Mercedes Caballero, Chairwoman of the URBACT Monitoring Committee.
The economic crisis is having an impact on European cities in a variety of forms and contexts. All cities have to consider the impact of reduced funding and changes in traditional policies. Sustainable integrated urban development, promoted by the European Commission and the Member States, can be a response to such issues and URBACT plays a key role in fostering it. Exchanges among URBACT cities have been going on for three years. Six URBACT projects have completed their programme of exchange and learning activities last spring and nineteen other projects will close their activities next spring and produce Local Action Plans and recommendations. The URBACT Programme has also launched its mid-term evaluation and would like to take into account the recommendations for the third URBACT call for proposals which will be launched by end of 2011. In this context, all participants will discuss the urban challenges and innovative, integrated and sustainable solutions during the URBACT conference. Each interactive workshop will involve a panel of speakers and time will be equally divided: 50% for speakers - 50% for discussions with the participants. Fringe workshops will be organised by URBACT Projects themselves. URBACT has launched a study on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses developed by the URBACT II partner cities to address the recession.  Attend the plenary session highlighting the results of the survey in the presence of mayors.Plenary sessions will be translated into seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Dutch. Workshops will be held in English.Seize also the opportunity for informal discussions with representatives from your country during the URBACT Café which will offer you a friendly moment to exchange on your experience in your own language. Discussions will focus on the improvement of URBACT exchanges (local impact, transfer of knowledge, links with Operational programmes, etc.) and the usefulness of a territorial exchange Programme on urban issues. Your proposals will be posted in live on a Conference dedicated website. Bring your laptop! The conference will also offer many opportunities for knowledge exchanges and networking. During the two-day conference, an exhibition of urban photos will highlight “pictures and stories about urban transition in east-Central Europe in the last two decades”. An ice breaking dinner will be offered on Tuesday evening by the City of Liege.You are members of the URBACT community: active players in European cities, local, regional and national authorities, Local Support Groups, Managing Authorities of Operational Programmes, universities, experts, etc…. The annual conference is dedicated to you!
Visit the official site:http://urbact.eu/en/header_main/annualconference