Discussing the pressing issues of urban transformation

This conference is dedicated to Urban Transformation and aims to Connect Urban Sustainability Labs across Europe and worldwide. Designed as a "learning conference", the event emphasizes the need for dialogue and collaboration between science and society, between disciplinary research and the practice- and implementation-oriented labs – as well as between the various urban labs themselves.

One focus of the conference in terms of content and time will be on dialogical workshops for the exchange between the labs. The aim is not so much to present one's own lab, but rather to share and work on the pressing urban sustainability transformation issues of our time and to share regarding topics, approaches, methods, successes, but also barriers and failures – in order to learn from each other.

This exchange will take place in parallel workshops on all 3 conference days (15.10.-17.10.) after a central plenary session. Conference Organizers will structure the workshops around specific thematic questions regarding urban sustainability transformation, which we will synthesize from your submissions and applications and incorporate into the workshops. Each accepted lab can also present itself with a poster (A1) in the ‚Hall of Labs‘ during the conference.

Structure of the one-hour workshops:

  • Approx. 10-12 people per workshop, including at least 6-8 representatives from the labs, enter into a moderated exchange on the/your central questions of urban transformation

Procedure:

  • Introduction round: Brief introduction (30-second pitches) of the labs present (7min)
  • Presentation of the two central questions of the workshop by the moderators (3min)
  • Moderated dialog and discussion on the central questions (40min)
    Central statements are noted on flipchart paper
  • Summarize the most important dialogue results, formulate 2-3 short and central statements; and final round (10 min) 
  • Profiles of the participating labs (printed out in A4 format) are available during the workshop as background information and are passed around

As a joint result, a statement on the pressing issues of urban transformation will be published after the conference.