full new cities summit 2012 session summaries

Sessi

on S

umma

ries

Paris 14-15-16 May

Organized by the

NEW CITIES FOUNDATION

THINKING AHEAD, BUILDING TOGETHER

Table

of c

onten

ts

Defining Urbanites: how we became a city species and why it matters......................................... 6

Governing the Metropolis: new forms of governance for 21st century cities................................... 8

The Annotated City: digital storytelling in the urban age............................................................. 10

Citywalla: a look at urban India............................................................................................ 12

Portrait of an Urban World : facts, figures and the future............................................................ 14

Global Cities Investment Monitor........................................................................................... 16

Urban Innovation: Festival of Ideas for the New City................................................................. 17

Interactive session: Navigating the Meta-City........................................................................... 18

Securing Investments for the Urban Century: how do we pay for the urban boom?.......................... 20

Ciudades Latinas: urban Latin America................................................................................... 22

Hard and Software Cities.................................................................................................... 24

Urban Innovation: Waze..................................................................................................... 26

Urban Innovation: EkoBus.................................................................................................... 27

The Just City...................................................................................................................... 28

Greener Districts................................................................................................................. 30

City Dwellers on the Move: the future of urban transportation and mobility.................................... 32

AppMyCity! Presentations.................................................................................................... 34

A Glimpse into Future Cities.................................................................................................. 36

A Closer Look at Urban China: towards the urban billion........................................................... 38

Modern Urban Utopias: a conversation with the builders of new cities.......................................... 42

Capitalising Creativity......................................................................................................... 44

Gala Dinner Keynote Speech................................................................................................ 46

Partnering for Better Cities.................................................................................................... 48

Urban Innovation: Ciudad Saludable..................................................................................... 50

Urban Innovation: Isla Urbana.............................................................................................. 51

HydroCity: urban water....................................................................................................... 52

Greater Paris: reinventing the City of Light............................................................................... 54

City Shops: the future of urban retail in the digital age............................................................... 56

Call to Action: Thinking Ahead, Building Together.................................................................... 58

THINKING AHEAD, BUILDING TOGETHER

For the first time in our history, we are a world of cities - and this is just the beginning. By 2050, the global urban population will reach 7 billion people, double the number living in cities today.

We are only just starting to grasp the significance of this phenomenon. What is certain is that the scale and pace of global urbanization is unprecedented and its impact will be felt in all spheres of human life. This urban world comes with complex new environmental, economic and social challenges. It also represents a unique opportunity to build more sustainable, vibrant, innovative, and equitable communities, particularly in rapidly-urbanizing regions of the world.

The inaugural New Cities Summit, organized by the NEW CITIES FOUNDATION, took place in Paris from 14-16 May 2012. The Summit aims to place the city at the heart of the global discussion. This event is new in both content and form. It mixes high-level conversations featuring some of the most recognized global urban thought leaders and decision makers -- mayors, CEOs and business leaders, academics, architects, technologists, media leaders and entrepreneurs -- with innovative demos and interactive thematic workshops. Workshop topics at this inaugural edition included: mobility, the creative and connected city, the just city, water, greener buildings, infrastructure finance, and regional sessions. China, India and Latin America as well as the Greater Paris region are particular focus areas. The Summit also highlighted the modern urban utopias and experimental cities that are a rich urban laboratory for future cities.

The theme of the 2012 Summit was Thinking Ahead, Building Together, reflecting the Foundation’s belief that understanding and contributing to our common urban future will require audacity, analysis and, above all, partnership. The Foundation, working closely with a rich and diverse ecosystem of members and partners, hopes that all participants at the Summit and those watching the sessions and reading the content online, are inspired and equipped to make positive change.

Our best chance to build a better world is to build better cities together.

http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org




Click here to watch the highlights of the New Cities Summit 2012:

http://b i t . l y /Ki7Agn

http://bit.ly/Ki7Agn






SpeakersWim Elfrink

Executive Vice President, Cisco

Ajit Gulabchand

Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Construction Group

Gregor Robertson

Mayor of Vancouver

Geoffrey West

Distinguished Professor and Past President, Santa Fe Institute

Click here to watch full session on YouTube:

Defining Urbanites: how we became a city species and why it matters

Opening Plenary Session, Monday 14 May, 09:50 - 11:00

Overview• We have to deal with the swift urbanization of new cities,

and retro-fit old cities

• Cities are, and always have been, about the clustering of

people

• Digital solutions and technological innovations are

undoubtedly speeding up our human interactions in cities

and should be embraced in ways that contribute to

inclusive growth

Setting the tone for the next three days of the Summit, the

panelists engaged the crowd in their conversation about the future of

our urban worlds from a variety of international perspectives.

ModeratorEdwin Heathcote

Architecture and Design critic, Financial Times

L i n k t o Y o u t u b e V i d e o o f the session

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Geoffrey West introduced the stakes of

urbanization with a discussion about the science

of cities. Determining the science of cities is about

applying much of what we know about the natural

world to the organism of the city. The surprising

science behind the superlinear behavior of cities

or, “the bigger, the more per capita,” revealed the

need to innovate faster and faster to accommodate

the sustainable growth of the world’s cities.

Mayor Robertson discussed various

aspects of Vancouver’s citizens and their networks.

Urban dwellers increasingly demand more from

cities than mere services - they demand “moments

of inspiration.” The Mayor highlighted how

Vancouver foresees their sustainable development

framework as a win-win-win scenario for

community, environment, and the city’s economy,

and later alluded to the role of technology in

steering us down a more sustainable path.

Ajit Gulabchand contributed a critical

perspective from the developing world, urging that

the problems encountered by cities in India, for

example, be included in the dialogue about how

to build our cities. The relatively recent

development of Mumbai and other Indian cities

over the last two hundred years leaves Indian

developers few models for governing and

managing cities. Public-private partnerships were

cited as the “the only way we can actually

evolve.” Quoting Marx, Gulabchand explained

that Lavasa functions as one attempt “to relieve

Indian dwellers of their awkwardness and

boredom.”

W i m E l f r i n k r e f l e c t e d o n t h e

unprecedented rate of change in relation to

urbanization and technology. Technological

innovations and integrated virtual solutions, he

asserts, is becoming a new norm that should be

embraced. Examples of the Korean aerotropolis

paradigm and Rio’s integrated operation center

reiterated the fact that the future of work and

clustering in cities will be, and is irrefutably

becoming, digital. This change will take place

quickly, as virtualization is fast and cities must

constantly reinvent themselves. Because of this,

cities must embrace ICT as an asset and see it as

a sustainable differentiator.

7

SpeakersStephen Goldsmith

Professor, Harvard Kennedy School; Former Mayor of Indianapolis

Patrick Le Galès

Professor, SciencesPo Paris

Anil Menon

President, Globalisation and Smart+Connected Communities, Cisco Systems

Anthony Williams

Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School; Former Mayor of Washington, DC


Governing the Metropolis: new forms of governance for 21st century cities

Monday 14 May, 11:45 - 01:00

Overview• To overcome the traditional ways of governing,

encouraging participation of all the different stakeholders

involved in the urban world

• To moderate the idea of transferring best practices and

replicable ideas

• To bring to attention the role of mayors and elected

authorities to create and regulate the public realm where

decision-making processes take place.

Patrick Le Galès introduced the discussion on traditional

ideas that need to be moderated, concerning how the large

metropolis can be governed. First, people are mobile and cities are

ModeratorMathieu Lefevre

Executive Director, New Cities Foundation


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changing rapidly, yet some urban structures are

stable and evolve very slowly throughout time.

Governing is complex and having strong

institutions can help. However, the capacity to

govern is about implementing the decisions made

by institutions through the decision-making process.

Who is implementing, for whom, and under which

conditions are three crucial questions analysts

need to take into account for understanding how

the city is re-inventing itself. Le Galès brought

attention to the dangers of replicable best

practices and the need of developing collective

action at the local level for better policy

implementa t ion and more t ransparency.

Generalizing practices might be very debatable

because territories have their own specificities.

Tony Williams highlighted the role of

elected officials in developing and regulating

interactions in the public realm, in creating trust,

long-term perspectives and real-time solutions. ‘As

a mayor, you have to come up with real solutions

in deconstructing the reality and trying to disrupt

classical ways of governing.’ Moreover, Williams

insisted on the idea that creating a virtuous circle

necessitates better management information,

allowing the variety of stakeholders to have a

better understanding of how a city is governed.

The nature of governance is changing. Anil

Menon believes that urban stakeholders are

currently revitalizing the city without always

changing the layers. Political conflicts linked to a

wide variety of actors and approaches bring to the

fore the role of mayors and elected officials as

referees in the public realm. He concluded on the

idea that it might be interesting and enriching for

our cities to re-invent PPP processes because it

does not always create the context for the right

innovation. He also stressed the fact that it’s

becoming a main challenge for cities to keep their

own identity. His last point brought to light the role

of technology that can empower people and give

the capacities to disrupt old ways of making cities.

Stephen Goldsmith pointed out the

necessity to introduce incremental and more brutal

changes in order to overcome traditional ways of

governing and to avoid corrupt ion and

indiscretion. To do so, the ability to listen and

communicate with the civil society is essential to

anticipate issues and to find innovative solutions.

Moreover, he emphasized the need to incorporate

a wide variety of stakeholders in the understanding

of governance.

9

SpeakersCharlie Hale

Public Policy and Government Affairs Lead, Maps and Research, Google

Jean-Louis Missika

Deputy Mayor of Paris for Innovation

Alessandra Orofino

Co-Founder, Meu Rio


The Annotated City: digital storytelling in the urban age

Monday 14 May, 11:45 - 01:00

OverviewThe annotated city allows us to communicate in different ways.

Now that we have technology in our hands, we create stories about

a city through the simple touch of a mobile device. However, this

raises questions about what kind of information is going to be in our

cities and who will make money off of this information.

All panelists were in agreement that no one can predict the

new annotations, so Charlie Hale proposed that open data can

prove to be an answer. Open data improves civic governance,

provides usefulness to consumers, and drives economic growth. The

power of openness is very important, and Google recognizes that

there is rich knowledge in the crowd of citizens. Therefore, opening

yourself as a company, or a government, to this kind of openness

ModeratorSteve Baker

Author of The Numerati


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will result in a multitude of innovations that cannot

be predicted. The crowd is now making our

annotations, and there is an economic reason to

use this information, as well as civic hope.

Jean-Louis Missika explained that if

cities have been annotated for centuries, for

example, through street signs or graffiti, the main

difference is that today there is a mash-up of

information rather than a divide between

information produced by the people and by

government. Because of this, open data and

technology obliges city governments to interact

with citizens, who are making tags online.

However, a difficulty arises when you co-innovate

a city, as everyone in the city adopts the position

of “decision-maker”, rather than a select few.

Cities are now obliged to keep the old, but make

room for the new. However, making room for the

new is not always welcome. For Missika, leading

the open data policy of Paris is not easy because

some leaders do not want to give away data

freely, especially financial data. Because of this,

Paris has started giving away geographical

information first.

Alessandra Orofino represented a

critical perspective of the people, or “the new

power.” Through Meu Rio, Orofino advocates for

the voices of the people in Rio de Janeiro that are

not being heard by encouraging their participation

in the city. Part of the citizens’ fight in having their

voice heard is fought in the realm of information. In

this aspect, crowd-sourcing has changed the

balance of power. Now, big companies and city

governments are relying on people for their input.

Their free labor, in a way, helps companies like

Google, and city governments, like the City of

Paris, build powerful platforms. Meu Rio strives to

make people aware of the power they have, to

help people tell their own stories, and encourages

citizens to curate their own information rather than

letting a few choose the data we use. The type of

data also matters. While some data is given

freely, other critical pieces of information are not

being released to people with the same ease.

Because of this, people should demand the

information that matters to them.

The discussion raised points to be thought of

concerning the future of the annotated city. What

are the implications of this phenomenon on privacy

issues? What infrastructure is needed to provide

people with the tools for the annotated city, such

as free WiFi? Is access to information equal, or

are social inequalities further deepening? Overall,

the role of data, and how governments, big

companies and citizens decide to handle its

delicacy and transparency will affect the future of

how urban dwellers live in their city.

11

SpeakersBharati Chaturvedi

Founder and Director, Chintan

Manjeet Kripalani

Executive Director, Gateway House

Annat Jain

Managing Partner, Acropolis Capital Group

V Ravichandar

Co-Founder, City Connect Foundations in Bangalore, Chennai, and Pune


Citywalla: a look at urban India

Monday 14 May, 11:45 - 01:00

OverviewUrban governance is a key challenge facing India’s cities

today. In dealing with the current and future challenges of

urbanization, deeper collaboration and partnership between the

public sector, the private sector and all levels of civil society is

acutely needed. Efforts must establish a framework of cooperation

and a platform for sharing expertise and information across sectors.

In order to respond more effectively to local needs, municipal

governments should have greater autonomy and responsibility in

shaping urban development policies, allowing for locally developed

initiatives. The founding principles and models of successful projects,

such as Chintan, must be identified and translated into other locally

adapted programs, scaling the impact of new and innovative

solutions to urban challenges.

ModeratorPamela Puchalski

Senior Consultant, Bennett Midland; Advisor, Global Cities Initiative, The Brookings Institution


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Manjeet Kriplani focused on the

importance of innovation, and especially “low-

tech” innovation that is affordable, adaptable and

appropriate, as a key driver of sustainable urban

development. Talent and innovation are

aggregated in India’s cities, especially in socially

diverse areas, where new products and processes

contribute to a more efficient and livable urban

environment.

Based on his experience in developing

partnerships between local industry and

government institutions, V. Ravichandar

highlighted the fact that local industry stakeholders

have not been much engaged in productive

“governance” conversations and the only way for

key urban problems to be solved is through an

effective platform for expertise sharing and

exchange. Chennai City Connect has created a

model which facilitates these types of interactions

between the private sector and local government

institutions.

Coming from the perspective of private land

developers, Annat Jain brought to light the

ways in which development is hampered by a

public sector which is highly over-regulated, badly

administered and with lagging enforcement. He

stressed the important role of private interests in the

development of healthy urban centers, without

which cities could hardly emerge.

According to Bharati Chaturvedi, it is

essential to meet the social and environmental

challenges faced by urban India by incorporating

the capabilities of the informal sector. Their needs

and contributions must be recognized and valued

by the private and public sector in mitigating the

environmental waste and degradation that so often

accompanies rapid urban expansion.

13

SpeakersRicky Burdett

Director, LSE Cities and Urban Age

Greg Clark

UK Minister for Decentralisation and Cities

Daniel Libeskind

Architect, Studio Daniel Libeskind

Hans Vestberg

President and CEO, Ericsson


Portrait of an Urban World: facts, figures, and the future

Plenary Session, Monday 14 May, 14:30 - 15:30

OverviewIn a discussion led by Richard Quest, high profile speakers

from diverse backgrounds commented on some of the central

challenges faced by the urban world today. Panelists elicited what

they saw as the most significant trends impacting urban development

and what is needed in addressing these.

Hans Vestberg described the increasingly networked

society that has emerged from innovations in ICT and the

widespread dispersion of these technologies. Not only has this had

major impacts on social and economic structures globally but it may

present solutions to pressing urban challenges, for example via

digital healthcare and education.

ModeratorRichard Quest

International Correspondent, CNN


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From the public policy perspective, Greg

Clark advocated for increasingly decentralized

governance structures that leave more room for

local leadership and autonomy at the metropolitan

level.

In discussing the challenges he has faced in

bringing large architectural projects to completion,

Daniel Libeskind focused on the need for

collaboration between a wide range of actors.

The greatest difficulty lies in creating consensus

and bringing diverse stakeholders together around

a vision. This will only happen when projects are

deeply rooted in the historical and cultural roots of

a city.

Ricky Burdett refocused the conversation

around the realities facing a major number of city

dwellers today. With over 30% of the world’s

urban population living in slums without access to

the most basic of services, the need for more

socially inclusive political decision making

processes is essential for sustainable urban

governance systems.

Following the opening statements of

panelists, a discussion ensued focusing on key

themes:

Socio-cultural dynamics

• Successful development must incorporate

real human needs at a human scale.

• “Wi thou t t he cu l t u ra l aspec t o f

development, cities fail.” Cities are about

people, they are not about buildings or

abstract façades. It is from the ground

level that we have to think of the city –

Libeskind

• Many success cases have been cities that

go back to the human side of the city,

ra ther than making space more

anonymous – Clark

Financing issues

• New combinat ions of innovat ive

financing tools are needed for funding

urban projects.

• We’re at a tipping point with great

opportunities, but actors are more risk

averse.

Decision making processes

• Tension exists between different levels of

government, as epitomized by a brief but

intense discussion between the new

Mayor of Liverpool and Mr. Clark.

• Connectivity and accessibility in transport

infrastructure are of major concern.

• Collaborative action is needed to

empower people to participate in local

initiatives.

15

SpeakerPierre Simon

Chairman, Greater Paris Investment Agency


Global Cities Investment Monitor

Monday 14 May, 15:30 - 15:45

OverviewBased on the Global Cities Investment Monitor findings, a

synopsis of international trends in urban investment demonstrates that

“global cities” continue to be hubs of concentration for inward

international investment, accounting for one in every five investments

in 2011. In contrast to perceptions based on panel studies of the

most important cities for investment, the top-ten cities were widely

dispersed globally, including three Chinese cities in the top five

investment hubs, and Sao Paulo and Moscow in the top ten.

Investments are thus far from being polarized between the ‘West’

and ‘China’. International competition for finance has never been as

intense, and it is in the world’s most globally connected cities that

this competition takes place.

The presentation concluded with a brief discussion of Paris as a

strategic business center in Europe and its role in the world

economy. There is a gap between common perceptions of Paris and

the economic reality, being ranked first in Europe by GDP and third

in the world in terms of Fortune 500 companies. Additionally,

significant investments will be made in the Grand Paris project in the

coming years. Finally, shifts in global investment patterns can be

evidenced by the changes taking place in international investment in

Paris. Investments from Asia now account for up to 25% of foreign

investments in the city. L i n k t o Y o u t u b e V i d e o o f the session

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Urban InnovationFestival of Ideas for the New City

Monday 14 May, 15:45 - 16:00

OverviewThe Festival of Ideas for the New City, held from May 4 to 8,

2011, is a collaborative action advocating cultural investment for

better cities. The partnership aims to bring together eleven New York

City Downtown cultural institutions with two hundred cultural,

educational and community organizations. With the idea that cultural

actors can be the most powerful agents of change, the groups bring

together artists, architects, and urban planners. Three main

components composed the Festival. A conference held by Rem

Koolhaas took place the first day. Next, 115 vendors, who were

local artists, designers and representatives from the Third Sector,

animated the StreetFest, which presented exhibitions, performances

and projects in more than one hundred cultural spaces. Seventy

thousand people came to visit the Festival. The success of this event

led to the organization of new versions of the Festival of Ideas to be

held in Istanbul, in Sao Paulo, and in New York in May 2013.

SpeakersLisa Phillips

Founding Director, Festival of Ideas for the New City

Karen Wong

Co-director, Festival of Ideas for the New City


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SpeakersGianluca Brugnoli

Creative Director, frog

Rob McIntosh

Creative Director, frog

Video coming soon to the NEW CITIES FOUNDATION YouTube channel

Navigating the Meta-City

Monday 14 May, 16:45 - 18:00

OverviewComprehensive data collection, construction, and sharing

across sectors and disciplines are crucial to the realization of the

meta city.

This session explored the various layers of data that exist in the

city before embarking on an interactive exercise in information-

sharing and data production. The city, it is argued through the meta-

city paradigm, is decoupling people from the computing experience

and becoming the computer itself. The introduction of a public data

infrastructure is creating comprehensive data across disciplines while

maintaining a strong connection to urban folklore. Meta-cities, in

essence, will be become an extension of our senses.

The premise of the exercise was that smart cities connect smart

people. The data stored in the meta-city is full of opportunities,

meanings, and connections, which were explored through four

Interactive

session

18

database stations. These docking stations and their

accompanying moderators facilitated idea-sharing

among various experts and stakeholders around

the topics of smart buildings, smart transactions,

smart mobility, and smart sociality.

At the end of the simulation, screens

displayed the ideas and information collected and

moderators briefed all participants on the

aggregated outputs. It turned out that the definition

of the word “smart” given by participants had to

do primarily with outputs. Smart cities mean cities

that give you back something of value in

proportion to the data you put in or provide. Smart

sociality was discussed in terms of its capacity to

bridge the digital divide whereas smart buildings

were conceptualized as linking building with

technology. This new model created a valuable

new interface with the inputs of pertinent and

diverse actors that might not otherwise have

collaborated at this level.

19

SpeakersThomas H. Green

Managing Director Head, Infrastructure Group, Citi

Lady Barbara Judge

Chairman of the UK Pension Protection Fund

Li Dongming

General Manager, China Development Bank Capital Urban Fund

Christian Sautter

Deputy Mayor of Paris for Economic Development

Securing Investments for the Urban Century: how do we pay for the urban boom?

Monday 14 May, 16:45 - 18:00

Overview• National governments are not in the position to fund city

infrastructure any longer, so cities must think of creative

ways to finance their own projects.

• The involvement of the private sector in a PPP may be a key

option in the financing of new projects.

• The Chinese context provides a different example due to its

state-owned land tenure and its implications on spatial

development.

• Cities must work to carry out projects that attract foreign

investment and capital, and enhance life for its citizens,

such as greener districts.

ModeratorUlysse Gosset

Foreign Affairs Commentator, BFM TV

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Lady Barbara Judge explained that

because governments do not have the money to

pay for their entire infrastructure projects, the

Pension Fund provides a means through which the

UK administration can do so. Through this means,

there is less risk involved, investments are asset-

backed, and the levy paid by the pensioner is a

safe investment. Lady Judge hopes that once the

Fund becomes self-sufficient, it will attract foreign

investment and go international.

Thomas Green asserted that there are

trillions of dollars in private capital ready to be

invested into city infrastructure, but new

mechanisms are needed to secure this capital on a

long-term basis. The municipal market in the U.S.

provides the potential for cities to raise their own

revenues for infrastructure projects on a sub-

sovereign basis, especially because national

governments today are too burdened by debt. For

Green, this municipal bond model is exportable

and has the potential to succeed in other cities.

Li Dongming gave his perspective on

investment and planning in the context of Chinese

cities, which are facing massive urbanization.

Rapid economic growth has had great

implications on the spatial development of cities in

China, primarily due to the lack of good

management or planning. Now that the central

government has recognized the importance of

orderly development, they are playing a larger

role. However, the organization of China in terms

of investment and financing is still in a transition

period and based on “land-fiscality,” where state-

owned land pushes urbanization and financing.

Such a complex land tenure sys tem is

unsustainable for financing cities. Therefore, the

Fund aims to develop innovative financing tools

through the creation of joint ventures with local

governments and private actors. Through the

development of green districts and involvement of

foreign investors, they aim to attract quality capital

and to make the city vibrant by integrating industry

with the well-being of the city.

Christian Sautter stressed the importance

of investment for a world city today. In Paris,

investments are poured into public transportation

and reducing private vehicles, public housing, and

innovation through research. For him, innovation is

the key to attracting investment to your city, but it is

not enough. The involvement of private money is

key and this institutional set up of PPPs has long

been used in the French urban tradition. Paris is

attractive because of the amount of space that

may be used for foreign investment and

development. The problem is, he says, that Paris

retains a “romantic” reputation, so that it is not

typically associated with the image of a “business

hub.”

Overall, cities must be able to attract

investment to keep up with urban growth and the

implications of a lack of infrastructure. Moreover,

cities are in competition with one another to attract

the best innovators, minds, and foreign

companies. This need for investment drives cities to

make themselves more attractive, whether through

investment in an efficient public transportation

system or through the creation of leisurely green

spaces.

21

SpeakersJorge Abrahao

President, Instituto Ethos

Mariana Alegre

General Coordinator, Lima Como Vamos

Antonio Celia

President, Promigas

Janaina Herrera

Advisor, New Cities Foundation


Ciudades Latinas: urban Latin America

Monday 14 May, 16:45 - 18:00

OverviewLatin American cities are more and more innovative in

improving decision-making and government accountability, and

incorporating civil society in the information transfer process.

Antonio Celia provided a striking example of how a city –

Barranquilla, Colombia – has faced economic and social difficulties

for many years and tackled all these challenges thanks to Como

Vamos, which is composed of a group of entrepreneurs. This

organization’s main aim is to develop a precise expertise through the

development of a wide number of indicators, allowing them to

evaluate public policies and actions. This permitted them to promote

investment in this territory with more transparency and more dialogue

between stakeholders. The second cornerstone of this organization is

ModeratorRicky Burdett

Director, LSE Cities and Urban Age


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to diffuse its expertise at the local level and inform

the communities about their territory.

Ricky Burdett contributed to the debate

by questioning in more detail how the program

was led and how the success claimed by Antonio

Celia can be demonstrated. Mariana Alegre

exposed the case study of the same organization –

Como Vamos – in Lima. Again, she insisted on the

importance of raising expectations and awareness

through better indicators and measurement about

what is going on in this city. She showed that

involving media in the common stakeholders’

discussion and negotiation is a powerful channel

of information for local communities. This network

has the power to understand the needs of the

people, to communicate them and to develop

policy recommendations.

Jorge Abrahao presented the Brazilian

case study of the platform for an inclusive, green

and responsible economy developed by Ethos

Institute. It aims to develop new tools and new

indicators to integrate new actors, such as

businesses, in the public realm. It has also helped

many mayors and elected officials to politically

commit to new ways of creating the city.

Janaina Herrera presented the m-health

pilot project in the favela of Dona Marta, Rio de

Janeiro, led by the New Cities Foundation. She

started by stating that Rio is a city that has a

rapidly aging population with limited mobility. This

pilot project is based on anticipation of similar

health trends in other important emerging urban

centers over the next twenty years. This case study

aimed to demonstrate the potential of e-health

technology for improving current and future health

services in urban metropolises by addressing the

economic, social and physical obstacles to access

healthcare in underserved communities and

populations. General Electric provided community

workers in the favela with a mobile health kit,

containing equipment able to collect and transmit

health data to the nearest clinic. The benefits are

immediate for the patients and for the overall

medical system.

The sustainability of all these movements and

their actions has been questioned because it might

also be related to change in political elections and

the lack of political support. All the speakers agree

on the fact that if civil society and the private

sector work together to define their needs and their

solutions, national governments should follow in

the decision-making processes.

23

SpeakersGreg Clark

UK Minister for Decentralisation and Cities

Parag Khanna

Senior Fellow, New America Foundation

John Rice

Vice Chairman, GE; President and CEO GE Global Growth and Operations

Jonathan Woetzel

Co-Chair, Urban China Initiative; Senior Director, McKinsey&Co.


Hard and Software Cities

Plenary Session, Tuesday 15 May, 09:00 - 10:00

OverviewThe opening plenary session of the second day attempted to

gauge the pressures and opportunities presented by the increasing

integration of hardware and software in cities. Mobility and access,

basic infrastructure needs and issues of governance within an

environment of ever more sophisticated ICT technologies were

recurring themes in the conversation.

Key points

• New “soft” infrastructures offer major opportunities for

creating urban systems that allow for a better flow of

information between users and providers.

• Technology can give us “smart” systems that reduce cost

and energy use while increasing transparency in the

ModeratorDiane Brady

Senior Editor and Content Chief, Bloomberg Businessweek


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governance of city systems. This can

change how democracies work, ideally

allowing citizens to be more engaged

and connected with policymakers.

• Hard infrastructure and the basic needs

of energy, healthcare and clean water

continue to be the most necessary types

of investments in cities in developing

countries.

Panelists also raised the issue of the “info

state,” continuing the dialogue started in other

sessions about data access, privacy and

ownership.

Giv ing severa l examples of recent

technological innovations supporting efficient use

of transportation services in the UK, such as an

app showing the availability of Barclay’s Bikes,

Greg Clark demonstrated how mobile

applications allow residents to be smarter users of

city services, while also leading to more

interaction and connectivity between them. These

k i nds o f t echno log ie s qu i c k l y become

indispensable to navigating urban life.

Parag Khanna emphasized the fact that

most cities of the world are still facing major hard

infrastructure gaps that are greatly hampering

development. Pointed interventions that target

specific bottle-necks of mobility can have

significant impact. In terms of soft infrastructure and

connectivity, it must be recognized that cities need

to have strong international connections, as

opposed to just internal connectivity.

Small -scale interventions and locally

embedded innovations that bridge the gap

between soft and hardware opportunities must

tackle issues “one petri dish at a time”, in the

words of GE’s John Rice. He agreed that

fundamental infrastructures around energy, water

and healthcare must come first, before issues of

congestion should be addressed.

The possible leapfrogging of China over the

west in terms of urban technologies and

infrastructure is very real, according to Jonathan

Woetzel. China has been pragmatic in driving

forward urban development, with a focus on

engineering solutions that draw on the best

available technologies, without being on the

‘bleeding edge’.

In mediating the ensuing discussion, Diane

Brady, brought up issues around the effective

governance of public-private partnerships in

infrastructure projects, how the citizen and the

community can be better engaged via new

technologies and the challenges in bringing the

wider population up-to-date so as to benefit from

new “soft” infrastructures.

25

SpeakerDiann Eisnor

VP of Partnerships and Platform, Waze


Urban InnovationWaze

Tuesday 15 May, 10:00 - 10:15

OverviewDiann Eisnor demonstrated an innovative mobile phone app

that attempts to save urban dwellers time and money by increasing

the efficiency of driving using the application, Waze. The interface

provides an optimistic view of the city with creatures representing

other drivers in the network providing information about traffic

conditions on commuting routes across the world. Waze has proven

to decrease travel time using crowd-sourced information about

alternative routes and driving conditions that saves the individual

approximately 61 hours and US $108 per year on gas.

Collectively, these benefits for society, the economy, and the

environment are extremely powerful.


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Urban InnovationEkobus

Tuesday 15 May, 10:15 - 10:30

OverviewDeputy Mayor Filip Mitrovic introduced the audience to the

Ekobus project in his city, realized through a partnership with

Ericsson and Telecom Srbija serving the 120,000 person

population. Air pollution is a serious issue in Pancevo, capable of

keeping children home from school and causing chronic diseases.

Pancevo’s city reputation in Serbia is one of petrochemical pollution,

bad driving and an unreliable public transit system. In this vein, the

Ekobus was developed to not only collect real time GPS data about

public buses through wireless sensors, but also to gather information

about the volume of chemicals in the city’s air. The GPS data is used

to inform citizens about the arrival times of the next bus, while the air

quality data helps local authorities monitor pollution and address

congestion problems accordingly. The Ekobus solution provides an

alternative way to approach real time data in an integrated way to

serve all citizens with the information that they care about most.

SpeakerFilip Mitrovic

Deputy Mayor, Pancevo, Serbia


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SpeakersVictor d’Allant

CEO, Dallant Networks

Leila Janah

CEO, Samasource

Kasim Reed

Mayor of Atlanta


The Just City

Tuesday 15 May, 11:15 - 12:30

OverviewThe Just City is not a luxury or an option, but a prerequisite for

cities that want to be prosperous, sustainable and competitive

around the world. This session took the form of an interactive debate,

letting people from the audience come onstage and be part of the

discussion, bringing their own topics to the debate. The moderator

George McCarthy challenged the speakers by questioning each

of the case studies illustrated, asking for more details related to the

potential of the Just City. What are the main challenges cities are

facing in order to create more equity in urban life?

Key points

• To connect where people live to economic opportunity

areas: the role of transport infrastructures;

ModeratorGeorge McCarthy

Director, Metropolitan Opportunity Program, Ford Foundation


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• To bridge the informal society to the

formal one to change the trajectory of

slums and the way people are living for

a more inclusive city;

• To create and develop dialogue between

urban practitioners to increase their

knowledge about practices, failures and

successes of public policies and

development strategies;

• To take urban violence processes into

accoun t and demys t i f y i n fo rma l

settlements

Social and spatial disparities are a major

trend in our cities. After presenting a map of

Atlanta that shows the distribution of economic

opportunity and overlaid it on the map of the

distribution of subsidized housing, George

McCarthy asked Kasim Reed how to fix the

mismatch between where people live and where

economic opportunities are to succeed. The Mayor

of Atlanta brought attention to the importance of

transport infrastructure investments in giving better

access and connectivity for opportunities to

citizens.

Then , Le i la Janah e xposed he r

perspective on bridging informal settlements to

urban and social integration, giving access to slum

dwellers in Kenya through sustainable wage

‘micro-employment’. Access to jobs is crucial and

the social enterprise Samasource aims to connect

them to computer-based micro-work. Creating a

just city necessitates connecting people to job

opportunities, thereby creating positive collective

externalities.

Victor d’Allant poin ted out that

developing dialogue between urban practitioners

is one of the main challenges, which is needed for

sharing insights on cities, urban public polices,

their ‘epic failures’ and good examples. The

Urb.im platform is trying to bring into contact all

practitioners of the urban ecosystem, between

cities and within cities. To overcome the lack of

communication between all the stakeholders, the

urban platform has to work on the local ground as

well as connecting it to the global scale.

Interactions between the people invited to the

stage and the speakers took many interesting and

complementary di rec t ions. The need of

collaborative action through the wide variety of

funders towards specific targets was highlighted.

Kasim Reed emphasized the role of the mayor and

elected officials in developing a political

leadership for imposing the just city as a

requirement. It was also argued by all speakers

that slums are part of the city, are composed of

people who live in them, but also work and create

solidarities and communities. Before designing any

political or social actions, practitioners need to

understand first how people live in their homes.

Having access to housing and jobs are

prerequisites for helping them to socially upgrade.

29

SpeakersJay Carson

CEO, C40 Cities

Clara Gaymard

President and CEO, GE France

Masato Ito

Deputy General Manager, Head of Sustainable Property Promotion Team, The Sumitomo Trust Bank

Hans Tijl

Director-General, Physical Planning Department, Amsterdam


Greener Districts

Tuesday 15 May, 11:15 - 12:30

OverviewKey themes

• Some of the most important steps in addressing emissions

and environmental degradation will be taken at the local

level and leadership by local leaders is essential to this

process.

• The sharing of best practices and innovations for

environmental sustainability, along with healthy competition

between leaders, are key to achieving goals of

sustainability.

• Change to policies, laws, regulations, and consumer

behaviors will take time. Patience is needed as well as

recognition that real reform occurs with a well-informed

population.

ModeratorJoe Peach

Editor-in-Chief, This Big City


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• Technology has the possibility to meet

multiple challenges simultaneously, and

we should focus on innovations with

simultaneous environmental, social and

economic benefits.

• Green Districts are important hotbeds for

testing and innovating new environmental

policies and technologies, with successful

ones scalable at the city level.

In discussing the role of mayors to address

issues of climate change, Jay Carson spoke of

efforts to identify the primary levers by which they

might have the greatest impact on emissions. Of

the emissions output of cities, mayors actually have

75% control of the production of greenhouse

gases. Mayors should thus prioritize those projects

that are within their scope of power and which

have the greatest impact.

According to Hans Tijl, we should focus

not just on the development of Green Districts but

also on decreasing the environmental impact and

emissions of the entire city. In order to do this, the

key needs are infrastructure and connectivity (both

hard and soft) and smart and efficient coordination

between all actors.

Sustainability within the built environment will

be achieved through maintenance and retrofitting

of existing buildings. With carbon credit policies

and reduced energy costs, Masato Ito argued

that businesses will have the long-term incentive to

invest in energy efficient and sustainable space.

The use of preferential environmental rating loans

can also give proper incentives for green building.

Clara Gaymard demonstrated that two

main issues exist in addressing urban sustainability.

On one hand, technologies, such as the electric

car or solar panels, are not yet mature and

efficient enough. Secondly, business models do

not yet exist for how innovative services and

products must actually be marketed and

distributed. For example, healthcare systems and

their funding should be based on keeping people

healthy at home (possibly through mobile

healthcare technologies) rather than through visits

to the hospital.

31

SpeakersRobin Chase

CEO Buzzcar, Founder Zipcar

Wolfgang Mueller-Pietralla

Head of Future Affairs Volkswagen Group Research, VW

Nimish Radia

Director of Research, Ericsson


City Dwellers on the Move: the future or urban transportation and mobility

Tuesday 15 May, 11:15 - 12:30

OverviewThis session sought to explore ways in which transportation can

make cities better. Instead of discussing the enormity of the problem,

this session focused on brainstorming and discussing the solutions to

congestion, traffic, and access to transport. It was concluded that

seamless multimodal activity is the future and does not need to be

cumbersome. Diversifying our modes of transport and making our

modal transitions more fluid is the key aspect of a smart solution

enabling urban dwellers to connect.

Nimish Radia of Ericsson underlined how the company is

already creating seamless mobility solutions while Robin Chase

described how Buzzcar integrates service into technology.

ModeratorSusan Zielinski

Managing Director of SMART, University of Michigan


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Intermodality was attributed to descreasing urban

dwellers’ depedence on the car and peer-to-peer

car-sharing was to be seen as a useful transition

mechanism for the shift from vehicle dependency

to other, more sustainable and compact modes.

Shifting the conversation from the “what” to

the “how,” panelists engaged in a discussion

about potentials for partnering across sectors in

implementation before delimiting the barriers to

innovation and the keys needed to remove those

barriers. Electronic access to data and insurance

companies’ policies were cited by Chase as a

prime candidate for reform while Radia stated that

the key was seamlessness and user-centricity.

Volkswagen’s Wolfgang Mueller-Pietralla

cited symbiosis and making public transport sexier.

After some lively inputs from the audience,

from a case study of Dhaka to the possibilities of

jetpacks, it was determined that a linked system of

solutions would be necessary to confront the

transport challenges of the future. Mueller-Pietralla

also commented on needing not only data for

today, but some sort of forecasting system to

provide information for tomorrow.

33

AppMyCity! PrizePresentations

Tuesday 15 May, 13:30 - 14:00

OverviewSummit participants heard from the finalists in the AppMyCity!

competition about three new applications that seek to improve how

we experience the city.

City Gardens was inspired a Sunday afternoon at Parc

Buttes Chaumont in Paris that left the developer and his family

looking for the playground, the ice cream stand, and the theater to

no avail. The idea is to localize, inform, and transform knowledge

for city dwellers to help them discover the green spaces around

them.

Next CarbonDiem took the stage and asked the judging

panel and audience “What if we could tackle the most stubborn

emissions?” The CarbonDiem application seeks to increase travel

sustainability in our communities by encouraging and rewarding

sustainable thinking. The smart phone app features automatic

measurement of people’s carbon footprint and stores data about their

travel patterns and carbon efficiency for six months. The app equally

addresses businesses and communities by leveraging the power of

SpeakersPhilippe Pujau

CityGardens

Andreas Zachariah

CarbonDiem

Patrick Pung

Paris-ci La Sortie du Métro

Panel Judges Olivier Cormier, GE

Esther Dyson, EDventure Holdings

Charlie Hale, Google

Latif Horst, Cisco

Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv

Naureen Kabir, New Cities Foundation

Tim Leberecht, frog

Nimish Radia, Ericsson

Karsten Selle, Orange



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social networking and aggregating data. CarbonDiem ultimately sees cities as the world’s climate

change champions.

Lastly, Paris Ci La Sortie introduced a simple, three-step app that could give individuals one

week of freedom per year by reducing their commuting time. The developer decided to improve the daily

underground user’s experience of the Paris metro by showing app users where the exits are in relation to

the metro carriages so that they can avoid lost time by waiting on the wrong end of the platform. There is

an additional added value in showing the position of escalators and elevators at each metro stop for

people with reduced mobility. The app is compatible with the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.

3535

The winner was announced the same night at the Grand Palais and the winner was City

Gardens. Congratulations to Eric and Philippe!

SpeakerCarlo Ratti

Director, MIT SENSEable City Lab


A Glimpse into Future Cities

Tuesday 15 May, 14:00 - 14:15

OverviewHow can we sense things in a city? Imagine living in a city

where you knew everything that was happening around you in real

time, such as how much energy is being consumed. We as humans

have almost become like walking sensors. From this perspective,

how can this describe cities? Technology has now allowed us to

study the built environment in different ways. Through analyzing and

learning from data, we can utilize it to add value to the way we live

in cities. SENSEable City aims to research the changes that have

enhanced our experience of the city through the use of technology.

Carlo Ratti, Director of the MIT SENSEable City Lab, presented

projects undertaken by himself and his research team, including the

Copenhagen Wheel, which is an example of collecting data and

implementing a project based on the data collected. After analyzing

traffic data in Copenhagen, the Wheel was invented to sense and

capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking, and store

the energy for when you need it the most. The sensing unit on the

wheel captures data about road conditions, temperature, and

carbon monoxide levels, among other things. Users can share this

data through a mobile application, which will allow others in the city

to benefit from the crowd-sourced information.

Another interesting project was the Museum of Modern Art

(MoMA) Follow-up, where one of the old electronic equipment,

which was used by MIT researchers and had been programmed to

report back information about its environment for MoMA, was stolen.

The Lab was able to track its location thanks to a GPS built into the


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computer, allowing MIT to report the theft and get

the computer back, along with pictures of the thief,

which were taken by the computer during its time

away. For Ratti, this showed that, “when objects

talk back to us, they tell us unlikely stories.” The

future city may hold the answers to what happens

to physical objects when we throw them away.

The last project presented was the Digital

Water Pavilion at the Zaragoza World Expo in

2008. Ratti and his team wanted to explore how

they could use architecture to play with water.

What became interesting was not the architecture,

but how the space was used by the people, which

begs the question, how do we use things we

design? Buildings of the future may, then, change

their appearance and form based on use and

necessity. The future city will, when combined with

how we “sense” the city, require rethinking the use

of data, architecture, and objects around us.

37

SpeakersYuan Yue: CEO and Chairman of Horizon Research Consultancy Group

James LeeArchitect, Founder of IContinuum Group

Jonathan WoetzelCo-chair, Urban China Initiative;

Xiao JinchengDeputy Director, Land Economy and Regional Regional Research, Bureau, National Development and Reform Commission

Xie ChengxiangDeputy Mayor of Huangshi

A Closer Look at Urban China: towards the urban billion

Plenary Session, Tuesday 15 May, 14:15 – 15:30

Overview• The uniqueness of Chinese urbanization is its shared speed

and scale.

• Government’s strong leadership in urbanization presents

unique opportunity.

• Local government is spearheading social housing projects.

• China needs to design more flexible mechanisms to

engage external financial resources into Chinese urban

infrastructure investment.

Since 2000, Beijing changed its attitude towards urbanization

from conservative towards advocating. As a practical policy

ModeratorJohan Björkstén

Chairman, MSL China

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responding to hyper-urbanization, China

emphasizes the robust development of urban

concentrations of all scales: small, middle-sized,

and big cities. In the coming two decades, 40%

of cities globally with over 5 million inhabitants

will be in China and over 200 Chinese cities will

have over 1 million inhabitants.

All the speakers agreed that the Chinese

government is well in control of Chinese

urbanization. Woetzel pointed out that China's

governance model in supporting more sustainable

urbanization is “the central government drives

urban shapes and standards, and local

governments are accountable for initiating and

executing implementation plans". Woetzel believes

that China's leadership in urbanization presents a

unique opportunity to develop innovative solutions.

Yuan pointed out the constraints of this government

dominated model in that the government cannot

estimate what is to happen and cannot fully

understand what happens on the ground. Yuan

and Woetzel poin ted out that Chinese

urbanization increased inequality and created

social problems, concentrating on land and

environmental issues.

Today, how to absorb rural influx and give

equal treatment to rural and urban inhabitants is a

top priority of national leaders. Rural-urban

migration happens in mainly two forms: “migrant

worker” and “rural-originated graduate.” In the

coming 18 years, 300 million inhabitants will be

added into the urban population. The core of this

question is where Chinese cities can find the

money to accommodate them.

Xie shared Huangshi’s experience. A

traditional mining city, Huangshi was confronted

since entering the 21st century with resource

depletion and decay of traditional industries. By

2000, Huangshi had 164 shantytowns with 2

million square meters inhabited by more than

12,000 inhabitants. In 2010, Huangshi

government set up Zhongbang, a company that

functions as a financing vehicle and wholly

controlled by Huangshi government. Since then,

Zhongbang has built 45,000 apartments in high

rising buildings grouped under 45 community

projects with a financial investment of 5.9 billion

RMB. Huangshi also uses ICT solutions to monitor

and publicize the management of low-income

individuals. In the coming 3 years, Huangshi will

produce 35,000 apartments through this platform.

Ongoing Chinese urban infrastructure heat,

as Lee portrayed by several numbers that “11

Chinese cities with subway, 15 cities in

construction, 19 cities are planning to build

metro”, creating a chance to build a urbanization

model through what Lee called “Transit Synergized

Development (TSD)” that integrates land planning,

transportation planning, and urbanization

planning. Concerning infrastructure, Xiao pointed

out that this heat inevitably slowed down its

investment towards increasing social welfare, so

China needs to design more flexible mechanisms

to engage external financial resource into Chinese

urban infrastructure investment.

39

巴黎新城市峰会热议中国城市化创举

继本月初李克强副总理在“中欧城镇化伙伴”关系在

布鲁塞尔发布后，日前在巴黎拉底方斯举行的首届“新城

市峰会”汇集500余名全球城市化领域的决策者和意见领袖

就世界范围的城市化，三天跨领域的广泛、深入对话，特

别关注高速发展的中国城市化。这次峰会由新城市基金会

举办，由巴黎市长致欢迎词，发言人包括温哥华市市长、

特拉维夫市市长、塞内加尔达卡市长、英国城市部长，以

及通用、爱立信、思科、苏伊士燃气等公司的执行总裁

等。

前所未有的速度和规模：中国城市化的独一无二的特点和

独特机遇

在5月15日下午“城市中国”的议席中，“城市中国计

划”共同发起人、麦肯锡公司资深董事华强森先生，国家

发展和改革委员会国土开发与地区经济研究所副所长肖金

成、中国湖北黄石市副市长谢承祥共同指出，中国城市化

独一无二的趋势特点是其规模和速度前所未有。未来20

年，中国将有超过200个百万人口以上的城市，而欧洲百

万人口以上的城市仅为35个。华强森指出，中国政府在支

持更加可持续的城市化中发展的管理模式是“中央政府推

动城市建设的形态和标准，地方政府负责启动和实施计

划”，中国政府在城市化过程中的这种主导作用，为中国

在城市化进程中开发出创新的解决方案提供了独特机遇。

中国城市化的悖论：人和基础设施“争”钱

在同一议席上，香港天能集团有限公司总裁、建筑

师李承民指出，目前中国有30多座城市正在建或拟建地铁

项目。肖金成指出，中国中央和地方政府对基础设施的大

力投资，无形中消减了可以用于改善民生的政府资源，因

此政府应该进一步改革地方基础设施融资平台，深入开放

外资和民资参与投资的渠道。

城市化新篇章：城市运营商时代

在5月14日下午的议程中，国开行金融规划合作部

的总经理李东明指出正在兴起的中国城市运营是解决地方

政府财政困境，真正实现可持续城市发展规划的独特平

台。“城市运营商的出现，应视为中国城市化过程的转折

点”，李东明说。国开金融是国内第一家拥有直投牌照的

金融机构，其投资的重点领域是城市基础设施投资，并迅

速成为主要城市运营商之一。城市运营商与地方政府合

作，合资建立的城市运营平台。这个平台一方面做符合当

地自然禀赋条件的整体工业、城市、经济规划，另一方面

与国内外知名规划设计机构、金融机构等合作，引入当地

发展必须的金融、智力等资源支持。

亚特兰大市长：中国城市发展令我很受启发

在5月16日上午举行的“新型城市合作伙伴关系”议

席上，美国亚特兰大市长里德谈到他4月上旬他对深圳、

杭州等五个中国城市的访问印象深刻。他认为中国城市化

的发展揭示了地方政府领导人的愿景和他们执行力的重要

性。里德认为市长是目前美国最活跃的政治行动者，而他

们可以从中国等发展中国国家城市发展的过程受到很多启

发。

40

SpeakersFahd Al Rasheed

Managing Director and CEO, King Abdullah Economic City

Jacob Bennett

Deputy City Manager, Skolkovo

Chen Xiaohui

Deputy Chief Planner, Jiangsu Institute of Urban Planning and Design

Scot Wrighton

City Manager, Lavasa


Modern Urban Utopias: a conversation with the builders of new cities

Plenary Session, Tuesday 15 May, 16:00 - 17:00

OverviewThis session explored a discussion between the builders of four

new-city greenfield projects around the world. Carlo Ratti organized

the conversation in three main sections: the specificities of each city,

the difficult tensions between top-down and bottom-up approaches in

designing these cities, and the aspects of the projects that have been

implemented that make the cities smart.

Jacob Bennett introduced the specificities of Skolkovo, in

Russia. This city has been designed to diversify the economy and to

allow commercialization of technology. Four hundred companies are

already working on the site, hand in hand with universities, research

centers, and multinational corporations. Leading master planners and

architects have also worked together to develop a mixed-use city,

ModeratorCarlo Ratti

Director, MIT SENSEable City Lab


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composed of open green spaces and low-rise

residential areas. The two main characteristics that

make this city smart and competitive are efficient

social interactions and a strong ICT network.

Next, Fahd Al Rasheed presented the

King Abdullah Economic City example. Again,

the aim of this new city of two million people is to

diversify the sources of economic growth, currently

dependent on oil. The government did not

financially support the project, but allowed it to be

developed through an economic zone with

specific regulations. Thirty global companies and

10 billion euros have been transferred to King

Abdullah during the last six years. The city is now

entering its operational phase. The private sector is

able to evaluate this project through consumer

behaviors, so that it can readjust and update

throughout time.

Chen Xiaohui proceeded to outline the

aspects of Suzhou Industry Park, located 20

minutes from Shanghai by train. The park acts as

one of the most competitive in China with an

annual GDP growth rate of 30%. The park aims to

increase China’s international competitiveness by

stimulating the economy with a shift from

manufacturing to service industry and has already

attracted 86 international firms.

Lastly, Scot Wrighton presented Lavasa,

a 100 square kilometer city located in the Pune-

Mumbai corridor. The city is a completely

corporate endeavor in that it receives no financial

support from the Indian government. Wrighton

highlighted the corporate responsibility of the

Lavasa City Master Plan in their construction of

schools and village rehabilitation in the indigenous

villages around the site. The city’s mission is to

respond to rural-to-urban migration by diverting

migrants through the new city.

These “cities from scratch” face the same

questions and challenges about building a city

from the top-down and incorporating the “bottom-

up.” Due to their diverse experiences and contexts,

their responses to these challenges differ. For

example, while Skolkovo impressed upon the fact

that they try to assemble all stakeholders to mix

bottom-up with top-down, Suzhou lamented the

government limitations in China inhibiting a lot of

bottom-up init iatives. Various visions are

complimentary, however, such as the fact that all

plans include mixed-use planning to increase the

amount of “products,” that is, experiences

produced in the city.

43

Capitalising Creativity

Tuesday 15 May, 17:00 - 17:15

OverviewIn a presentation demonstrating the

transformative power of street art, the widely

recognized artist VHILS, demonstrated the

essential role of creative expression in public

spaces of the city, even when it is expressed

il legally. Cities have many unused and

dehumanized spaces, giving the possibility for

street art and graffiti to transform and enhance the

public environment. Graffiti is often seen as a

problem, especially when it is unorganized.

However, street art has the potential to enhance

urban spaces through color, political commentary

or purely aesthetic work.

Street art is about the reinterpretation of the

city’s space. In describing his own trajectory as a

street artist, VHILS drew on the historical roots of

his home country, Portugal. Layers of material

have progressively been left behind on the walls,

including inspiring political murals and ads

driving the new consumer cultural. He started to

carve large-scale portraits into the peeling layers

of paper and paint, leaving behind images

representative of the human soul of the city.

Having created a name for himself within

the street art world, VHILS has now been

organizing festivals that draw artists and admirers

globally. An event recently organized in Lisbon

not only added color and dynamism to boarded

up buildings within the inner city, but also brought

renewed political attention to the abandoned

buildings and spaces scattered within the heart of

the city. A festival organized in a declining

southern Italian town drew artists and tourists from

around Europe, re-energizing the area around

original displays of creativity. According to VHILS,

thinking globally and acting locally can be

powerful for drawing renewed attention to spaces

or urban issues. Street art and graffiti are not an

urban problem. It is rather the way in which the

city handles these expressions of creativity that is

the problem.

SpeakerVHILS

Artist


44









Gala DinnerKeynote Speech

Tuesday 15 May, 2012

OverviewJohn Rossant opened the evening in

thanking the assembled guests of the New Cities

Summit Gala Dinner for their presence and

participation. He proceeded to introduce Bertrand

Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, for the keynote address.

In his speech, Mayor Delanoë opened in

thanking guests, public officials and the event

organizers. He went on to state that there is

nothing more beautiful than being committed to

serve, to serve life and to serve humanity.

He spoke of Paris as a world city; that is, a

city with a million little worlds within it. Being

composed of such a diversity of cultures, religions

and people is ultimately its greatest strength. Paris

itself has historically been a center of innovation,

as exemplified by the space of the Grand Palais,

so it should be seen as no surprise for the event to

be held there.

In cities we need to work for social

cohes ion, economic deve lopment , and

sustainability; in a word, life. The Mayor asserted

his belief that we can meet the challenge of

sustaining economic development, but only when

we are willing to take risks and to push the

boundaries of what has been done before. Paris

has been able to take risks, such as investment in

the Velib bike-share project and more recently

Autolib, the free electric car-sharing service,

allowing for a new way to experience the city.

He expressed pride in the fact that a Parisian start-

up, City Gardens Paris, had been recognized by

the Summit for its new and innovative smart-phone

application.

In closing, the Mayor spoke of his

confidence in the assembled guests and his

anticipation to see the results of this significant

effort in reflection and exchange. He urged those

assembled to stay creative and dynamic, and to

continue to share always, as do the mayors of the

world. Again, he thanked everyone for their

contributions to the event and reasserted the

inherent beauty in being deeply committed to

serving life, and the vision that we each have of

humanity.


46

SpeakerBertrand Delanoë

Mayor of Paris









SpeakersVivek Badrinath

CEO, Orange Business Services

Pablo Farias

Vice President of Economic and Assets Program, Ford Foundation

Ron Huldai

Mayor of Tel Aviv

Kasim Reed

Mayor of Atlanta


Partnering for Better Cities

Plenary Session, Wednesday 16 May, 09:00 - 10:00

OverviewThe sharing across borders of knowledge, experience, and

lessons learned is key to the cooperation of cities. Whether your city

is Tel Aviv or Atlanta, each city can learn from one another, making

the concept of “building together” important in addressing today’s

and tomorrow’s urban challenges.

Saskia Sassen introduces two main challenges that global

cities are presently facing. First, in a global economy, the idea that

all economies seem to become similar is not completely true. This is

because cities, in order to compete with one another, need to be

specialized. If the global standards of building a city homogenize

the built environment, the way it has been used and is still used by its

communities, is making the difference. The second challenge for

Sassen is the need to take inequalities, unemployment and poverty

into account.

Introduced and Moderated bySaskia Sassen

Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology; Co-Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University


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When turning to the panel, Sassen asked

each of the two mayors to present the strengths

and difficulties of the cities they are representing.

Mayor Huldai sees his city’s advantage as

lying in its openness, young age, dynamism,

tolerance and creativity. However, without any

natural resources to take advantage of,

entrepreneurship and connectivity are the two

solutions for developing economically and making

it competitive around the world. Mayor Kasim

Reed of Atlanta, which is the center of commerce

in the U.S. south and the site of such global

brands as Coke and CNN, recognizes that 80%

of GDP in the U.S. occurs in cities, which shows

the urgency of collaborative action. Collaboration

is already occurring inside his city, where

Republican and Democrat officials cast their

partisanship aside and voted to invest billions of

dollars into improving Atlanta’s infrastructure and

transportation system. Reed strongly believes that

transportation is a key to bridging inequalities in

the city and creating accessibility, whether it be to

jobs, education, or other opportunities. It is in the

public interest, economically and socially, to solve

problems of poverty and accessibility.

Pablo Farias oversees grants that focus on

expanding opportunities, overcoming inequities,

and building economic resources. For him, it is

important to innovate through collaboration, and

through this process, inclusion can be created.

Collaboration itself must also bring together all

stakeholders to learn and build knowledge in

order to transfer it to an extended network. Cities

have to open opportunity to diverse communities

and newcomers through democracy and public

participation. Cities must also make prosperity a

shared goal by every citizen living there.

Vivek Badrinath seeks to provide a

technological means through which leaders can

make change in their cities. Through applications

on mobile phones providing water meters or

informing one of electric recharging stations for

their cars, technology is helping to connect city-

dwellers faster. It will also be important that

companies who own data make partnerships with

consumers in order to add more value to what

companies produce and sell.

Overall, cities and their leaders are now

given new means through which they can partner

together to make their cities better. By sharing

knowledge and lessons learned, local leaders can

carry out initiatives to alleviate poverty and to

create more equitable cities. Technology and

innovation, as well as creating added value, also

opens up opportunity for citizen inclusion in the

city space. Especially during a time where

national governments are de-investing in cities, it

will be important to think of cities as a strategic

space, and for power to be brought back to local

governments and for local leaders to act to

address the pressing issues facing today’s global

cities.

49

SpeakerLuciana Lima

Director of Strategic Partnerships, Ciudad Saludable


Urban InnovationCiudad Saludable

Wednesday 16 May, 10:00 - 10:15

OverviewThe presentation started with a film showing waste pickers

living off of heaps of garbage in Peru and the many challenges

posed by large amounts of contaminated urban waste that are not

adequately collected and processed. The film then highlighted the

importance of innovative waste management tools that have been

developed by Ciudad Saludable, including waste pickers.

Luciana Lima described the passion of Albina Ruiz, the Founder

of the organization. She has spearheaded the project thanks to her

passion for finding a solution to waste management issues plaguing

most urban centers of the country. Using simple and small-scale

models, and demonstrating by example, waste pickers become

employed in collecting and processing a town’s waste, composting

and recycling where possible. Having met with success, these small-

scale, self-supporting social enterprises have now been replicated in

a number of Latin American cities. Over 9 million poor people have

been impacted by the work of Ciudad Saludable, and they have

now gained recognition from the Clinton Global Initiative, Ashoka

and the Schwabb Foundation, among others.


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Urban InnovationIsla Urbana

Wednesday 16 May, 10:15 - 10:30

OverviewIsla Urbana aims to provide a viable and scalable solution for

the water crisis in Mexico City. Enrique Lomnitz presented the origin

of his interest, explaining his first surprising discoveries. If housing is

crucial for developing an inclusive city, water is the most vital

resource. However, while low-income communities from informal

settlements are able, year after year, to build their own home, to

pave their streets and to provide electricity to the all neighborhood,

they face an unprecedented water crisis. The ironic fact is that slums

in Mexico City are exposed to massive flooding issues, while the

inhabitants expressed the increasing water scarcity.

Enrique Lomnitz developed the adoption of rainwater

harvesting, by catalyzing communities through training and

collaborative action to develop effective and accessible systems. The

benefits are threefold. First, it vitalizes local economies, by training

and employing local plumbers. Second, one component of the

project is to connect these new innovative systems to existing ones in

order to create a self-sustainable system. Finally, it directly involves

community leaders and the community itself through the designing of

the process and its implementation. One thousand systems have

been built in the slum within the past two years. This innovative

system couldn’t have emerged without the partnership of

governments, businesses, universities and NGOs, throughout the

entire process.

SpeakerEnrique Lomnitz

Co-founder, Isla Urbana


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SpeakersAlan Hinchman

Global Market Director, GE Intelligent Platforms

Nathalie Leboucher

Director of Smart City, Orange Business Services

Henri Saint-Bris

Senior Vice President Strategy, Suez Environnement

Xiao Jincheng

Deputy Director, Land Economy and Regional Research Bureau, National Development and Reform Commission

HydroCity: urban water

Wednesday 16 May, 11:00 - 12:00

OverviewKey issues

• The social costs of water distribution must be addressed.

• Water scarcity will continue to be a challenge for both

developed and developing cities.

• Cities must think about new ways to deal with water

scarcity, e.g. re-use solutions and correct tariffs.

• Water pricing must be fair.

• Water losses, which incur heavy economic costs as well,

must be mitigated.

• A distributed model is where innovation must take place in

order for consumers to understand water usage, whether

through education or investing in simple technology.

ModeratorHugh Aldridge

Director of Development, University of California, CITRIS

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Population growth and urbanization, climate

change, and the change of consumption patterns

through history have greatly impacted water

demand today. Cities will need new solutions in

dealing with the almost 40% of urban water that is

lost and water infrastructures that are out of date.

Issues of equity also arise, as most of the people

who are paying the most for water in the world

are the poorest, and increasingly only 1% of water

is reserved for drinking. This is a problem faced by

not only developing countries, but also developed

ones.

Henry Saint-Bris suggested ways water

management may be improved, especially through

greater recycling. Nathalie Leboucher

proposed that the main solutions will be found in

rethinking “re-use” solutions, such as desalination

and correct tariffs. A tool such as smart metering

networks will help the consumer by showing them

how much water they are consuming. With the

advancement of technology, multiple applications

exist on mobile devices to help measure our

consumption. Such services may even be put into

cities like Mexico City that may not be

infrastructurally ready for wireless water metering;

however, the main impediment is money, so the

right partnership of stakeholders must be put into

place for this to work in cities everywhere.

Xiao Jincheng revealed that water

scarcity is severe in Chinese cities, especially in

the north and west of the country. The fact that

China now has three cities with populations over

10 million people, making water very unevenly

distributed in the country. Most of the water is used

for agriculture. However, the urban water supply

continues to be the biggest issue, and local

governments are now adopting better policies to

save water and clean up pollution, though some

projects that have been undertaken to transfer

water from water-rich to water-scarce areas are not

yet sustainable.

Alan Hinchman described “Innovative

Industry,” a new GE initiative which aggregates

and adds value to data through the development

of efficient water management tools. For example,

water costs more to pump out than oil, yet they are

not even close to being the same price because

water is pumped so inefficiently and cost recovery

measures are difficult to implement. However, this

knowledge is not always known. Through the

leverage of data, conflicting usages in water may

be revealed, such as the imbalance of water

usage between agricultural and consumer usage in

China, and decisions may then be made on how

to optimize the water quantity and its uses.

Because of the nature of water as a necessity

for human life, challenges concerning the scarcity

of the resource, improving water quality, and

maintaining the networks and treatment facilities in

the world’s big cities today will be of utmost

importance.

53

SpeakersYouenn Dupuis

Responsable de la Mission Grand Paris, RATP

Jean-Yves Durance

Vice-President, Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Pierre Mansat

Deputy Mayor of Paris for Paris Metropole

Robert Vassoyan

Director General, Cisco FranceGreater Paris: reinventing the City of Light

Wednesday 16 May, 11:00 - 12:00

OverviewStephen Barrett began the breakout session and

introduced Pierre Mansat to talk about the origins of the Greater

Paris project. He emphasized the fact that if the last French President,

Nicolas Sarkozy, gave political visibility to greater Paris, it was the

elected officials of the Ile-de-France region that got the project off the

ground in 2001, with the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë. Many

urban stakeholders reached a consensus around the need to change

the relationship between Paris intra-muros and its banlieues. Within

the last ten years, the challenge for Paris and its region has been to

reassert itself in the global economy, as well as the political will to

reduce socio-spatial inequalities and political fragmentation.

The emergence of the Greater Paris has been crystallized in the

massive consultation in which central government, local authorities,

ModeratorStephen Barrett

Architect, Partner, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

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architects, civil society and private sector have

been working together to define challenges and

potential solutions for the Greater Paris. However,

Pierre Mansat insisted on the fact that no

consensus has been reached, but the most

important thing was to match the strategic plan

with the local territories’ needs. Nevertheless, the

governance challenge is at the heart of the success

of the Greater Paris, as all the speakers agreed.

The project needs to overcome the administrative

boundaries because Paris has a radiating effect in

all the region. So the aim is to create a dynamic

where all the stakeholders are part of the project,

where the institutions evolve regarding the need to

find the right scale at which to treat housing and

transport issues.

Perhaps the public transport system change

has been the only point where all the actors found

consensus so far. Youenn Dupuis presented the

current project on public transportation, developed

by the RATP collaboratively with all the

stakeholders. 175km of ring-road automatic

underground will be connected to the existing

system for a cost of 20 billion Euros. The

challenges faced are more about getting

consensus and being attentive to the territories,

actors and private sector than technical ones, in

order to develop a sustainable and viable

network. Robert Vassoyan presented the

Smart Work Centers, initiated from Cisco in

Amsterdam, stating that digital technology is an

asset, giving flexibility to cities to adapt themselves

to the current challenges they are facing. The

precondition for success is that it needs to be

planned out ahead of time.

However, if transport regulations are part of

the Greater Paris, both Jean-Yves Durance

and Pierre Mansat wanted to remind us that

housing is as important as transportation. Another

important goal for a prosperous Paris is to develop

solidarity. Pierre Mansat concludes the session

with an optimistic message related to the discourse

of François Hollande, saying that the central

government wants to partner with local authorities

rather than be a barrier to progress.

55

SpeakersPaul Delaoutre

Chairman and CEO, BHV and Galeries Lafayette Department Stores

Jean-Charles Decaux

Co-CEO, JCDecaux SA


A City Shops: the future of urban retail in the digital age

Wednesday 16 May, 11:00 - 12:00

OverviewKey points

• Retail continues to be about knowing your customers and

providing key services.

• Technology is changing the way that people shop, but the

in-store experience is still centrally important.

• Drawing on evolving technologies and trends, retail and

advertising can and should adapt, while staying faithful to

values of their key customers.

In moderating the discussion, Mark Dytham focused on the

changing environment for retail operators and advertising with the

ModeratorMark Dytham

Director, Klein Dytham architecture (KDa); Founder, PechaKucha


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advent of new technologies. The most significant

of these is actually the increasing use of the

internet for making purchases, which will continue

to change the face of retail.

Paul Delaoutre responded to this

assertion by agreeing that the topic of matching

internet retail to in-store strategies is a hot one.

However, it is important to not fall into the trap of

thinking of retail in terms of stores selling products,

but rather of brands serving customers. The best

use of technology is in learning to better

understand what customers want and responding

to their needs. However, the competition coming

from online retailing will make it increasingly

difficult for small retailers in disadvantaged areas

to compete.

From the perspective of Jean-Charles

Decaux, the firm is the bridge between products

and services and the municipalities that must find

innovative ways to fund infrastructure projects. The

challenge is to perceive the major trends that will

impact mobility and navigation of the city. For

example, many were unsure about whether the

Velib bike-share system would work given such

cheap user pricing. However, this is what

ultimately contributed to its success.

Despite claims otherwise, Paul Deloutre

argued that mobility is not decreasing but

increasing, offering new opportunities and markets

for retailers. Additionally, the scale of emerging

cities holds massive potential for revenue

generation according to Jean-Charles Decaux,

who cited the fact that 7.4 million people pass

though the Shanghai subway every day.

The session concluded with the recognition

that retail offerings must continue to be customer

focused, taking into account changing habits

within new urban environments and thanks to ever

evolving technologies.

57

SpeakersJay Carson

CEO, C40 Cities

Gérard Mestrallet

CEO, GDF Suez

Jean Pistre

Architect, Valode & Pistre

Khalifa Sall

Mayor of Dakar

Call to Action Thinking Ahead, Building Together

Plenary Session, Wednesday 16 May, 12:00 - 13:00

OverviewThe closing session refocused the conversation around the

need for effective coordination and partnership between the public

and private spheres, and continued sharing of information and best

practices between municipal leaders around the world.

John Rossant opened by inviting Gerard Mestrallet to

discuss the role of GDF Suez in working with municipalities to

manage city services. With over 150 years of experience in

partnering with urban centers, the CEO described how services,

such as increasingly efficient waste water collection/treatment or the

smart city dashboard, are creating a more liveable and efficient

urban environment with better responsiveness to the needs of people.

ModeratorJohn Rossant

Chairman, New Cities Foundation

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The Mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall,

described the central challenges faced by cities in

Africa citing, among others, the need for access to

affordable sources of credit for addressing urgent

needs for basic services within the city. However,

he remained largely optimistic about the

development potential of African cities, bringing

attention to the young, educated and dynamic

population, access to new markets, and the high

returns on investment.

Coming from the perspective of emissions

reduction, Jay Carson highlighted the fact that

these issues can and will only be addressed at the

city level, where municipal governments have

significant power to impact CO2 output. The

sharing of best practices is a powerful tool for

leveraging innovative solut ions global ly.

Additionally, it should be recognized that some of

the most pragmatic steps towards more effective

and efficient systems have been taken by cities in

developing countries, with many lessons to be

learned.

The architect, Jean Pistre, argued for

design that focuses once more on the human

experience and the creation of spaces which

facilitate interaction, engagement and sustainable

means of access to the experiences, services, and

goods that are important to us.

In closing the discussion, John Rossant

emphasized the important role of cities in meeting

the massive challenges that we are faced with

globally today. Cities are where innovation takes

place, where social problems arise and are

solved, and where we must partner and

collaborate for change. Finally, he expressed his

wishes that the first New Cities Summit had

created a community of practitioners that would

thrive and expand in the future, enacting positive

change in participants’ home cities. He closed in

thanking the attendees for their participation, as

well as contributors and organizers.

59

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