The LLGA | Cities Summit 2013 took place on 14-16 May 2013 and was hosted by the City of San Francisco and Citymart.com, together with the City of Barcelona and the Metropolis Initiative “Agile Cities“. Metropolis was represented by Ms. Gabriella Gómez-Mont, director of Laboratorio para la Ciudad, Mexico City´s new office of civic innovation and urban creativity.   

(Read here the full report of Gabriella Gómez-Mont)

The Comparative Study on Metropolitan Governance, the Metropolis Initiative led by the Secretariat for Metropolitan Development in the State of São Paulo, with technical support from Empresa Paulista de Planejamento Metropolitano SA (Emplasa), had its last meeting in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, from April 25 to 26.

The next meeting of the Comparative Study on Metropolitan Governance, a Metropolis Initiative led by the Secretariat for Metropolitan Development in the State of São Paulo, with technical support from Empresa Paulista de Planejamento Metropolitano SA (Emplasa), will take place in the city of São Paulo from25 to 26 April 2013.

In 2012, the Metropolis Initiative in Metropolitan Governance, lead by the State Government of São Paulo was launched with a first meeting where more than 20 partners from different cities presented the first data to perform the Comparative Study. For 2013, the Initiative has planned several activities such as mentoring programs and the presentation of a preliminary report of the comparative study. Find out more below about the activities held in 2012 and the goals for 2013.

The Metropolis Initiatives celebrated their first year of activity and made a successful presentation at the Metropolis Board of Directors meeting in Guangzhou. In order to promote their activity and be able to reach new collaborators and organizations interested in taking part, some of the Initiatives have made videos showing what they have done so far and their plans for the future. Check the videos here.  

The Metropolis Initiative “Integrated Urban Governance – Successful Policy Transfer”, led by the Senate Department for Urban Development in Berlin, facilitated a peer review training session hosted by the Île-de-France Initiative, at the Institute for Spatial and Urban Planning (IAU-ÎdF) on 15 and 16 October. Peers from Vienna, Johannesburg, Hyderabad and Sydney reviewed the priorities of the host’s Agenda 21 and its Regional Climate Plan. This activity builds on the Metropolis Action Plan committed to increasing and improving learning activities by and for members.

Program

Executive Summary Report

Report

The Kreanta Foundation, with the support of Metropolis, organized the Creative Cities International Congress held in Medellin from 2 to 6 October 2012. The event, now in its fifth year, is a meeting of professionals from Latin America to debate and reflect on creativity, innovation and culture in cities. This year’s congress in Medellin was linked to the Medellin-Barcelona Chair project, which is also articulated in the Metropolis Initiative “Transferring Knowledge and Cooperating in Culture, Education and City”.

The Kreanta Foundation, together with the Secretariat for Citizen Culture at Medellin City Council and with support from Metropolis, is organizing the 5th Creative Cities International Conference to be held from 2 to 6 October 2012 in the city of Medellin. These conferences are organized to coincide with the “Medellin-Barcelona Chair” Metropolis Initiative and will incorporate the content and activities of their programs.

The Workshop City Protocol to promote a certification system for measuring the degree of efficiency and quality in cities was held on 16 and 17 July. The event brought together around 200 spokespersons and included the attendance of two Metropolis representatives who played an active role in the discussions to establish a new framework for city improvement and transformation.

Barcelona City Council is acting as the project sponsor, with the involvement of CISCO and GDF Suez and the collaboration of over 90 cities, organizations, universities, and businesses.

Metropolis, in partnership with Living Labs Global, The Climate Group, Citymart.com and the Technology Strategy Board, is running the Agile Cities initiative to develop a specific technological platform - an Open Standard - for the discovery and evaluation of innovations for cities helping to tackle their urban challenges.

To join Agile Cities fill out this survey* on how your city innovates -- it should only take a few minutes.With Agile Cities,the standards and procedures will help us build a global marketplace for high-impact innovations, as well as exchange experiences among cities.