Global Urban Leaders to Attend New Cities Summit ’13 in Sao Paulo, June 4-6

• Over 700 high-level participants from 37 countries attending agenda-setting event on the future of the urban world
• 39 Latin America-based speakers confirmed, 34 of whom coming from Brazil
• Winner of the AppMyCity! Prize to be announced on June 5, during the Summit

São Paulo – May 29, 2013. The New Cities Foundation today announced that 93 expert speakers from 17 countries will lead debates at the New Cities Summit in Sao Paulo, dedicated to the future of the urban world.

The New Cities Summit, attracting some 700 participants from 37 countries, will take place at the OCA Pavilion and Auditório Ibirapuera, two iconic buildings designed by celebrated architect Oscar Niemeyer in the heart of Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, from June 4 – 6, 2013. Mayor Fernando Haddad of São Paulo will give the welcome address and introduce this year’s theme, “The Human City”.

New Cities Summit - Key Statistics on Speakers and Participants:

• 91 speakers from the corporate, non-profit, academic & civic sectors, from 17 countries
• Over 700 high-level participants coming from 37 countries
• 39 Latin America-based speakers – of whom 34 are based in Brazil
• 3 AppMyCity finalists competing for $5,000 Prize for best urban app– from Brazil, Israel and USA
• 13 up-and-coming urban innovators – who have transformed their cities with a unique idea – to present as part of a special strand of inspirational 10-minute talks called “What Works”

The New Cities Summit offers an unparalleled platform for urban leaders, thinkers and innovators to tackle the most pressing challenges as well as the huge opportunities arising in our rapidly changing urban landscape. The speakers and invitation-only participants come from a spectrum of industries, including government, technology, infrastructure, mobility, healthcare, architecture, design, academia, the arts, civil society and the media.

Focusing on action-oriented debate and exchange, the New Cities Summit aims to foster practical solutions to pressing urban issues such as poverty, social exclusion and environmental degradation, whilst also discussing how opportunities offered by creativity, technological innovation, social tolerance and inclusion can help build more “human” cities.

The New Cities Summit will approach the theme of the Human City from four key angles: Build, looking at the city’s physical form; Participate, revealing how cities can foster new modes of collaboration; Play, highlighting the role of culture and entertainment in making cities vibrant and unique; and Include, addressing how cities can promote justice, equality and inclusiveness. Each of these angles will be addressed with an opening plenary, whilst breakout sessions and keynote speeches will plunge deeper into specific issues and ideas. Summit sessions include City Strategies for Business, the Future of Urban Mobility, Mega Events (with the upcoming Brazil World Cup and Olympics in mind) and, in addition, a session dedicated to Large Scale Change in São Paulo, Brazil’s dynamic commercial capital.

John Rossant, Chairman of the New Cities Foundation, said: “We are excited to be coming to São Paulo, an extraordinary and fast-changing city that encapsulates so many of the key urban issues we are grappling with right now, as we try to forge better cities for the 21st century and beyond. Our speaker program this year harnesses the brightest talent from across Brazil, Latin America and across four other continents. It’s going to be an information-packed and inspiring three days and a chance for brilliant urban leaders to connect, form new networks, and find new solutions for 21st century cities.”

What Works – 11 urban innovators to share their stories

As part of this year’s focus on The Human City, the New Cities Foundation selected a group of up-and-coming urban innovators to be part of an inspirational talk series at the Summit entitled What Works.

During these 10-minute talks, the presenters – from countries including India, Brazil, USA and France – will each reveal how they developed an intelligent, original idea that transformed their home city, from creating a model for “smart parking”, building micro-apartments and pioneering a movement for co-working spaces.

Confirmed What Works speakers:

• Assaf Biderman, Associate Director, MIT SENSEeable City Lab, discussing the digitalization of cities
• Nirmal Kumar, co-founder of the G-auto auto-rickshaw collective in India, which began with just 15 auto-rickshaw drivers and now operates in four major cities in Gujarat, counting over 10,000 members
• Rand Hindi, Founder and CEO of Snips, Paris, a big data copmany specializing in predictive modeling for smart cities
• Alessandra Orofino, Co-founder of Purpose Brasil and MeuRio, an online platform for civic participation and increased democratic engagement
• Eric Bunge, Co-founder nARCHITECTS, New York, recent winner of a competition to design and build “micro-housing” in New York
• Hans Fernando Rocha Dohmann, Municipal Secretary of Health for Rio de Janeiro, who will talk about the New Cities Foundation’s pioneering project on Urban E-health in Rio, which was led in collaboration with the City of Rio and other partner organizations
• Zia Yusuf, President & CEO of Streetline Inc., the leading provider of smart parking solutions to cities, garages, airports, universities and other private parking providers
• Eric van den Broek, Co-founder of an innovative coworking space in Paris, called Mutinerie
• Maurício Brandão, co-founder of BijaRi Collective, a São Paulo-based art and architecture collective combining public art, spatial critique and urban life
• Patrik Cerwall, Head of Strategic Marketing & Intelligence, Ericsson, and Naureen Kabir, Director of the New Cities Foundation’s Urban (co)LAB, who will talk about the New Cities Foundation Task Force on Connected Commuting

The What Works talk series is run in partnership with The Huffington Post. A selection of these speakers will take part in a Huffington Post Live session during the Summit, which will happen on June 4 at 1.30pm Brazil time/ 2.30pm EST. This will offer the What Works presenters to share their stories and inspire an even wider audience across the world. Many of the What Works speakers have also written original blog posts for the Huffingtonpost.com.

The What Works speaker slots will take place on June 4 and 5 during afternoon breakout sessions at the OCA Pavilion.

More information at http://www.newcitiessummit2013.org/what-works/

AppMyCity! Prize – 3 finalists to present their urban apps on June 5

During the New Cities Summit, the New Cities Foundation will also host the final stage of AppMyCity!, the Foundation’s international, 5,000 USD Prize for the world’s best urban app. The  three finalists are:

• Colab from Recife, Brazil – an app that creates a social network for citizenship that connects citizens to cities.
• BuzzJourney from Kfar-Saba, Israel – a social transportation app that provides all means of urban transportation via bus, train, taxi, bike rental and even ride sharing
• PublicStuff from New York, USA – this app helps local governments turn civic inquiries into tangible community improvements by enabling residents to connect to their representatives through their mobile phones, laptops and tablets

The AppMyCity! Prize finalists were announced on May 13. All three have been invited on an all expenses paid trip to São Paulo to present their apps to the Summit audience, who will vote for their favorite. The finalists’ presentations will take place on June 5 at the OCA Pavilion from 10.45am – 11.05am. The winner will be announced at 6.30pm on June 5.

More information at http://www.newcitiessummit2013.org/schedule/appmycity-prize/

For full details of the New Cities Summit visit www.newcitiessummit2013.org.

Ends

New Cities Summit: Key Statistics on the world’s urbanization process

• The global urban population is growing at a rate of one million people each week and will reach about 7 billion by the middle of this century
• By 2030, more than 60% of the world’s population – almost 5 billion people – will live in cities
• By 2030, new urban development will cover an area of land equivalent to South Africa or twice the size of France.

About the New Cities Summit

The annual New Cities Summit is organized by the New Cities Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to building more sustainable, dynamic, creative and just global cities.

The inaugural New Cities Summit Summit was held in 2012 in Paris and attracted 750 high-level participants and 90 speakers, including: Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris; Greg Clark, UK Minister for Cities; Hans Vestberg, CEO, Ericsson; Gerard Mestrallet, CEO, GDF Suez; Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta; Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman and MD, Hindustan Construction Company; Daniel Libeskind, Architect; John Rice, Vice-Chairman, GE; Khalifa Sall, Mayor of Dakar, Senegal; Fahd Al Rasheed, CEO, Emaar Economic City; Ricky Burdett, LSE Cities program and Xiao Jingcheng, Deputy Director, China NDRC.

About the New Cities Foundation

The New Cities Foundation is a leading global platform for innovation and high-level exchange on the future of the urban world. Working to create more dynamic, sustainable, just and creative cities with a special focus on rapidly urbanizing regions, the Foundation fosters urban innovations and new partnerships among government, business, the research community and civil society.

An independent, non-profit organization, the New Cities Foundation was created in 2010 and is financed by its members, which include some of the most forward-thinking companies, universities, cities and city organizations around the world. The New Cities Foundation’s founding members are Cisco, Ericsson and GE. The Foundation is based in Geneva with offices in Paris, New York and Rio de Janeiro.

The New Cities Foundation hosts a number of leadership events on cities including its flagship event, the New Cities Summit, and other, smaller events worldwide. In parallel, the Foundation’s research wing, the Urban (co)LAB, manages a number of applied urban research projects including New Cities Foundation Task Forces and thought leadership activities. Two Task Forces are currently under way, including one in the area of e-health in Rio de Janeiro.

For more information about the New Cities Foundation, please visit: www.newcitiesfoundation.org

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Twitter: @newcitiesfound