Mayors of Dallas, Fort Worth and Compton confirmed as speakers at the New Cities Summit in Dallas
• The New Cities Summit - the leading global event on the future of the urban world - to take place in the Dallas Arts District, Texas from June 17-19 2014
• 58 high-level international speakers confirmed thus far, from public, private, academic and non-profit sectors, including Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas; Mayor Betsy Price of Fort Worth; Mayor Aja Brown of Compton; Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, NYU and Sean Donohue, CEO, Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Airport
• First names confirmed for celebrated WhatWorks urban innovators talk series – showcasing pioneering projects developed in India, Serbia, Kenya and Canada
Dallas, Texas – April 16, 2014. The New Cities Foundation announced that 58 international speakers are confirmed to gather in the Dallas Arts District from June 17-19 for the annual New Cities Summit, the leading global event on the future of the urban world. A total of 90 speakers and 800 international participants are expected, to engage in action-oriented debate and exchange on the greatest challenges faced by the 21st century metropolis.
Confirmed New Cities Summit speakers include:
• Joel Allison, Chief Executive Office, Baylor Health Care System
• Maxwell Anderson, Eugene McDermott Director, Dallas Museum of Art; Co-Chairman, Global Cultural Districts Network
• Aja Brown, Mayor of Compton
• Karen Brooks Hopkins, President, Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Alex Krieger, Principal, NBBJ and Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Harold Madi, Director of Urban Design, City of Toronto
• Betsy Price, Mayor of Fort Worth
• Mike Rawlings, Mayor of Dallas
• Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, Centennial Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics; University Professor of the Humanities, New York University
• Michael Tregoning, Chief Financial Officer, Headington Oil Company LLC
• Sean Donohue, Chief Executive Officer, Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport
• Ashwin Mahesh, Innovator and Public Policy Researcher, National Institute of Advanced Studies, India; CEO, Mapunity and Editor, India Together
• Nithya Raman, Director, Transparent Chennai
Speakers and participants will take a visionary yet pragmatic approach to tackling urban challenges faced by world cities during the Summit in response to this year’s theme of Re-imagining Cities: Transforming the 21st Century Metropolis. The two-day program of keynotes, panels and workshops on June 17-18 will explore a spectrum of urban issues such as technology, sustainability, mobility, big data, culture, social inclusion and wellbeing.
In parallel, the Summit will showcase grassroots urban innovation with the final stage of the AppMyCity! contest, the search for the world’s best new urban app (www.appmycity.org), and WhatWorks, a popular series of inspirational short talks by promising urban innovators.
Confirmed WhatWorks speakers include:
• Mohamed Hage, Founder, Lufa Farms, Montreal - an urban farm with the world's first commercial rooftop greenhouse, aiming to change the way cities eat
• David Auerbach, Founder, Sanergy, Nairobi - an organization that strives to make hygienic sanitation affordable and accessible throughout Africa's informal settlements
• Miloš Milisavljević, Founder, Strawberry Energy, Belgrade - creators of the first free public solar charger for phones, tablets and multi-media players, which also sparks serendipitous connections between city dwellers
• Meenu Vadera, Founder, Sakha Consulting Wings, Delhi - a social enterprise aimed at providing safe transport solutions for women, by women, in urban India
The New Cities Summit will close on June 19 with expert-led tours of the Dallas Arts District and pioneering projects in the wider Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.
The New Cities Summit takes place at the Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Arts District, the largest arts district in the U.S. In recognition of the importance of culture in cities, the New Cities Summit program will incorporate a strand of discussions led by leaders from the world of the arts and culture, including Maxwell Anderson of the Dallas Arts District and Karen Brooks Hopkins of Brooklyn Academy of Music. This strand is curated by the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN), a federation of global centers of arts and culture, whose mission is to foster co-operation and knowledge sharing among the world’s leading cultural districts (www.gcdn.net).
John Rossant, Chairman and Founder, the New Cities Foundation, said: “When we re-imagine cities, we need to have a collaborative conversation, and we need to look at what really works to make concrete change. By bringing together world-class mayors, CEOs, architects, professors, scientists, designers and cultural leaders with up-and-coming urban innovators and entrepreneurs, the New Cities Summit creates a unique platform for incubating, promoting and scaling urban innovation. And Dallas, which embodies so much of that spirit of urban innovation, is the ideal place for the Summit in June.”
Maxwell L. Anderson, co-Chairman, GCDN, Chairman of the Dallas Arts District Foundation and Eugene McDermott Director, Dallas Museum of Art, said: “The last generation has seen individual arts organizations making headway in their respective cities and countries. What we are out to determine is how the adjacency of multiple arts institutions can offer a more robust and sustainable menu of programs for their communities, entice cultural tourists to spend more than a night, and share knowledge about these artistic ecosystems in ways that can benefit us all.”
A full list of New Cities Summit speakers and program topics is available at www.newcitiessummit2014.org.
Ends.
International press contact:
Marina Bradbury
Communications & Media Relations Manager
New Cities Foundation
mbradbury@newcitiesfoundation.org
+33 6 17 79 17 72
Neil Mac Lean
Press & Communications Assistant
New Cities Foundation
nmaclean@newcitiesfoundation.org
Local press contact:
Brunswick Group – Dallas
Roberta Thomson/ Daniel Harrison
newcities@brunswickgroup.com
+1 214 254 3790
About the New Cities Summit
Organized by the New Cities Foundation, the New Cities Summit is the premier global leadership event on the future of cities. Fostering positive urban change, the high level gathering advocates cross-sector collaboration through network building, cutting-edge forums and lively discussion. The Summit showcases and disseminates the best ideas on the future of cities and generates concrete, scalable solutions capable of being adopted and replicated across the world. Following the inaugural Summit in Paris in 2012, last year’s event was hosted in São Paulo. The New Cities Summit 2014 will be hosted in Dallas, Texas, USA, from June 17 - 19.
Twitter: @newcitiesfound #ncs2014
About the New Cities Foundation
The New Cities Foundation is a leading global non-profit organization with a vision to build more inclusive, dynamic and creative cities benefiting people and society. Its mission is to incubate, promote and scale urban innovations through collaborative partnerships between government, business, academia and civil society.
The New Cities Foundation hosts a number of leadership events on the most pressing urban issues, including its flagship event, the New Cities Summit The Organization also hosts smaller leadership events worldwide, such as Cityquest - KAEC Forum, a high level event focusing on the conception and building of new cities around the world (www.cityquest.net).
The Foundation’s applied research wing, the Urban (co)LAB, manages a number of projects including Task Forces, thought leadership activities and competitions. The Urban (co)LAB recently completed two Task Forces on Urban E-health in Rio de Janeiro and on Connected Commuting in San Jose, California. The Urban (co)LAB also manages the AppMyCity! contest for the world’s best new urban mobile app, and seeks out the most talented urban innovators for the WhatWorks series of talks hosted at the New Cities Summit.
An independent, non-profit organization, the New Cities Foundation was created in 2010 and is financed by its members and partners. Overall, its members include some of the most forward-thinking companies, universities, cities and city organizations from around the world. The New Cities Foundation’s Founding Members are Cisco and Ericsson. The Foundation is based in Geneva and its head office is in Paris.
For more information about the New Cities Foundation, please visit:
Facebook: /NewCitiesFoundation
Twitter: @newcitiesfound
About AppMyCity!
AppMyCity! is a $5,000 contest that promotes and rewards mobile apps that improve the urban experience, connect people, and make cities more fun, fair, vibrant and sustainable places. 3 finalists will present their apps at the New Cities Summit and the winner will be chosen by a live audience vote.
Twitter: #AppMyCity
About WhatWorks
WhatWorks is a series of short talks, presented at the New Cities Summit, by urban innovators across a variety of disciplines and regions. Speakers have 6 minutes to engage a high-level audience and present the projects they have implemented to solve the great urban challenges of our time. Find out more: www.newcitiesfoundation.org/whatworks
About the Dallas Arts District
The Dallas Arts District is a nonprofit organization stimulating the cultural and economic life of North Texas by advocating for the largest urban cultural district in the United States – comprising 20 square blocks of museums, performance halls, parks, restaurants, offices and residences. The Dallas Arts District also serves as world headquarters for the Global Cultural Districts Network in partnership with the New Cities Foundation and AEA Consulting. For more information, please visit www.dallasartsdistrict.org.
About the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN)
The GCDN serves to foster cooperation and knowledge-sharing between those responsible for conceiving, funding, building, and operating cultural districts; and to help to ensure that these projects are vital assets for their communities, contributing to the vitality of 21st century cities. Over the next decade, some US $250 billion will be invested in the creation of new cultural districts around the globe. A successful cultural district is not just one that is built, but one that, once built, thrives and, in thriving, animates the city or region that it serves. This holistic definition of success is central to the Network: success is not just getting an arts building or series of buildings out of the ground, it is about ensuring that they are viable and play a central role in their communities.
The GCDN provides the following services for its members:
● Regular convening to share emerging best practices, hear expert panels, and discuss the place of cultural districts in urban policy, economic development and related areas of public policy such as travel and tourism;
● Original research on topics of common interest such as programming, audience development, cultural tourism, professional development, relevant trends in technology and creative industries strategies;
● Regular summaries and circulation of secondary research and news of common interest;
● Virtual forums for detailed sharing of information and discussion of opportunities and challenges;
● Opportunities for establishing strategic partnerships for content, programming, skills training and knowledge transfer.
Facebook /GCDNetwork
Twitter: @gcdnet
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