Connected Urban Development

 The theme of Better City, Better Life brings global urban innovators to Shanghai this month to experience the spectacle, of  the World Expo.

Where better then for the landmark phase in the evolution of the Connected Urban Development program to be announced? The successes of the program, with the seven cities, Cisco and many partners and supporters from MIT, The Climate Group, Clinton Global Initiative and local integration partners, has seen three successful conferences and peer networking forums. Building from the great conferences in San Francisco (2008), Amsterdam (2008) and Seoul (2009), bring us to Shanghai in 2010. Join us online over the next month as we lead into the conference, share the content and follow up online and with those attending following the conference.

As we lead into the rapidly approaching Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference in Shanghai on 17-18 June, join us as we will now kick off a dialogue to provide some further insight into the exciting agenda that is in place for this landmark event in the progression of Connected Urban Development, and the ongoing engagement with a wider community of urban innovators from global cities, companies, institutions and individuals.

We have set up the event to provide leading insights from the Connected Urban Development member cities, Cisco Systems, and The Climate Group as lead conference partners. In addition we have Knowledge Partners joining the debate, with expertise from The World Bank, Urban Land Institute (ULI) , The Young Foundation, Social Innovation eXchange (SIX) . From Cisco the breakout sessions will be co-moderated by all the Lead and Knowledge Partners and will be supported by the Smart+Connected Communities Institute, as part of the company’s focus on engaging this community and others in online debate on the key topics addressed at the conference.

 The objectives for the conference are:

• recognize leading cities for their efforts in addressing sustainable development
• discuss challenges cities are facing and solutions they are developing at the intersection of environmental sustainability, economic development and social inclusion
• continue and expand the global community of collaboration

To summarize the conference here, we will be hosting a two day event which will look at policies, solutions and approaches on day1 and Day2 will provide the opportunity at the Expo to experience leading urban innovaiton showcases:

The Agenda 

Day1 (17th June) - Conference and discussions sessions:

The plenary sessions will include city, business, NGO and academic leaders, including Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers, The Climate Group CEO Steve Howard and Metropolis secretary general Josep Roig. The plenary sessions will focus on how urban innovation, such as those initiatives led by Metropolis, Cisco and The Climate Group, is enabled by multi sector innovation partnerships across the world. The day’s proceeding will also include plenary sessions on urban innovation in China, specialist sessions on key topics in delivering Smart+Connected Communities;

• Urban Design and Networked Development
• Sustainable Cities: Challenges and Solutions
• Smart and Connected Urban Mobility
• Economic Growth in Cities
• The Social Life of Cities

 The final plenary session of the day will explore the innovation dynamics in delivering successful global cities of the future from the angles of urban planning, social innovation, real estate and technology development.

Day2 (18th June) - Expo tour day:

World cities, countries and companies, including Cisco are showcasing their visions, solutions, and approaches to the theme of the Expo. Cisco’s Smart+Connected Life pavilion, and leading cities and expo pavilions  and other leading pavilions will form a hosted tour on day 2 (18th June) for delegates to the conference.

All conference agenda information is being posted to the event website at www.cisco.com/go/pui_2010. Please refer here for the latest information, agenda, breakouts, speaker information and post event content.

As Shanghai experiences and debates the topics of urban sustainability, economic growth, social inclusion and livability, we look forward to sharing perspectives on the conference themes throughout the next month….. 

Cisco and the CUD partner cities have engaged The Climate Group to launch the CUD Alliance, which aims to create a sustainable program to deliver integrated, ICT-enabled urban climate-change solutions.The Climate Group and Cisco have established the CUD Alliance to extend the reach of the CUD community to additional public- and private-sector partners from around the world.The CUD Alliance will build on the success of CUD, The Climate Group’s city focus and the recommendations of the SMART2020 report, to create a forum for the development of globally relevant demonstration programs. The programs will focus on delivering low-carbon solutions through systems integration, policy and financing.

The CUD Alliance will concentrate on three main areas;- Developing new partnerships to implement pilot projects at the city level,

- Creating a platform to encourage common ICT standards for low-carbon urban solutions, - Scaling existing projects and resources across a growing number of world cities to reduce carbon emissions.The Climate Group and the CUD partners are engaged in a wide range of technology based urban projects. We encourage other cities and companies to the CUD Alliance, to contribute and drive the agenda, as we aim to further expand on the innovation, scaling and new connected and sustainable models of living in cities.See the news release for further details at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_092409b.html.