The Annual Congress is open to everyone.

Congress is an inspiring, thought-provoking and entertaining opportunity to exchange ideas and hear leading-edge thinking from urbanists around the globe.

Congress in Belfast represents an opportunity to combine some of the current strategic issues such as A Bolder Vision and the work of the High Streets Task Force and major cultural place-focused cultural initiatives such as UNESCO City of Music and the forthcoming Year of Culture, to explore how people and communities can be engaged in the city’s authentic placemaking.

Cities face many challenges. An uncertain world, laid bare by Covid 19 and the impacts of a climate in crisis, is testing how we use our urban places and what they look like as never before. Whether home working and online shopping or tourism and spaces for cultural production, our cities and towns need to adapt ever more quickly. 

Congress will explore overcoming challenges through three key themes:

Informing Experiences
Lessons of Resilience
Building Climate Leadership