Our advance team makes final preparations as we also announce new student poster sessions and partner member discount rates
The Mayor of Cortona, Signor Luciano Meoni (third from left), with staff members, meets with IMCL representatives to finalize details of the next IMCL conference, tour the venue, and arrange receptions, tours and other events.
CORTONA, ITALY - The 61st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), set to run here from October 29th to November 1, 2024, is in the final stages of preparation. Executive Director Michael Mehaffy, Board member Jim Brainard, and colleague Jenny Quillien (Board member of sister NGO Sustasis Foundation), met in Cortona with the City’s Mayor, Official for Culture, and other local partners and associates. We toured our beautiful venue, the Sant’Agostino Conference Center, and made other arrangements for a wonderful gathering.
Among other preparations, we tentatively planned our opening reception at a 15th century palazzo featuring an Etruscan well, Roman bath and Renaissance olive press in its splendid basement hall. The beautiful facility is provided through the generosity of the DelBrenna family and their company, a three-generation jewelry-making business in Cortona. We have a dinner planned in a Michelin-rated restaurant, the Osteria Teatro, located in a historic theater building. Finally, our closing party will be in the City's amazing Teatro Signorelli, originally built in the 16th century and renovated in the 1800s. We might be treated to performances by world-class musicians who live in Cortona - stay tuned!
Our main venue will be the City's state of the art conference center, the former Sant' Agostino monastery building dating from the 13th century. The building is just south of the city's main square, and very convenient to most hotels in the city (see video report and photos below).
A video report from the trip by IMCL Executive Director
Michael Mehaffy (click to enlarge).
The City of Cortona is eager to join us in exploring challenges facing smaller cities and towns in Italy and globally, including the need for diversified economies for all, support for local businesses and local markets, improving public spaces, walkability, mobility, healthy food, quality of life, beauty and livability, resilience and climate adaptation, ecological and sustainable development, and many other related issues. The 61st IMCL, like others, will be an opportunity for city leaders, researchers, practitioners, students, and NGO heads, to gather to share their latest findings and effective knowledge, and examine instructive case studies in depth. As always, we will gather in a place that is itself a fascinating case study - Cortona - and learn its lessons.
In addition to the City of Cortona, partners in the conference will include The King's Foundation, INTBAU, The Congress for the New Urbanism, UN-Habitat, Seaside Institute, HealthBridge, the World Farmers' Market Coalition, Placemaking US, and others to be announced.
BIG NEWS! IMCL announces new student poster session, partner discounts.
We have added several important elements to our program for Corona. First, we will have a student poster session, in which students can register for a lower rate and give a short oral presentation. We have heard from many students that the full speaker rate is a challenge for their limited budgets, but they would still like to get credit for making a presentation at the conference. The student presenter rate for the fuill conference will be $290 (about €267). Student non-presenters can register for the full conference at $245 (about €225).
Students can also register for one or two days, and receive a prorated discount. The one-day option will open in early September.
The other news is that members of our partner organizations will be eligible for a 15% discount! For example, student poster presenters can have their full registration for $246.50 (approx. €226). Non-presenters can receive a similar discount.
Eligible members of partner organizations include members if INTBAU and its chapters; members of the Congress for the New Urbanism; and students from several partner universities, to be announced.
In addition, other organizations can sponsor groups of attendees at a discount, or make scholarships available to needy attendees. Our goal is to convene a diverse group dedicated to livable cities, including those of more modest means, while fully covering our overhead costs.
SCENES FROM OUR PLANNING TRIP: Upper left, the cloister of the beautiful Sant'Agostino conference center; upper center, the main hall, currently with an exhibition; upper right, touring the Roman baths in the basement of the historic DelBrenna building, site of our opening reception. Lower left, one of the beautiful breakout rooms in the Sant'Agostino conference center; a scene in a nearby hill town' and a wedding at the Cortona City Hall balcony, with well-wishers below.