One week to go as student (poster) discount rates are added to regular presenter rates; Exciting program and speakers set for the beautiful venue in Cortona, Italy, October 29-November 1
TOP ROW (L-R): The beautiful venue, a state-of-the-art conference center in a former monastery; the plenary hall with poster exhibition panels; the palazzo where we will have our opening reception, featuring Etruscan caves and Roman baths. BOTTOM ROW (L-R): A breakout space in the conference center; a beautiful street near the conference center; and a wedding being held at City Hall, above the main square in Cortona.
CORTONA, ITALY, July 24th - One week remains until the deadline for the 61st International Making Cities Livable conference here, October 29-November 1st. Interested proposers can submit abstracts for regular presentations, and students can submit abstracts for more affordable poster presentations. The portal for submissions is here: https://www.imcl.online/cfa-cortona
Topics for the conference will include resilient and climate-friendly cities, walkability and public space, food quality, food equity and food security, markets, local products and regional territories, small-town and rural challenges, livability and beauty, neuroscience and health, affordability and opportunity for ALL, and much more.
Partners in the conference will include the City of Cortona, the King's Foundation, UN-Habitat, the Congress for the New Urbanism, INTBAU, HealthBridge, Seaside Institute, the World Farmers' Market Coalition, and others to be announced.
Speakers will include global leaders in urban research, government, NGOs, education and practice. Don't miss it!
The full Call for Abstracts is below. There is no obligation, but accepted proposers will have until September 15th to register in order to be included in the program.
If you know of colleagues who might be interested, please feel free to copy, paste and send the text below. Please contact us if you have any questions.
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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS (DEADLINE JULY 31st)
61ST INTERNATIONAL MAKING CITIES LIVABLE
“The Ecology of Place: Learning from Nature, Culture, and History”
A Research Symposium on Frontier Challenges for the Urban Future
29th October to 1st November, 2024, Cortona, Italy
Call for Regular Presenters and Student Poster Presenters (Discount)
Join us in beautiful Cortona, Italy, for a very special gathering of the
International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), a premier peer-to-peer
international gathering of built environment researchers, professionals,
municipal leaders, NGO heads, and other thought leaders, founded in 1985.
This conference will follow our most recent successful conference in April
2024, including over 50 leading speakers from the Americas, Europe, Africa,
Asia, and Australia. The conference garnered an attendee evaluation of 4.81
out of 5, with comments including “A wonderful conference,” “This is the
best conference I've ever attended,” “Arguably one of the more interesting
- and memorable - conferences I've ever attended,” An excellent
conference,” and “A fabulous conference!”
Partners in the Cortona conference will include The King's Foundation (UK),
UN-Habitat, the Congress for the New Urbanism, INTBAU, Seaside Institute,
HealthBridge, PlacemakingX, and several universities, as well as others to
be announced.
THEME: As humanity confronts multiple historic challenges, our settlements
and their characteristics are set to play a central role – especially so in
a time of historic rapid urbanization. Our cities, towns and suburbs are
where we interact, move about, consume resources, develop and deploy our
technologies, and create most of the impacts we are having on Planet Earth.
In that sense, our settlements are major contributors to our challenges –
but they also offer an important platform for joining up key issues of
emissions and contamination, resource use and depletion, and ecological
destruction, as well as opportunities for equitable human development,
health, and well-being.
The International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) invites you to share your
work, meet and discuss with others, and join in this collaborative platform
for “learning from nature, culture, and history.” We will gather
internationally prominent policy leaders, practitioners, community leaders
and top scholars, to share lessons and discuss potential collaborations. A
major aim of the conference will be to serve as a “springboard” toward new
research, new collaborative action, and new ways of communicating and
driving the necessary transition ahead.
ABOUT THE VENUE:
The historic hill town of Cortona has a rich history going back to Etruscan
times, with splendid and instructive examples of urban space and place. The
city and the region offer many lessons about contemporary challenges of
health, economic well-being, agriculture, food, climate adaptation, viable
small-town and rural life amid rapid urbanization, and new models of
economic diversity and resilience. Cortona is approximately 1.5 hours from
Florence and 2.5 hours from Rome, accessible by train, bus or car, with an
assortment of historic hotels, inns and home rentals. The city is famous
as the setting of Frances Mayes' autobiographical 1996 book Under the
Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy. Cortona is the Sister City of our 2021
venue, Carmel, Indiana.
The venue is the City of Cortona’s Conference and Event Centre, located in
the historic convent of Sant'Agostino in the city center. There are many
small hotels and rental homes nearby. Late October is an excellent time to
travel affordably and find ample accommodation in central Italy, with
generally very good weather.
TOPICS: You may contribute an abstract describing your work (to be
presented at the conference, and also developed into a full conference
paper if you wish) on any one or a combination of the following topics:
• Great Public Spaces for ALL: Learning from Italy, and Elsewhere
• Cities on Foot: The Power of Urban Walkability and Public
Transportation
• The Place of Beauty: Neuroscience, Health and Sustainability in
Placemaking
• Slow Food, Slow Cities: Food Quality, Health, and Urban Well-being
• Markets and Marketable Local Products: Viable Small-Town Businesses
• The Next Renaissance? Rebuilding Homes, Neighborhoods and Towns
• Zoom Towns, Left Behind Places, and Opportunity for All
• Jane Jacobs and the Power of Diversity, Equity, and Web-Networks
• Christopher Alexander and the Power of Patterns, and Timeless Ways of
Building
• Building Better: Tools, Strategies, and Design Ideas
• Rapid Urbanization: Implementing the New Urban Agenda
• Climate Change and Urban Form: Mitigation, Adaptation, Resilience
• Financial Tools and Externality Feedbacks: Making It Pay
• Sustainable Infrastructure: Complete Streets, Regenerative Utilities
and Transit
• Access For Everyone: Bringing the Benefits of Livable Cites to ALL
• The Ecology of Place: Concepts, Metrics, Practices
• Learning from Nature, Culture, and History for Contemporary Challenges
Papers will be published in the conference e-reader, to be shared with all
attendees. They will then be published as 61st IMCL Proceedings on
Academia.com, with a publication DOI number. There are also other options
for subsequent publication in affiliated peer-reviewed journals, following
attendee comments and revisions – contact us for more details at the email
given below.
DEADLINES:
*Abstracts are due July 31, 2024*
Notifications will occur by August 15, 2024
Speaker registration is required by September 15, 2024
Papers must be submitted for the e-reader by October 1, 2024
REGISTRATION FEES:
Accepted speaker registration is $595.00 (approx. €547 EUR)
Early Bird registration (non-speaker) is also $595.00 (through July 31)
Discount registration (non-speaker) is $695.00 (Through September 30)
Full participant (non-speaker) registration is $795.00 (after October 1)
Student Poster Presenter registration is $295.00 (approx. €271 EUR, ID
required)
Student (non-speaker) registration is $245.00 (approx. €271 EUR, ID
required)
SCHEDULE AT-A-GLANCE
Tuesday, October 29
9AM Optional Tours
5PM Welcome Reception
Wednesday, October 30
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)
Thursday, October 31
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)
Friday, November 1
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)
Saturday, November 2
9AM Optional Tours TBA (including Pienza, Italy with Seaside Institute)
For more information, or to submit abstracts or register:
https://www.imcl.online/2024-cortona
We hope you will join us for a wonderful conference!
On behalf of our terrific Board of Stewards,
Michael W Mehaffy, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Lennard Institute for Livable Cities / IMCL