Our opening discussion will address the elephant in the room: How can cultural heritage and e-mobility be the common theme for a conference? What brings these topics together and how will they both shape our cities in the future? Hear from the coordinators of the two projects influencing this year's Informed Cities Forum as well as the organisers. Use the opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas and be ready for some surprises along the way.

Panellists

Hanna Szemzö, Managing Director at Metropolitan Research Institute in Budapest, Coordinator of OpenHeritage

Jacqueline Floch, Senior Scientist at SINTEF, Coordinator of GreenCharge

Joke Quintens, Founder of Wetopia - Making Cities Together

Stefan Kuhn, Deputy Regional Director at ICLEI Europe

Moderator

Jasmin Miah, Head of the ICLEI Europe Office in Berlin

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) aims to make places in which we live more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful.In this context, speakers and participants will discuss the questions this poses, like: What is the role of adaptive reuse of cultural heritage in this goal? How are different cities repurposing historic buildings to address the needs of local communities? This session focuses on the pivotal role of cultural heritage in the success of the NEB movement, presenting overarching principles and concrete local interventions.

Panellists:

Borislava Woodford, Policy Analyst at the European Commission, New European Bauhaus Initiative

Beatriz Garcia-Moncó Piñeiro, Local Agenda 2030 Coordinator at Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council

Jermina Stanojev, Expert for the European Commission on the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, Postdoctoral Researcher at Uppsala University

Helena Ortiz, La Fabrika de Toda La Vida - winner of the New European Bauhaus award

Jacopo Galli, Postdoc Researcher at luav University of Venice

Moderator

Cristina Garzillo, Senior Coordinator at ICLEI Europe

Take this opportunity to meet other conference participants in random one-to-one virtual meetups: What did you have to re-purpose, re-charge or re-think to increase the impact of your work?

Some cities start with strong political leadership, some cities flounder without it. Others rely on data but are unable to meaningfully use it to affect change. What is the most important evidence to collect to achieve change? What do decision makers really need to know to set the right course for the road ahead? How do we deal with contested data stories? This is about choosing the data and evidence to support the policy vision from the perspective of cities. We bring together experts in computers science, big data, and sustainable mobility together to discuss the future direction of decision making in our cities. Practices from the GreenCharge project in data collection and simulation will be shared, as well as from opportunities from the Google Insights Explorer in the wider mobility context, and we will explore the real needs of city practitioners and their aspirations for the future.

Panellists

Beniamino di Martino, Full Professor at University of Campania, Engineering Department

Michael Glotz-Richter, Senior Project Manager for Sustainable Mobility in the City of Bremen

Claire Vandewalle, European Affairs Officer at French Electricity Union (UFE)

Ollie Guinan, Software Engineer Manager at Google

Moderator

Reggie Tricker, Senior Officer for Sustainable Mobility at ICLEI Europe

In this session we compare and contrast e-mobility solutions to common central problems across Europe, using the GreenCharge cities Barcelona, Bremen and Oslo as test cases, supported by our host city of Freiburg which has many years of experience in the mobility and energy transition. We will give insights into the challenges in transferability and the importance of recognising the suitability of local solutions via stakeholder perceptions in different mobility cultures. What have European cities learnt together so far in this transition, and what are their key challenges, experiences and successes that other cities can learn from on their e-mobility journeys?

Panellists

Michael Glotz-Richter, Senior Project Manager for Sustainable Mobility at the City of Bremen

Beate Lange, Officer for Sustainable Mobility at the City of Bremen

Sture Portvik, Project Leader for Electric Mobility at the City of Oslo

Angel Lopez Rodriguez, Director of Electromobility Strategies at Barcelona City Council

Larissa Brandenstein, Urban and Mobility Planner at the City of Freiburg

Pedro Alfonso Pérez Losa, Project Officer for Horizon Europe Transport at CINEA - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency

Regina Enrich Sard, Senior Researcher at EURECAT

Moderator

Jacqueline Floch, Senior Scientist at SINTEF, GreenCharge Coordinator

The COVID-19 pandemic radically affected the ways that heritage communities operate. Using a flexible virtual space and interactive formats, this session is led by OpenHeritage Labs and explores lessons learnt in different contexts, including Sunderland High Street West (UK), Rome Collaboratory (IT), Hof Prädikow (DE), Praga Lab (PL) and Pomáz-Nagykovácsi-puszta (HU). Collaborative governance frameworks, diversified funding streams and participatory community engagement processes are shaping local post-COVID realities in exciting ways!

Panellists

Loes Veldpaus and Miranda Iossifidis, Sunderland High Street West (UK)

Alessandro Piperno and Christian Iaione, Rome Collaboratory (IT)

Rolf Novy and Christian Darr, Hof Prädikow (DE)

Dominika Brodowicz, Praga Lab (PL)

Dóra Mérai, Pomáz-Nagykovácsi-puszta (HU)

Moderators

Andrea Tonkö, Programme Manager at Metropolitan Research Institute in Budapest, OpenHeritage Coordinator

Lukács Hayes, Researcher at Eutropian

On the occasion of the European Year of Rail, this session explores places and cases where cultural heritage meets transportation infrastructure. How have shifting mobility cultures shaped urban heritage? How can bottom up initiatives, private interventions or public investments repurpose obsolete train stations, depots or railways? Participants can board one of the Informed Cities Forum's digital wagons and discover different approaches to work at the intersection of mobility and heritage - including success stories and failures.

Panellists

András Ekés, Managing Director at Mobilissimus

Matthias Einhoff, Director at ZK/U Centre for Arts and Urbanistics in Berlin

Evanthia Kairi, Museologist, presenting To Treno sto Rouf in Athens

Yilmaz Vurucu, ge.CO project, presenting La REcyclerie in Paris

Gregory Zarkhin, Project Manager at LEM Station in Lviv

Moderator

Hanna Szemzö, Managing Director at Metropolitan Research Institute in Budapest, OpenHeritage Coordinator

Take this opportunity to meet other conference participants in random one-to-one virtual meetups: What did you have to re-purpose, re-charge or re-think to increase the impact of your work?

It's time for some romance! Join this session and our EV proponents and critics and give out roses to the mobility solution you love the most. Can we all fall in love with EVs or are they not the knight in shining armor we are made to believe by car manufacturers? We cannot promise a happy ending but potentially a very heated debate. This session will help us navigate through the various contested messaging surrounding the contribution of electric mobility to sustainable transport, building knowledge with the hope of generating some common uderstanding of some of some of the opportunities and challenges. Is it time to spark up or calm down the debate about e-mobility? You decide.

Panellists

Jana Höffner, Vice Head and Spokesperson at Electrify-BW e.V.

Andrea McKenzie, Facilities Assistant and Fleet Coordinator at Changeworks

Patrick Peura, Advisory Group Member, CIVITAS FastTrack

Paal Christian Myhre, General Manager at ZET Technology AS

Moderators

Reggie Tricker, Senior Officer for Sustainable Mobility at ICLEI Europe

Jasmin Miah, Head of the ICLEI Europe Office in Berlin

There's a recurring question: What would happen if all ICE vehicles were replaced with EVs tomorrow? Is this question relevant? How could we charge them all with green, renewable energy? Could we charge them at all or would our grids be overburdened by the amount of energy needed? What have the experiences been so far? Spoiler alter: EVs might not be as simple a solution as we want them to be. This session explores what we actually mean by smart energy and brings experience from GreenCharge and elsewhere that prove how difficult it can be. What is a pragmatic way forward to integrate and mitigate our transport and energy needs?

Panellists

Karen Byskov Lindberg, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF

Paal Christian Myhre, General Manager at ZET Technology AS

Moderator

Geir Horn, Head of European ICT projects at the University of Oslo

How can we ensure access to culture beyond physical, technological and social barriers? This session examines new approaches to meaningful accessibility and inclusion, exploring initiatives, technologies and policies for overcoming mobility and access limitations to cultural heritage, with particular focus to marginalised groups and young people.

Panellists

Lia Ghilardi, Creative Urban Strategist at Noema Culture and Place Mapping

Christos Papamichael, Founder-Director at Liminal Access to Culture

Coline Pélissier, Project Manager at ACTA VISTA

Maria Vlachou, Executive Director at Acesso Cultura

Moderator

Stephania Xydia, Officer Governance and Social Innovation at ICLEI Europe

Take this opportunity to meet other conference participants in random one-to-one virtual meetups: What did you have to re-purpose, re-charge or re-think to increase the impact of your work?

Re-purpose. Re-charge. Re-think. - What do these three terms actually mean for our cities? How will heritage and  e-mobility shape our cities in the future and how have the discussions in the last three days contributed to the debate? The closing panel of the 9th Informed Cities Forum will draw conclusions, attempt to provide an outlook of what's to come and bring everyone back to together to think about the following questions: What will our cities look like in the future, and what do we want them to look like?

Panellists

Brent Toderian, City Planner and Founder of TODERIAN UrbanWORKS

Fedra Vanhuyse, Head of Division - Societies, Climate and Policy Support at Stockholm Environment Institute

Jaime Ruiz Huescar, Co-founder of Cities Forum

Nils Larsen, Group of the Green Party in Umea

Hanna Szemzö, Managing Director at Metropolitan Research Institute in Budapest, OpenHeritage Coordinator

Jacqueline Floch, Senior Scientist at SINTEF, GreenCharge Coordinator

Moderator

Jasmin Miah, Head of the ICLEI Europe Office in Berlin