Abu Dhabi, 8 April 2009: Speakers at Global City, a unique two-day event that brings together the leaders and planners of some of the world’s most important cities, have looked closely at examples that have successfully regenerated urban centres, revitalising downtown areas and restoring civic pride.

Held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court and Deputy Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED), Global city welcomes more than 100 leading international experts as speakers and forum participants, with leaders from 40 world cities in attendance.

In the first breakout stream of the event, city planners looked into the best ways for cities to fully integrate their transport systems to build a reliable, and importantly, a usable system for the future.

“Our challenge at the end of the ‘Nineties was to make people want to live in London and to get them loving London once again,” commented Patricia Brown, CEO of Central in the UK, during her speech on revitalising city centre areas.

Ms. Brown, who organised and moderated the session, added: “As well as taking into account carbon impact, we had to first reverse the reliance on cars and stop repelling people from the city.”

The session looked into the relationship between sustainable regeneration of a city and the role of the downtown areas. The group highlighted five key elements in adding life to these parts of town, including promotion, communication, leadership, hospitality and climate.

“City centres should be used to encourage the arts, crafts and festivals,” added Pierre Francis, Managing Director of the Town Centre Management Association in Belgium. “Malls can also play their part in regenerating areas by bringing disused areas back into play and creating meeting places for people from the surrounding community.”
With big cities across the Gulf looking closely at their infrastructure and how to get the best from it, the session provided some insight into previous challenges and how they were overcome. 

Across from the discussions on city centres, four speakers looked at the topic of public transport and its important role in making city centres accessible for all and the need for integration from day one.

“Integration can start immediately,” said Carlos Cristobal Pinto, head of planning at CTM-Madrid. “You need to get everyone involved in public transport and limit car access. If you give a high-quality service and create living spaces rather than just bus or tram stations the system quickly becomes integrated into the city.”

Pinto highlighted a recent urban redevelopment scheme that broadcast public transport movements to homes within the project. This allows users to know exactly when the next bus will arrive at their closest stop from the comfort of their own home.   

Journalist and town planning expert Jean Audouin used the session to delve into the history behind urban planning, highlighting how the arrival of both the train and the car have impacted on cities across the world. He also looked into the new challenges facing planners in emerging cities.

“With the new challenge of lowering emissions we must quickly bring more green to grey areas,” he said. “Trams have been very successful in France at using space more effectively and creating a treadmill for the city.”

He also looked into how trams create development along their routes, again fuelling growth and regenerating areas simply by their location to the transport system.

The speakers covered all the key topics during the two one-and-a-half hour sessions, watched by a large gathering of international delegates in both streams. By covering two of the biggest challenges for cities as they grow beyond their current infrastructure, the sessions provided a glimpse inside the thinking behind some of the world’s best urban and transport planning.   

Global City is organised by Reed Exhibitions Middle East as a knowledge gathering, networking and business platform dedicated to mayors, urban planners, decision-makers and leaders. Reed launched the event in 2005 in Cannes, France, and the second and third editions were held in Lyon in 2006 and 2007. The organisers decided to move Global City to Abu Dhabi this year in recognition of the capital’s inspiring record in the event’s key themes of sustainability, progress and strategy.
 
Other speakers in the breakout sessions comprised Carl Weisbrod, President of Real Estate; Clive Dutton OBE, Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council; Peter Bishop, Group Director of Design, Development and Environment at the London Development Agency; Mohammed Mezghani, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Office and Adviser to the International Association of Public Transport and Upendra Tripathy, IAS, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Minority Affairs and former Principal Secretary for Transport and Home at the Government of Karnataka.

Global City will continue for two days, during which time delegates and panellists will continue to debate a comprehensive range of subjects concerning cities around the world.