WRLDCTY CONNECTIONS STAGE
Join a global community of urban leaders pushing boundaries, challenging convention, and reimagining how cities are built and experienced. Expect fresh perspectives, meaningful dialogue, and conversations that shape what’s next for our collective urban future.
Mon. June 15
8:15 - 9:00 AM
Networking Breakfast
9:00 - 11:00 AM
WCS Opening Plenary
11:15 - 11:25 AM
Opening of WRLDCTY Connections Stage
MC, Jasmine Palardy
Introduction to the WRLDCTY Connections Stage – outline of WRLDCTY and background. Overview of what experiences delegates will have over the coming days.
11:25am – 12:05pm
The Art of City Making
Charles Landry
City-making is an art, not a formula. The skills required to re-enchant the city are far wider than the conventional ones – architecture, engineering and land-use planning. There is no simplistic ten-point plan, but strong principles can help send good city-making on its way.
This session sets the scene for the Connections Stage, posing questions and thoughts to be explored across the following sessions.
12:10 – 12:45pm
Design for Doing
TBA
Most urban plans are based on how people are supposed to behave, not how they actually do. This session looks at everyday routines and workarounds to understand what cities are really optimised for.
2:00 – 2:05pm
Welcome Back
MC, Jasmine Palardy
2:05 – 2:25pm
Cities of Hope
Vance Harris, DIALOG
Drawing on his work across communities and built environments, Vance Harris asks a deceptively simple question: what does it actually take to make a city feel hopeful? He argues that hope is not a feeling that arrives on its own — it is something cities must be intentionally designed to create, turning urban spaces from places that happen to people into places bursting with possibility for them.
2:25 - 3:00pm
Culture & Community as Invisible Infrastructure
Emilie Roelle, Our Heritage Homes
Zahra Ebrahim, author Messy Cities
Hila Oren, Tel Aviv Foundation
How rituals, culture, spiritual spaces and social rhythms create social impact that shapes belonging, meaning, quality of life and resiliency.
3:00 – 3:30pm
Minds and Voices of the Future
Hazleen Ahmad, Global Systems Architect for Progressive Futures
What if kindness wasn't a value statement — but a design principle? Drawing on applied neuroscience and her work at the intersection of urban planning and cognitive science, Hazleen Ahmad makes the case that the cities performing best in the next decade won't just be the smartest or the greenest — they'll be the kindest. She explores how the built environment can be intentionally designed to reduce cognitive stress, foster social connection and give every resident — regardless of how their brain works — a genuine sense of belonging.
COFFEE BREAK | 3:30 – 4:00PM
4:00 - 4:05pm
Welcome Back
MC, Jasmine Palardy
4:05 - 4:40pm
Nature by Design
Dr. Anne Kovachevich
Tamara Singh, Managing Director, The Nature Conservancy
The evidence is clear — cities that integrate nature perform better on almost every measure. Drawing on the principles of the Nature in Design report, sustainability and design leaders from across the globe come together to ask: what will it actually take to make nature the default, not the exception, in how we build our cities?
4:45 - 5:30pm
Livability, Lovability, Longevity
Fellows Report Back
MC Jasmine Palardy
Rajiv Ahuja, WSDM Haus
Gary Gaston, CEO Civic Design Center
Darryl Condon, hcma
WRLDCTY Fellows share what’s working, what’s failing, and what’s transferable in designing for long, healthy lives and infrastructure that enables longevity.
Celebrates the Fellows in and the research they have done in the 2 days prior.
Tues. June 16
9:00 – 9:05am
Opening of Day 2
MC, Jasmine Palardy
Introduction to the WRLDCTY Connections Stage – outline of WRLDCTY and background. Overview of what experiences delegates will have over the coming days.
9:05 – 9:30am
From Spectators to Participants
Dominic Audet, Co-Founder Moment Factory
What separates the places people return to from the ones they forget? Dominic Audet argues it comes down to one thing: whether a place makes people feel something together. Drawing on landmark projects from Singapore to Madrid, he explores how immersive design, hidden technology and authentic storytelling are transforming cities, stadiums and public spaces into places of genuine human connection.
9:35 – 10:30am
Robots & the City: Platform or Place? – A Structured Debate
Steven Cromwell, Era+co
Debate Team Captains: Alex Baum & Hugo Lamb
A formal Oxford-style debate on one of the most consequential questions facing cities in the next decade: will robots and automation make cities more human — reinforcing them as places to live, connect and age well — or will they transform cities into platforms for production and efficiency at the cost of urban quality of life?
BREAK | 10:30 – 11:00AM
11:00 – 11:20am
Foodies for Urban Planning
Stephen Ritz, Green Bronx Machine
Markets, grocery stores, delivery systems, commercial kitchens and street food shape daily life more than most planning documents. This session examines how food systems influence land use, social mixing, labour and resilience — and why cities that get food wrong struggle everywhere else.
11:25– 11:55Am
The Alignment Advantage: A New Playbook for Delivering Cities
Moderator and panel featuring:
Nadia Levi, Colliers
Cities are not short on ideas, they are short on alignment. Too often, projects stall as planning, design, capital, and governance operate in isolation, with feasibility and delivery considerations arriving too late to shape outcomes. This session challenges the traditional development model, highlighting how successful projects are built through early alignment of partners, capital, and policy. Featuring global case studies, we explore a more integrated approach, one where collaboration is structured from day one to unlock faster, more resilient urban delivery.
12:00 – 12:30pm
Where the World's Next Cities Are Taking Shape
TBA
The world's next cities aren't appearing as finished places or headline projects. This session sets the frame by looking at where urban life is already shifting — in food systems, movement, nightlife, ageing, learning and informal spaces — and why these changes are showing up across very different cities.
LUNCH | 12:30 – 1:45PM
2:00 – 2:05pm
Welcome Back
MC, TBA
2:05 – 2:25pm
Linear Greenways as Urban Catalyst
James Lima, JLPD
Great cities don't just plan for growth — they build the infrastructure that makes growth equitable and connected. James Lima draws on hard-won lessons from urban greenways including New York's High Line to show how bold repurposed infrastructure as public green space can unlock economic development, drive investment and stitch communities together. He'll explore how those principles are being applied at scale in Dallas, where The Loop — a 50-mile bike and pedestrian circuit connecting 39 existing trail miles across the nation's 9th largest city — is becoming a lifeline between neighbourhoods, a catalyst for mobility, and a defining part of the city's identity.
2:25 – 2:55pm
Life at Night
TBA
Life at night is more than just Nightlife, and affects safety, transport, work, housing and public health — whether cities plan for it or not. This session treats after-dark life as part of normal city operations, not a cultural add-on.
2:55 – 3:30pm
What Carries the World's Next Cities Forward
Dr. Parag Khanna, Founder & CEO of AlphaGeo
Greg Clark
Chris Fair
The final session looks at which ideas, behaviours and interventions feel transferable without becoming generic. It focuses on what cities can take forward with confidence, and where staying unfinished is part of staying adaptable.