New Conference Series Recognizes Culture As Part of the "Business of City Building"

We live in the age of cities, when people are moving into urban settings in numbers never before seen. It means how we build — and rebuild — our cities will shape our lives, our cultural spaces, our workplaces and our world more than ever before. CityAge—a world cities summit—is fast becoming the world’s leading conference on urban regeneration, bringing together thousands of city builders from around the world — leaders in culture, design, the private, public and research sectors — who are shaping this urban future and seizing its opportunities.

The conferences began in Vancouver just 18 months ago, with a city partnership to host The Vancouver Cities Summit, which attracted city builders from 40 cities from around North America and the World. Since then, CityAge has brought together more than 3,000 participants to Vancouver, Toronto, Kansas City, Ottawa, with summits planned for New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, DC.

“We bring together private and public sector leaders who are looking for the ideas, partnerships and financial models that are needed to build the world’s cities,” said Miro Cernetig, who is co-partner with Marc Andrew in CityAge. “The response has been local and global. The common thread is an appetite to take part in the business of city building.”

CityAge particpants include mayors, cultural leaders, CEOs and community visionaries from cities such as New York, London, Vancouver, Shenzhen, China, Mexico City, Rio de Janiero, Copenhagen, Manila, Chicago, Toronto, Kansas City, Seoul, Tokyo, Atlanta, Columbia, New Orleans, Manchester, Singapore, and many others. People like Department of Transportation Secretary nominee and Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, Anthony Foxx, Mayor Sly James of Kansas City and Former Toronto Mayor, David Crombie, New York University President, John Sexton and Toronto's Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat.

CityAge is at the cutting edge of the global urban agenda. It is where you will hear:

• The world’s mayors — and urban leaders in the private and public sector — are increasingly asking for a renewed national focus on investing in cities.
• Arts and culture is now seen as a vital foundation of every city by planners, citizens and private sector builders. CityAge makes this clear in every summit and looks at practical models.
• Digial infrastructure, available to all, must be accessible to unleash the creative power of the new economy. CityAge is pushing for an end to the Digital Divide, between the haves and have nots in the digital world.
• Connectivity is creating a world, or global metropolis. We are tied together in an uban network of people, ideas and finance that CityAge bring together.