The Verdieping, Amsterdam
So last night we had our first Cognitive Cities Salon – in Amsterdam. What a great time I had! A big thank you to our kind host Juha van ‘t Zelfde (non-fiction), who did all the heavy lifting, and to our fantastic speakers:
James Burke, Co-founder of VURB Katalin Galayas, Policy Advisor to the City of Amsterdam Kars Alfrink, ‘Chief Agent’ of Hubbub Edwin Gardner, VOLUME Magazine
Kars Alfrink, Hubbub
Cross-posting this from the CoCities blog:
It is our combined pleasure to introduce you to the speakers that will engage the conversation about the future of cities at De Verdieping on the evening of June 30th.
James Burke, Co-founder of VURB Katalin Galayas, Policy Advisor to the City of Amsterdam Kars Alfrink, ‘Chief Agent’ of Hubbub Edwin Gardner, VOLUME Magazine
The four of them will present their thoughts on urbanity, technology and how we are in the middle of it all. But the Salons are not intended to give only the speakers the stage. While sometimes it is important to only receive curated information, we are very much hoping for a lively debate at the event. Be challenged by the speakers, but also do your best to challenge them.
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Update: New date for Cognitive Cities Conference is 26/27 February 2011 (details).
A few friends and I are planning a conference this fall. Please allow me to cross-post from the Cognitive Cities blog:
Our future will be played out in cities. The projections tell us that our planet will resemble some very familiar fictional fantasies: 75% of the global population will be living by 2050 in cities or mega cities. Between slums and mass poverty on one hand and eco-sustainable living on the other hand, there will be both tough problems to solve and exciting visions to realize. We are at a point in time where the paths are set for the future of cities. The Cognitive Cities Conference wants to pick up the vibrant global conversation about the future of cities and bring it to Germany. By bringing bright minds with different perspectives together, it is our ambition to enable not only an in-depth exchange about the current state of affairs, but also to foster new projects. We believe that collaboration and diversity lead to the best results. We see the Cognitive Cities Conference as a platform for exchange and mutual inspiration and invite urban planners, designers, technology geeks, environmental experts, public officials, urban gardening enthusiasts and cultural influencers to be part of the conversation. We can only make our cities more liveable if we work together to improve them. The format of the conference will be a combination of lightning talks and workshop style sessions. Participants will share ideas, thoughts and challenges based on their diverse backgrounds, thus presenting different perspectives and approaches to the challenges we share. We are planning a one track only event, with the option for break-out sessions at any time. Where and when? Cognitive Cities Conference 02./03. October 2010 Coworking Cologne Who is Cognitive Cities for? We believe that diversity is essential for mutual inspiration. Cognitive Cities is aimed at designers, architects, futurists, urban planners, web geeks, activists, urban dwellers, you name it. If you are interested in the future of your city, you are most welcome. Who is behind Cognitive Cities Conference? Axel Quack, Igor Schwarzmann, Johannes Kleske, Markus Reuter, Martin Spindler, Peter Bihr, Welf Kirschner. Powered by CognitiveCities.com. Cognitive Cities is organized on a non-profit basis. We will provide more details and a dedicated link soon.
Until we have a site up, please refer to the original post.
For us, the idea behind Cognitive Cities isn’t just focused on urban planning.
That’s very important, as I’d like to stress that we hope to touch on other fields that are just as relevant to living in a city: think smart homes, smart grids, smart meters. Think augmented reality, Spime, sensors, cell phones, geo-tagging. Think open data. Think transportation, car sharing, intelligent trip planning. (Jetpacks, anyone?) Think reclaiming your city bottom-up. Think street art and locative art. Think green living and rooftop gardens and urban gardening. All of these, and many more, will influence our lives in the city. And all of them should be represented at our conference.
Also, I’d like to briefly put this in context: I know this all is, so far, pretty vague. We’ll get more concrete soon. Until then, we’ll be getting in touch with a first batch of potential speakers and sponsors to cover basic costs and, hopefully, some travel grants for speakers or guests who couldn’t come otherwise. We got to this event via atoms&bits, so there’s a connection here too. Props and thanks to Martin Spindler for getting the ball rolling and getting me on board! Also, thanks to Axel for enabling us to use Coworking Cologne as our conference location. As always, having a location for an event always is a huge load off of our shoulders.
So while we’re setting up the basic infrastructure to organize an event, please feel free to get in touch. For the time being, the best way is to either leave a comment on the original post or here, or to drop any of us organizers a line directly. We’re all pretty easy to reach. (In my case, the contact form or Twitter.) Update: Email us at info@cognitivecities.com.
Thanks for the patience, and for spreading the word. We’re all really looking forward to this.
Update: Official hashtag is #cocities.
Image: Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II., a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from yakobusan’s photostream
[permalink]Recently I’ve been getting more and more requests for liveblogging events. Since I rarely have the capacity to do this kind of stuff myself, I’m happy to pass on these requests. So I decided to start a little pool of folks who are willing to blog live from events. (I’m leaving this so vague on purpose since I get a wide spectrum of requests from minute-by-minute blogging to posting highlights to video coverage.)
So if you’re based in Germany and up for that kind of stuff, drop me a line. Best would be to include your conditions (voluntary or paid gigs, topics, etc.). Don’t forget to give me your contact details, too. (Of course I won’t sell this list, and won’t pass on your contact details unless you ask me to.)
Thanks, and happy liveblogging!
ps. Also, I’m organizing a blogger program for Deutsche Gamestage / Quo Vadis, if you’re interested in blogging from there (in German), drop me a line (peter at thewavingcat.com) and I can hook you up with a free ticket.
[permalink]It’s the 3rd Friday of the month, and that means: It’s Likemind time! Over free coffee (donated by a gracious, yet-to-be-determined sponsor) we’ll have great conversations and meet interesting folks who work for the internets & in the creative field.
Ever since Henrik Berggren and the Soundcloud Crew kickstarted Likemind in Berlin a few months ago, it’s been a great occasion to have a really good start into your Friday. (Thanks, guys!) Henrik moved back to Sweden, so Thomas Praus and I are stepping in. We’ll be organizing Likemind Berlin from now on, and I’d love to see you at the next Likemind. Which happens to be this Friday, starting at 9:00 (in the morning, that is).
See you Friday!
What: Free coffee & great conversations Where: St Oberholz Where exactly? Here. When: Friday, 20 March 2009 Can I connect any other way? Yes, you can. Here’s our Facebook group.
ps. If you’d like to sponsor this round (it’s really not a major expense), please drop me a line (peter at thewavingcat.com). You won’t regret it.
[permalink]What you see below is a test of the live blogging tool CoverItLive. It looks promising indeed:
Of course this was just a test run without anything to cover, so it’s all dummy copy. I’d be curious to hear what you think about it, though: Would you like this kind of format, or rather stick to the tried & true, like our live blogging from the next08 conference recently?
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