The bidding process for the 10th edition of the European Sustainable Cities and Towns conference is now open. All cities are warmly invited to bid to host this flagship event.
The purpose of this key ICLEI Europe conference series is to share the most advanced approaches, tools and inspiring ideas for local transformation, to foster governance innovation, and to strengthen local value chains and assets. The series facilitates dialogue on local sustainability agendas across governance levels and with relevant stakeholders from business, NGOs and research.
The core event of the next edition will run for a maximum of three days in a hybrid format (on-site and online), leaving open the possibility for pre-events and side events. The next host will join a list which includes previous host cities such as Aalborg (1994 and 2004), Lisbon (1996), Hanover (2000), Seville (2007), Dunkerque (2010), Geneva (2013), the Basque Country (2016), and Mannheim (2020).
The host city will be profiled before, during and after the event as a leader in urban sustainability and transformation. They will gain visibility and be brought into close discussion with peers, other actors that are crucial to transforming cities, and with European Commission leaders. They will furthermore have the opportunity to strengthen their leading role in the ICLEI network.
The conference is tentatively planned for 2023/2024 and will build on the success of the 9th ESCT Conference, which was hosted by ICLEI Member Mannheim (Germany). The dynamic and virtual nature of the previous conference enabled the participation of 1,500 attendees to discuss implementing transformative change in Europe. The main result of the conference was the Mannheim Message, a collective response by cities to the European Green Deal, which calls for five core systemic changes and nine key policy shifts needed to bring about transformation for a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable Europe.
The envisaged 10th edition of the conference will again put the spotlight on innovative approaches to local governance and financing for the transformation agenda in the spirit of the Mannheim Message and the Basque Declaration.
Cities interested in hosting the conference are invited to contact events.europe@iclei.org to obtain the call for interest and the bidding package. Deadline for submission of bids is 16 May 2022.
For more information about the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Conference, visit the Sustainable Cities Platform.