Presentations from speakers can be downloaded on this page. Click on the link next to the speaker's name. |
![]() |
Day 1 - 19 September
15:00 - 16:00 — Board Meeting
Board members only - Rostock City Halll, rooms 1a & 1b , ground floor
16:30 - 18:00 — World Urban Development Council Debate "Does size matter to become an innovative city?"
Rostock City Hall, Festsaal
18:30 - 19:30 — INTA General Assembly
Members only - Rostock City Hall, Festsaal
19:30 - 22:00
Welcome Diner
Ratskeller Rostock - Rostock City Hall, basement
Day 2 - 20 September
08:00 - 09:00
Welcome coffee and registration at Congress venue - Rostock City Hall, FestSaal
09:00 - 09:45 — Congress Opening
Maurice Charrier, INTA President, France [Speech]
Peter Stein, Member of Bundestag, Berlin, Germany
Christian Pegel, Minister of Energy, Infrastructure and Digitalisation, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
09:45 - 11:00 — 1st Plenary - Policy Debate
Urban development in the contest of medium-sized cities: perspectives from Germany
This session is a special one, totally dedicated to the territorial and urban policy of Germany, involving a wide range of public and private German actors: Federal Ministries, Parliamentarians, Regional Authorities, Regiopolis network, investors & private developers, local operators, academics…
After introductory statements, these urban actors will answer questions from a small team of moderators and will debate among each other.
Johannes Weinand, German Regiopolis initiative, Head of Office of Urban Development Statistics, City of Trier [ppt]
Mike Grosse-Schütte, Project Coordinator Regiopolis-Rostock initiative [ppt]
Moderators:Andreas Schubert, Strategist and Urban Development Project Manager, City of Rostock, Germany
Michel Sudarskis, INTA Secretary General, France
11:30 - 13:00 — 2nd Plenary - Policy Debate
Urban development in the context of medium-sized cities: international perspectives
This plenary session will enlarge upon the previous discussion to include international cases. This session is a panel discussion: the animators will ask a series of questions to the speakers inviting short replies in a "ping-pong" exchange.
Maria Duarte, past Minister for Housing, Ecuador [Speech English] [Speech Spanish] [ppt]
Debolina Kundu, Associate Professor, National Institute of Urban Affairs, India
Etuna Lomadze, Head Strategic Planning, Investments and Economic Development, City of Batumi, Georgia [ppt]
Ronald Rijnen, Programme Manager Brainport Eindhoven, The Netherlands [article]
Volker Schmidt-Seiwert, Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, ESPON, Bonn, Germany [ppt]
Moderators: Andreas Schubert, Strategist and Urban Development Project Manager, City of Rostock, Germany
Michel Sudarskis, INTA Secretary General, France
13:00 - 14:00 Networking lunch
14:00 - 17:30 — Parallel technical visits
14:00 - 14:30 — Presentation of the 4 site visits
Speaker: Dürten Schölens, Deputy head, Department of Urban development and Economics of the Urban Development, Urban planning and Economics office, City of Rostock, Germany
14:30 - 17:30 — Visits in parallel
Visit 1: Creation of urban value - waterfront renewal (access by walking and public transport). Guide: Mathias Horn
Visit 2: Transforming innovation - innovative quarters (access by public transport). Guide: Stefan Krause
Visit 3: Reducing spatial inequalities - inclusive neighbourhoods (access by public transport). Guide: Thorsten Gebhards & Christian Hanke
Visit 4: Sustainable mobility - integrated multimodal public public transport (access by multimodal public transport). Guide: Steffen Nozon & Oliver Köppen
More information on technical visits
19:30 - 22:00
Evening reception - Neptun Hotel Warnermünde at the Baltic Sea
Day 3 - 21 September
09:00 - 11:15 — Parallel themed workshops (City Hall - Beratungsraum)
09:00 - 09:15 — Presentation of the workshops programme
Speaker: Michel Sudarskis, INTA SG and Tim Caulfield, Director, EU Urban Innovative Actions [ppt]
Workshop 1: Creating urban value out of real estate investment
Waterfront development as an inspiring case of (re)creation of urban value. No matter what kind of approach is adopted in urban regeneration, consideration should be given to the development framework – how to overcome barriers between master planning and implementation, to the delivery mechanism be it totally public or a mix of public and private partnership, to the mixing, timing and marketing of the regenerated spaces and to the outcome in terms of economic, urban and social balance.
Guillermo Civetta, CEO, Polo Tecnológico Rosario, Argentina [ppt] [video]
Klaudia Nowicka, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Gdansk, Poland [ppt]
Jean-Baptiste Rigaudy, Director Territorial strategies, Bordeaux Métropole, France [ppt]
Wolfgang Schmidt, International Affairs, City of Kiel, Germany [ppt]
Moderator: Gunnar Platz, Manager Interreg project Johann, Planco Consulting, Essen, Germany
Workshop 2: Nurturing the hidden champions of medium-sized cities
Taking into account the environmental and energy transition, food self-sufficiency, digital transition, changing forms of work and jobs, changes in economic flows and methods of production and distribution, (...), leads to questioning and reinvesting the productive spaces of the business parks or logistic zones of the medium-sized cities. The workshop will focus on strategies of action and transformation of these territories and their development beyond the limits of the activity zone; it is a question of going out of their defined perimeter and to think 'what creation of activity' for which territorial arrangement - medium-sized city, rural areas, peri-metropolitan areas?
Giorgio Maric, Director Statistics and Information Service, City of Lugano, Switzerland [ppt]
Germanico Pinto, Consultant, Smart Cities, Quito, Ecuador
Euken Sesé, General Manager, Municipal Economic Development Agency (Fomento San Sebastián) San Sebastian, Spain [ppt]
Amandine Toussaint, Economist-Urbanist, Point Virgule Collective, France [ppt]
Moderator: Tim Caulfield, Director, UIA (EU Urban Innovative Actions)
Workshop 3: Planning vs urban project: implementing inclusive development policies
The integrated approach to the development of productive spaces requires a "connected vision" that articulates the factors of change with each other and questions the practices of developers beyond urban operations. In addition it is relevant to ask the question of who has interest and position to act? Investors / owners / real estate companies have no interest in acting because they store added land value; it would be better to involve the developers and the municipalities proposing "ideas to act" by evaluating the evolution of tomorrow to make decisions today.
Walid Ben Haj Ali, Architect-Urbanist URAM International, Tunisia [ppt]
Ramon Forcada Pons, Director of Strategic Analysis, Incasòl, Spain [ppt]
Riadh Haj Taieb, President ADSS, Sfax, Tunisia [ppt]
Betsy Morris, Principal EM Advisors, San Diego, USA [ppt]
Francois Noisette, President, Kalutere Polis, France
Thomas Schmidt, NGO Straze, Greifswald, Germany [ppt]
Moderator: Patrick Stefan Rheinert, Architect, Associate Oxygen, Lyon, France
Workshop 4: Integrated transport
Because of lack of integrated transport authority and multimodal services, connections between small and medium-sized areas and with the main urban centres hardly meet customer's expectations who do not see clear benefits of choosing public transport over private car. Planning, market incentives and promotion campaigns to change the travel pattern of people living and working in small and medium-sized areas tend to fail. Would multi-stakeholder governance, and user-adjusted tools such as interoperability of the local and regional transport services, enhance the public transport service and curb the car-reliant mobility? Could every small and medium sized areas afford its own public transport system, how technology can help in organising interregional and cross-border cooperative transport solutions
Dominik Eichbaum, Economic Development & Supervisor Smart City/Electromobility, City of Siegen, Germany
Laurent Mezzini, Director Solutions City and Energy, Alstom, France [ppt]
Andrius Samuilovas, Deputy Head Klaipeda Public Transport Authority, Lithuania [ppt]
Wiktor Szydarowski, Project Manager Interconnect.One, Blekinge Region, Sweden [ppt]
Moderator: Fernando Nunes da Silva, Professor, IST University of Lisboa, Portugal
11:15 - 11:30
Coffee break
11:30 - 12:30 — 3rd Plenary - Roundtable
Multilevel governance: second-tier cities balancing metropolitan and rural attraction
This plenary offers different perspectives on how territorial partnerships and solidarity engage multi actors and multi level governance.
Maurice Charrier, President of INTA, France
Wiktor Szydarowski, Project Manager Interconnect One, Blekinge Region, Sweden
Moderators:Andreas Schubert, Strategist and Urban Development Project Manager, City of Rostock, Germany
Michel Sudarskis, INTA Secretary General, France
12:30 - 13:00 - Keynote
The voice of Municipalities
Hilmar von Lojewski, Head of Department Urban Development, Construction, Housing and Transport, Deutscher Städtetag (German City Association), Germany
13:00 - 14:00
Working lunch: an energizing soup
14:00 - 15:00 — 4th Plenary
Reflections from parallel thematic sessions
Reporting on the key findings and lessons learned in each parallel session and Q&A with the audience.
Michel Sudarskis, INTA Secretary General, France
First conclusions of the survey on Rostock 2040
If you take part in the Congress, fill the online survey
Robert Bartlomiejski, Assistant professor, Institute of Sociology, University of Szczecin, Poland
15:00 - 15:15
Closing addresses