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

09:45 - 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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

12:30 - 13:00 - Keynote

The voice of Municipalities

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.

First conclusions of the survey on Rostock 2040

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