THE FUTURE CITIES FORUM – WHAT IS IT?

The Future Cities Forum is an independent one-stop regeneration agency, based in Prague, Czech Republic, with supporting offices across Europe.

Its main aim is to deliver an international network to exchange ideas and experiences on the renewal of towns, cities, regions and neighbourhoods in order to improve the quality of life for people who live in towns and cities and for those that visit them. The FCF has been established to provide new thinking that leads to positive action on both regeneration and economic development. It brings together representatives of the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to address a wide range of topics and issues which will lead to a more sustainable development of cities in the future.

Its overall theme is - "People and Places - connecting people with their surrounding". The FCF will initially emphasise the regeneration needs of urban areas across Central and Eastern Europe and link them to the wider international urban community.

The Future Cities Forum encourages the development of education, learning, skills training and knowledge to bring about physical, social and environmental change, along with technology transfer.

THE FORUM WILL:

• Facilitate debate, dialogue and communication to address common issues and thereby influence policy formulation
• Provide advice on how regeneration can be delivered using the most modern and relevant techniques and technology
• Give guidance on how regeneration can be financed and what grants might be avaible
• Enable practitioners to question members of the Forum on problem solving using the experience of the network members
• Encourage development of culture, the arts and creative industries for the ultimate richness of life in towns and cities
• Identify what is successful regeneration as well as showing mistakes that have benn made in the past
• Build on existing networks to improve physical, economic, social and environmental renewal

DELIVERABLES

The Future Cities Forum will undertake a wide range of activities to achieve its objectives:

• Organise international conferences, exhibitions, workshops and seminars on the many themes and issues that relate to regeneration
• Organise international study visits to different countries and cities to enable participants to see for themselves how regeneration has been successfully achieved
• Undertake and commission research from academic institutions and others on key regeneration issues
• Join monthly e-Workshops on key regeneration topics
• Free partitipation in quarterly video technology updates
• Free partitipation in "Meet the Experts" video seminars, covering key Forum topics such as Environmental and Sustainability, Culture and Social Regeneration, Town and City Centre Regeneration, Transport Problem and Solutions, Development of Intelligent Communities atc.