About Ecocity World Summit 2008

Ecocity World Summit

• Conference Venues
• April 22-23
• Academic & Talent Scouting Sessions: UC Berkeley Extension South of Market Center, 95 Third Street (at Mission), San Francisco. 415-284-1081. www.unex.berkeley.edu
• April 24-26
• Ecocity World Summit Main Conference: Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94108. 415-292-4702. www.masonicauditorium.com

Registration Types

• "The Works" Full Conference Delegate, April 22-26, 2008

• Registration: $875 USD

• Full Conference Delegate, April 22-26, 2008
  Registration: $695 USD

• Full Conference Student/Senior Delegate, April 22-26, 2008
  Registration: $550 USD

• Ecocity World Summit Main Conference Delegate, April 24-26, 2008
  Registration: $550 USD

• Ecocity World Summit Main Conference Student/Senior Delegate,

• April 24-26, 2008
  Registration: $450 USD

• Academic Sessions Only Delegate, April 22-23, 2008
  Registration: $400 USD

• Main Conference Day Passes, April 24-26, 2008 Flat rate: $85 USD per day

• Please note - Due to space limitations, day passes are only for Main Hall Sessions in the Nob Hill Auditorium and the Exhibit Area; they are not good for breakout sessions. Day passes do not include Complimentary Conference DVD, Complimentary Tickets to Other Conference Events, Tote Bag or T-Shirt.

Reasons to attend: What does the Ecocity World Summit offer?

Whether you’re a student, academic, non-profit organization representative, planner, developer, local government official, architect, landscape architect, designer, economist, builder, transportation advocate, or just an interested member of the planetary public — if you care about ecology and cities, this conference has much to offer you. The Ecocity World Summit is an unprecedented opportunity for you to join together with an international community of inspired change-makers who are putting their time and talents to work addressing series problems of the world’s environment with thoughtful and long-range solutions that are truly sustainable, ecologically healthy and socially just.

For the student, academic, researcher, and innovator

The Ecocity World Summit is devoting the first two days of the conference specifically to you. Co-sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley Extension, the Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions on April 22nd and 23rd will be the place for showcasing new cutting-edge research, innovations, and projects related to ecocity design and development. Selected papers will be presented on the topics of ecocity design, planning, development, transportation, urban agriculture, environmental and social justice, watershed restoration, alternative energy, bioregional and local economies, sustainable businesses and more.

Immediately following the Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions, the Ecocity World Summit Main Conference will show you exactly what ecocity elements are either already in operation, being implemented, or proposed right now, all over the world. You’ll be able to learn from and share ideas with some of the best sustainable development professionals and ecocity visionaries on the planet.

Get information on submitting a paper.

For the businesses person and working professional

Broaden your perspectives and connect with the people and ideas that make your job meaningful, challenging, innovative…and important to the successful outcome of the human project on Earth. Many conferences are becoming highly specialized, and working professionals and business leaders can sometimes become isolated and cut off from the bigger picture. The Ecocity World Summit will put you and your work back into the bigger picture while giving you fresh perspectives on whole systems ecological thinking and doing. You play an important role in the successful outcome of events and plans being made right now. Find out how and why you fit in, and what you can be doing about it, now and into the deep future.

For the government employee, official and political leader

Cities are complex, and enacting meaningful change while working with multiple constituencies can be filled with setbacks and frustration. What are the key ingredients for a successful plan that, after months and even years of work, doesn’t end up gathering dust on the shelf or become so watered down that the original vision is lost? It isn’t easy, but it’s been done before, is being done now, and can certainly be done again. Find out how government and political leaders pull together the right teams of people with good ideas and get their projects up and running, in many cases with limited financial resources and sometimes despite a mountain of political opposition. You’ll be able to hear from and ask questions of the community leaders and decision makers who have guided ecocity projects from concept to reality. Come away energized and with plenty of fresh new ideas and strategies to meet your community’s sustainability targets and timelines.

For the general public

You are the taxpayers, the “consumers,” the people who live, work, invest, and live in cities. You have an enormous voice that, when focused, can enact change on the scale and proportion that could change the world into a much healthier place— for you, your family and for generations to come. Your participation and voice makes a difference. Working together, we can tackle seemingly overwhelming problems like global warming, sprawl and species extinction. The Ecocity World Summit will introduce you to the concepts, best-case examples, lifestyles and people behind the ecocity movement. If you live in a city, town or village, you can become part of the solution.

Everyone will...

• Gain valuable exposure to cutting-edge ecocity-related projects, strategies, planning, research and development happening all around the world.
• Learn, share, and receive feedback on your research, projects and ideas from other delegates, as well as seasoned professionals, academics, experts and thought leaders who will be speaking on relevant topics, chairing sessions and leading panel discussions.
• Be a talent scout, find out who is doing interesting and important thinking in ecocity related disciplines.
• Gain an advantage by getting a cross section of all the latest ecocity ides and information coming from all corners of the planet.
• Become better at what you do by getting feedback from experts, academics and your peers.
• Become part of a growing network by getting to know others who are interested in the same issues and ideas you care about.
• Enjoy the inspiration that comes from a gathering of so many creative people making a big difference for a healthy future.

Not your usual conference on sustainability

Could it be that the best, most enjoyable community might also be the best, most effective solution to climate change, the crises at the end of cheap energy and the collapse of species diversity around the planet?

We are at the crossroads and the Seventh International Ecocity Conference can tell you which route to take for avoiding the worst and attaining the best of cities, towns, villages and healthy relationships with nature on this fine planet.

What is unique about the Seventh International Ecocity Conference, also known as the Ecocity World Summit, is that it recognizes that we have to deal with the largest of humanity’s creations directly and fearlessly. Now that over 85% of humanity lives in cities, towns and villages – the built community of our species – we must confront the basic principles and policies, details and life ways that are tied to that foundation of so much in human creativity and civilization. We have been building cities for machines and very cheap energy that is on its way out. Now we need to build something different: the city for ourselves, the city for people and all life on the planet, not the city for cars and oil.

What is different about the Seventh International Ecocity Conference is that we are facing the true proportions of the problem. And if we don’t learn what the nature of our built environment is, we may well make small improvements that perpetuate its destructivity longer into the future.  Better cars can’t make better cities and a better relationship to nature.  Only better cities can. That’s the lesson of seeing the city as a whole system, as having an “anatomy” like other living things.

Welcome another perspective, a whole other approach.

From all over the world we are inviting architects, planners, environmentalists, climatologists, energy experts, leading mayors and governors, innovators, students, developers building the right thing, indigenous people, artists and others to present their best thinking and experience. But we will also challenge everyone to go beyond their past successes and transform this largest of all our creations, our cities, into something far better.

The conference calls for creativity and the courage to change and for an optimism born of clear vision and concrete steps to a much healthier future.

 —Richard Register, Ecocity Builders, Conference Convener

Conference information

Working Language

The working language of the conference is English.

Topics

Subjects covered bracket the full range of designing, building and operating ecologically healthy cities, towns and villages.

Some of the best ecocity thinkers and practitioners of our time will be sharing their technical knowledge, on-the-ground expertise, and visionary wisdom on a wide range of topics that cover the broad spectrum of interrelated parts making up the city, town and village. Topics, speakers, and sessions will provide specialized perspectives through the lens of whole systems ecological thinking and planning.

Topics include:

• Ecological city design
• Governance
• Social justice
• Green architecture, green building
• Urban layout
• Streetcars
• Trains
• Bicycles
• Renewable energy
• Restoration of natural ecologies
• Restoration and protection of agricultural lands
• Recycling
• Pollution abatement
• Green business incentives
• Local economies
• Art
• Education
• Population
• Resource management
• Ecological footprint

Why is this conference different? We will be going to the very roots of urban organization in land uses and design. The conference aspires to a new model for cities that goes beyond current fine-tuning of a dysfunctional system and offers hope for a much saner and healthier future.

What will happen? Basic outline of events

The 2-day Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions will precede the Ecocity World Summit Main Conference. Students, innovators and researchers from around the world will present their best ecocity solutions for review and discussion, an excellent way to bring forward new and up-to-date ideas. Next, the 3-day Ecocity World Summit Main Conference, with top international plenary speakers, experts, authors, and breakout sessions. Tours, cultural events, party and SF Bay dinner/dance cruise.

Exhibit Hall: Keep expanding your contacts and knowledge base

Ecocity World Summit exhibitors resonate strongly with the ecocity movement. Many will offer solutions to the problems of cities today with a clear vision of the ecocities of tomorrow and a roadmap of how to get there from here.

Exhibit Hall Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 8:00am–6:00pm, Nob Hill Masonic Center Foyer

Special events and activities: Get to know your fellow delegate and have some fun!

The International Ecocity Conferences have been known to put on some memorable parties and cultural events, and we’re not going to let this new opportunity to celebrate with our friends, new and old, pass us by at the Ecocity World Summit! Some of the special events and activities we’re planning include:

• April 21st Pre Conference Event at Herbst Theater with Gary Braasch
• April 22nd Mixer at Yurba Buena Gardens
• April 23rd Open Plenary and Public Event
• April 24th Dinner and Evening Entertainment
• April 25th Dinner and Night on the Town
• April 26th Final Reception at the Starlight Room and Party: Digital Be In!

Tours: It is San Francisco after all!

As part of the Ecocity World Summit program, we’ll be offering a selection of tours of the city and its surroundings. (more information to come).

Getting there: It’s easy, no car required!

Nobody should have to drive to either venue. BART, Muni and the Cable Cars will get you there in style. Walking from your hotel is also encouraged. Well… walking’s not that easy since the Nob Hill Masonic Center is on top of the hill, but it’s healthy exercise. Great views too.

For transit information to the UCB Extension SOMA building: www.unex.berkeley.edu

For transit information to the Nob Hill Masonic Center: www.masonicauditorium.com

If you do need to drive, share a ride! Ecocity World Summit has partnered with nonprofit SpaceShare to provide an exciting Green Travel Network just for the conference. Log in and post what you need or what you can offer, it's that simple.

Event Organizers & Steering Committee

A seasoned team of dedicated ecocity conference planners

The International Ecocity Conferences are guided by a Steering Committee comprised of past and current conference conveners. The Ecocity World Summit is the 7th in the Series, giving us, literally, a world of experience!

Richard Register – Conference Convener

Richard Register is one of the world's leading theorists and authors in ecological city design and planning. He is also a practitioner with three decades of experience activating local projects, pushing establishment buttons and working with environmentalists and developers to get a better city built and running.

It is unusual for an author to be his own illustrator, but he is, and his books are considered as pleasurable for his imaginative drawings as insightful in their ecological urban content. Register is a frequent guest of organizations and conferences large and small in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world, speaking on behalf of the pedestrian city to save the world--by avoiding cars, global warming, massive sprawl, natural habitat displacement, air and water pollution and other harms. Most important, he believes, is the kind of city, town and village that can contribute to humanity's creative and compassionate evolution on a healthy Earth. We can build it, he believes, and thinks he knows how.

Register was founding president of Urban Ecology (1975) and founder and current president of Ecocity Builders (1992), both non-profit educational organizations. He convened the First International Ecocity Conference (1990); was advisor to the second in Adelaide, Australia (1992); the third in Yoff, Senegal (1996); the fourth in Curitiba, Brazil (2000), co-convener of the fifth in Shenzhen, China (August 2002) where he was also the Keynote Speaker, and speaker at the Sixth in Bangalore, India (2006). These events have involved approximately 1,800 people and 325 speakers to date.

Rusong Wang, Conference Co-Convener

Rusong Wang was co-convener of the Fifth International Ecocity Conference in Shenzhen, China, 2002, Dr. Wang is a professor in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a leading academic institute and comprehensive research and development center for the natural and technological sciences and for high-tech innovation in China. He also serves as Chairman, Systems Ecology Department at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is currently President of the Ecological Society of China. Dr. Wang is a member of the Chinese Parliament representing the “Green Party” and a leading advocate for ecocities in China and the world.

Kirstin Miller – Conference Director

Kirstin serves as Executive Director for nonprofit Ecocity Builders, the keeper of the International Ecocity Conference Series. She has been with Ecocity Builders since 1997. Kirstin has presented for the organization locally, nationally and internationally. She works closely with Ecocity Builders' President Richard Register in the development of the organization's "toolbox" of strategies, such as car free by contract housing, environmental restoration transfer of development rights, centers oriented development, ecological demonstration projects and ecological zoning overlay mapping. She also helps coordinate an alliance of local environmental organizations working to promote and advance ecologically healthy urban policies and projects, including the development of an ecological demonstration project in the heart of Berkeley, CA.

In 2001-2002 Kirstin was a key organizer of a coalition of over 100 mostly local community groups and businesses working to push for stronger ecological policies in the City of Berkeley’s General Plan revision. In 2004 she organized a Berkeley community field trip of over 40 local leaders, including the Mayor, to San Luis Obispo to visit their successful downtown creek restoration and greenway project. In May of 2005, Kirstin organized a major “Green City Visions” conference in Oakland as part of the 2005 United Nations World Environment Day events, featuring Sierra Club's Executive Director Carl Pope, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, Rainforest Action Network's Randy Hayes, "Powerdown" author Richard Heinberg, Ecocity Builders' President Richard Register and others.

Kirstin currently heads up the development of Ecocity Builders’ programs and projects and teaches a course on the ecological city structure at the University of California Berkeley Extension.

Nina Serrano - Artistic Director

Nina Serrano is a poet, writer, storyteller, and independent media producer and lives in Oakland, California. Most recently, her poems appear in the literary anthology, Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Writers from California (Heyday Books) and three anthologies of peace poems (Estuary Press.) Currently, she serves as an Alameda County Arts Commissioner and is a former director of the San Francisco Poetry in the Schools program.

Eva Ruland - Graphic Designer

Eva's areas of specialization are conception and design. She enjoys the creative process of designing, whether it is from the ground up or in redesigning an existing website or identity. Most of Eva's clients are small businesses who depend on marketing their specific individual traits to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Eva's background is in engineering (MS in theoretical engineering), psychology (PH.D. in East-West Psychology), and fashion design (she has been an acclaimed fashion designer in Berlin/Germany). Her work as a graphic and web designer is enriched from this breadth of experience.

Marc Ngui - Design, Animation

Marc Ngui (b. 1972, Guyana) is a graphic novelist and artist whose work is firmly rooted in DIY culture. He recently realized that he is on a lifelong exploration into the mechanics of visual communication. As a freelancer he has produced illustrations, comics, storyboards, animations, video journalism, exhibition designs, hand painted signs, maps, diagrams, pictograms, and icons. He is currently trying to balance an overwhelming surge of science inspired optimism with an understanding that the polar ice caps will no longer be frozen in the winter time by the end of this century. More information about his work can be found at www.bumblenut.com.

Max Heim - Web Designer

Max is a graphic designer specializing in information design. This can take the form of wayfinding signage systems (think airport, or hospital), interpretive graphics (think zoo, or landmark) or web design. Max designed this site for the Ecocity World Summit, and before that, sites for Ecocity Builders, Green City Visions, and Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza. When working with atoms instead of pixels, he is always concerned with the issues of sustainability and environmental impact, which are not (yet) well understood in the signage design field.

James Minton - Filmmaker

James Minton is the Audiovisual Director of Oakopolis Productions, a nonprofit arts organization centered in the Bay Area. A graduate of Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, CA, his background is that of a filmmaker, video editor, and audio post-production mixer. His website is www.jamesminton.com.

Serena Bartlett - Writer

Serena is a award-winning author and the executive director of GrassRoutes Travel, publisher of a new series of urban eco-travel guidebooks. GrassRoutes guides feature insider tips to the most tantalizing businesses and activities that give back to the community, environment and local economy. Her titles include a "new view" of major destination cities like San Francisco and also "next door" cities that are leading the way in sustainable planning like Oakland, CA and Olympia, WA. She is an active spokesperson for lively, inspiring and tasty ways to tread more lightly on the planet.

Matt Gunderson - Event Coordinator

Matt Gunderson was born in the Summer of Love in Los Angeles, CA, and developed a love for nature and the environment at a very early age.  Summer vacations were spent traveling up and down the state of California in the family station wagon, camping, fishing, hiking and enjoying the beauty of the West. Five years ago, after many years working for various event-related entities, he founded Brown Bear Events to focus on developing and producing special events for community organizations, non-profits and forward thinking companies. When not working hard for his clients, Matt continues to expand his horizons and understanding of the world through his love of international travel, having visited nearly 15% of the countries in the world. He is honored and excited to be working with the Ecocity World Summit.

Bridget Frederick - Member, Steering Committee

Bridget Frederick has always had a passion for re-use, salvage, a sustainable, low-impact existence and for exploring nature in all of its forms - on foot, bike or in a canoe. Currently, she works as Sustainable Development Project Coordinator for the City of Berkeley. Projects include coordinating the production of a film highlighting the carbon-saving actions of Berkeley residents and producing the annual Green Gathering, a celebration of accomplishments made in Sustainable Development over the last year. She also co-produces Tell it on Tuesday, a monthly storytelling series which promotes the art of solo performance and storytelling, and she co-directs the Dance IS Festival, a multigenerational annual dance festival that is heading into its fifth year.  A main focus of her work in both sustainability and in the arts has been creating space for community dialogue, encouraging interaction, cooperation and understanding between people of different generations and different backgrounds.

Eric Corey Freed - Member, Steering Committee

Eric Corey Freed is principal of organicARCHITECT, a design and research firm in San Francisco with 15 years of experience in green building. Eric teaches the Sustainable Design program he developed at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of nearly a dozen other organizations. Eric is the author of "Green Building for Dummies" (John Wiley & Sons).

Michael Gosney - Member, Steering Committee

Michael has produced many events and media projects with leaders in the green movement, including the Paradox Conferences at Arcosanti 1997-2001, and the annual Digital Be-In in San Francisco, a seminal gathering and exposition founded in 1989, showcasing humanistic applications of technology and exploring "cyberculture" as force for social evolution, most recently as it relates to the sustainability movement. Michael is also a pioneer in digital media who produced the first multimedia CD-ROM IN 1991, and has developed publishing projects for sponsors and clients such as Apple Computer, Toshiba, Lucent Technologies, GE Capital Mortgage, Kodak and Peter Norton. He is co-founder of Cyberset Music and Media, and consults with various groups marketing to "conscious consumers" and technology applied to sustainable design strategies.

Bill Mastin – Member, Steering Committee

Bill Mastin is an Oakland based architect, graphic designer, and co-designer of Berkeley’s Milvia Slow Street Project. He was instrumental in organizing the First International Ecocity Conference and has served on the Steering Committees of each following conference. Bill also helped with the graphic design and layout for The First International Ecocity Conference Report and Village Wisdom, Future Cities, the report from the Third International Ecocity Conference.

Sylvia McLaughlin – Member, Steering Committee

Sylvia McLaughlin co-founded Save San Francisco Bay Association. Among other notable distinctions, she is a Board Member of Ecocity Builders and Resource Renewal Institute. Sylvia continues to advocate for improved urban and natural spaces, especially though Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, an organization she founded to protect and improve the San Francisco Easy Bay shoreline. Mrs. McLaughlin was a speaker at the First International Ecocity Conference and has served on the Steering Committees of all of the International Ecocity Conferences. She was last seen in the New York Times and on the front pages of all the major local papers high in an Oak tree whose grove she is trying to save on the University of California at Berkeley campus.

Paul Miller - Member, Steering Committee

Paul Miller is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT.  His research has focused on the areas of community studies, poverty and hunger, social policies and welfare reform, including an examination of the faith-based initiatives in welfare policy.

Arthur Monroe – Member, Steering Committee

Arthur Monroe is an artist, educator and collections manager for the Oakland Museum. He works to gain cooperation in stabilizing live/work spaces for artists and helped develop the first state-wide conference of black artists. Arthur was a speaker at the First International Ecocity Conference and has served on the Steering Committee for all of the International Ecocity Conferences.

Advisory Board

Ecocity World Summit is honored and privileged to have a stellar Advisory Board. This preeminent group of experts brings backgrounds in ecological city design and development, government and non-profit agencies, foundations, academic institutions, environmental protection and biodiversity, business and economics, parks and urban agriculture, architecture, land use and transportation, and landscape architecture.

Steven Bercu, Director, William and Helen Mazer Foundation

Steven Bercu is a business and intellectual property lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School. He serves as the Director of Legal and Business Affairs for the computer games publishing company Infrogames Interactive, Inc., in Beverly, MA.

Joan Bokaer, Eco-visionary, co-founder, Ecovillage at Ithaca, NY

Joan Bokaer was, with Serigne Mbaye Niene, co-convener of Ecocity 3. She is also the founder, with Liz Walker, of EcoVillage at Ithaca just outside of Ithaca, New York, USA. In 1990 she conceived of and led The Global Walk for a Livable World across the United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from Los Angeles to New York City.

Wendy Brawer, Green Map founder, New York City

Wendy E. Brawer is best known as creator of NYC’s Green Apple Map and as the Founding Director of Green Map System, a local-global eco-cultural movement with locally-led projects in 50 countries. Wendy has taught, spoken and written on eco-design internationally since 1990. Wendy’s diverse consulting and production projects have promoted renewable energy and highlighted waste reduction. She was Designer in Residence at Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 1997 and named a 2005 Terre de Femme/Woman of Earth. Wendy chaired the national eco-committee for the Industrial Designers Society of America and co-founded O2 NYC in the mid-nineties. More at GreenMap.org (the global site), GreenAppleMap.org (NYC site) and EcoCultural.info (Wendy's site).

Debra Efroymson, Regional Director, HealthBridge, Bangladesh

Debra Efroymson is Regional Director for HealthBridge, a Canadian NGO working in several countries. Debra is based in Dhaka, in the office of Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB Trust), which she co-founded with her husband, Saifuddin Ahmed. In collaboration with NGOs in various countries, Debra is promoting the ecocity concept, particularly the use of fuel-free transport (FFT) to improve health and the environment and reduce poverty. She is also promoting ecosanitation, to improve sanitation conditions and drastically reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Gil Friend, CEO, Natural Logic, Inc.

Gil Friend is a systems ecologist and business strategist with 30 years experience in business development and environmental innovation. Mr. Friend has founded and managed companies in the fields of Internet, sustainable development and social marketing, and has developed management strategies and business, operating and marketing plans for large and small companies in a wide range of industries. He was a founding board member of internet pioneer Institute for Global Communications, and played key or founding roles in such seminal environmental enterprises as the California Office of Appropriate Technology, Turner Broadcasting's Planet Live, University of California's AgroEcology Program, and Buckminster Fuller's World Game. Gil was co-founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, one of the nation's leading urban ecology and economic development "think-and-do tanks," and CEO of The Arts of Peace, an early pioneer in television direct response marketing, and of SEND, Inc., a social marketing company, and principal in Gil Friend and Associates, a noted strategic environmental management consultancy. He holds an MS in Systems Ecology from Antioch University, a black belt in Aikido, and is a seasoned presenter of "The Natural Step" environmental management system.

Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Founder and Executive Director of Global Community Initiatives

Gwendolyn Hallsmith is the Founder of Global Community Initiatives (GCI) and author of The Key to Sustainable Cities, Taking Action: the EarthCAT Guide to Community Development, and Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal. GCI helps communities achieve their vision for a healthy environment, a vibrant economy, good governance, and a sense of social well-being. Hallsmith has over 20 years of experience working with municipal, regional, and state government in the United States and internationally. In the U.S., she has served for three years as the Town Manager of Randolph, Vermont, for five years as the Regional Planning Director in Franklin County, MA, as a Senior Planner for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy Resources, as the Deputy Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and for over ten years as an international specialist on sustainable community development. She is now the Director of Planning and Community Development for the City of Montpelier, Vermont.

Jeffrey Kenworthy, Professor in Sustainable Cities, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University in Western Australia

Jeff Kenworthy has worked in the transportation and planning field for over 22 years in comparative urban research, consulting and policy covering the fields of traffic engineering, private and public transport, urban planning and design, housing and energy. His research interests include international comparisons of transport and land use in cities; urban form and development patterns and their economic, environmental and social implications; transport management and policy; public transport systems; urban design and energy conservation in transport.

Pierre Laconte, Founder, Foundation for the Urban Environment; President, International Society of City and Regional Planners

Pierre Laconte is President of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), and the European Environmental Agency's Scientific Committee Member in charge of urban matters (see ww.ffue.org – Suggestions to the Planning Professions). He was a founding partner of the Groupe Urbanisme-Architecture, which produced the Master plan of Louvain-la-Neuve, the new university town, and co-ordinated its implementation. This new town is centred on an underground railway station (30 min. from Brussels). It received the Abercrombie Award 1982 of the International Union of Architects UIA. From 1984 until 1999 Pierre was the Secretary General of the International Union of Public Transport (UITP). UITP is a think tank on urban mobility and inter modality.

Chris Luebkeman, Director for Foresight + Innovation, Arup

Chris runs the global Foresight and Innovation initiative at Arup, a global design and engineering firm and a leading creative force behind many of the world's most innovative projects and structures. In his role, he conceives new ways of building—recyclable buildings, reusable offices, and furniture that can decompose—and works with some of the world’s largest companies to develop what he calls ‘plausible futures’ to better understand the opportunities that change is creating for them in the built environment.

Dr. Bernard Otoki Moirongo, Director, School of Architecture and Building Sciences of Jomo Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

Dr. Moirongo is currently the Director of the School of Architecture and Building Sciences (SABS) of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) located in Nairobi, Kenya. He is also the principal partner of KIOTO CONSULTANTS. SABS currently trains Architects, Landscape Architects and Construction Managers. Besides being the academic and administrative head of SABS and practicing architecture, Moirongo has published widely regarding city centers and urban space in relation to issues, such as, solid waste accumulation, crime prevention through environmental design, degradation of urban blocks, vehicular movement, and pedestrian use of the space. In collaboration with the safer cities programme of UN-Habitat, the City Council of Nairobi and several NGOs, Moirongo is advancing the ecocity initiative and ensuring that the urban environmental and management of cities in the developing world are improved.

Dr. Raquel Rivera Pinderhughes, Prof. of Urban Studies, SF State University

Raquel Pinderhughes is Professor of Urban Studies and Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University where she teaches courses on environmental policy and planning issues including: "Sustainable Development in Cities", "Alternative Urban Futures" and "Environmental Justice". Her areas of expertise include: urban environmental planning & policy; sustainable urban development; developing and managing urban infrastructures; green collar jobs; environmental justice; urban agriculture; local food systems; appropriate technologies; and qualitative research methods.

Rick Pruetz, National TDR Consultant

Rick Pruetz is a planning consultant specializing in TDR workshops, feasibility studies and ordinances. He has written three books on TDR including Beyond Takings and Givings: Saving Natural Areas, Farmland and Historic Landmarks with Transfer of Development Rights and Density Transfer Charges. He also maintains a TDR web site at www.BeyondTakingsAndGivings.com. In addition, Rick has written about TDR for the Brookings Institution and several publications of the American Planning Association including Planning, PAS Memo and The Commissioner. In addition to conducting dozens of presentations throughout the country, Rick has prepared TDR studies or ordinances for over 20 communities including Santa Fe County, NM and Livermore, CA. Rick received his Master of Urban Planning degree in 1979 and served as the City Planner of Burbank California for more than 14 years before devoting his practice exclusively to TDR in 1999. In 2004, Rick was honored with membership in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Maria do Rocio Rosario, Senior Architect and Planner, PADCO/AECOM

Maria Rosario serves as Marketing Director for the Latin America Region at PADCO/AECOM in Washington DC. Her 26- year international career in the fields of architecture, urban design and urban planning has been deeply influenced by her work at IPPUC, the Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba, a city well known for its innovative urban solutions. Her work calls for an integrated macro vision of urban planning: land use, transportation and circulation, plus the preservation of natural resources, combined to promote social and economic development. From 1999 to 2003, as Director of Information Office at IPPUC, she edited the magazine “Espaço Urbano” dedicated to exploring the complex issues related to urban development. She also lectured extensively in many countries including Spain, Canada, United States, Netherlands, Switzerland, the Basque Country and China. In 1999 she was invited by the World Bank to participate in efforts for the reconstruction of Dili, East Timor, which included a technical visit to that devastated city. In 2002 she participated as a representative of the City of Curitiba in the “Workshop for the Re-construction of Kabul” held in London, UK. She returned to the US in 2004 as Practice Leader in Sustainable Community Development at PBPlaceMaking to promote transit-oriented sustainable development. In 2005 she was selected for the American Public Transportation Association – APTA’ s 2006 Leadership Class Program and received her accreditation as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) at the US Green Building Council.

Michael Sammet, Director, Sustainable Design Certificate Program, UC Berkeley Extension

Michael Sammet (B.A) UC Berkeley, (M.A.) Stanford University, is a teacher, activist, and radio programmer. He currently is the Program Coordinator and instructor for UC Berkeley Extension's Sustainable Design program and hosts a weekly radio show in Santa Cruz, California.

Maria Terezinha Vaz, Film Producer and Photographer

Maria Terezinha Vaz is the producer of A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil, an informative, inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environment-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The documentary focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one of the most livable cities in the world. http://www.mariavazphoto.com/curitiba.html Through photography, Maria Terezinha Vaz integrates other passions, some of them lifelong. Trains, train tracks, the patterns and geometry of the rails and the machinery, have always held a fascination for her. She highly values historical and cultural preservation such as The Mayan Land in Mexico, especially the sacred city of Chichen Itza. Preservation of the natural environment is also of great importance to her. In recent years she has become a world traveler. All of these are important in life as a whole and also have value as subjects for photographic images. Maria Terezinha's works are skilled compositions of light, form, and shadows creating a statement of what are true value, sharing her world vision of images and feelings.

Isabel Wade, SF Neighborhood Parks Council Executive Director

Dr. Isabel Wade has been at the forefront of the movement to improve San Francisco’s neighborhood parks. Wade created the Council in an effort to "take back" the parks, which have suffered decline due to budget cuts. In 1993, Dr. Wade received one of the first national awards for excellence in the environmental field from Good HouseKeeping Magazine. She founded the State of California's Urban Forestry Program in 1977 under Governor Jerry Brown; was the first President of San Francisco Friends of the Urban Forest; founder of the California Releaf Program at the Trust for Public Land and a co-founder of the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Dr. Wade served on the Commission on the Environment for the City of San Francisco from 1994-1996. She has a doctorate in Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and is a resident of San Francisco and Sonoma, California.

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