On November 6^th, the first Seminar on Learning from Urban Innovation of the 6^th Guangzhou Award was conducted online, marking the official start of the final evaluation event. Representatives of the 15 shortlisted cities (Antalya, Türkiye, Bogotá, Colombia, Cape Town, South Africa, Gwangju, Republic of Korea, Halandri, Greece, Iztapalapa, Mexico, Jakarta, Indonesia, Kazan, Russia, Kampala, Uganda, Mannheim, Germany, Pimpri Chinchwad, India, Ramallah, Palestine, São Paulo, Brazil, Tehran, Iran and Xianning, China) will share their initiatives in different groups and answer questions from the moderators and the audience. The Jury will then select 5 winners according to their presentations, which will be announced at the 6th Guangzhou Award ceremony in early December.

During the seminar, the 15 shortlisted cities will be divided into four groups to present their cases and share their experiences. The seminar is open to global urban policymakers, managers and researchers, serving as not only a competition for the shortlisted cities, but also a platform for sharing innovative experiences. It will also provide the cities with an opportunity to demonstrate their innovative experiences while learning from other successful cases, so as to inspire more cities to engage in innovation and the implementation of the SDGs and the NUA.

On November 6th, the first Seminar “Making our cities and regions safe and resilient for all” was held. Hosted by Kobie Brand, Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI, it attracted representatives of cities, international organizations, and experts and scholars around the world to gather online. Representatives of Xianning, China; Kazan, Russia; Tehran, Iran; and Cape Town, South Africa shared their initiatives on urban resilience, and discussed how cities can respond to emerging and new challenges. 

The Seminars on “Leaving no one and no place behind”, “Beyond smart city” and “Towards a systems approach to urban governance” will be held respectively from December 7th to 9th. Meanwhile, the Online Vote for the 6th Guangzhou Award City of Your Choice is also in full swing. Global netizens are encouraged to vote for their favourite cities and innovative cases to select the “City of Your Choice” of the 6th Guangzhou Award  (vote at: http://vote.guangzhouaward.org).

The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation was co-sponsored by the City of Guangzhou, UCLG and Metropolis in 2012. So far it has reached its 6th cycle and has attracted more than 1,600 initiatives worldwide, and has become an important platform for global urban governance exchanges and implementation of the SDGs and the NUA.

Agenda of the Seminar:

http://www.guangzhouaward.org/a/3440.html