CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
61ST INTERNATIONAL MAKING CITIES LIVABLE

“The Ecology of Place:
Learning from Nature, Culture, and History”

29th October to 1st November, 2024

Join us in Beautiful Cortona, Italy, for a very special gathering of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), a premier peer-to-peer international gathering of built environment researchers, professionals, municipal leaders, NGO heads, and other thought leaders, founded in 1985 (a USA-based public benefit educational non-profit, registered 501(c)(3)). This conference will follow our most recent successful conference in Newport RI USA in April 2024, featuring over 50 urban leaders and researchers from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The conference garnered an attendee evaluation of 4.81 out of 5, with comments including “A wonderful conference,” “This is the best conference I've ever attended,” “Arguably one of the more interesting - and memorable - conferences I've ever attended,” An excellent conference,” and “A fabulous conference!”

Partners in the Cortona conference will include The King's Foundation (UK), UN-Habitat, the Congress for the New Urbanism, INTBAU, Seaside Institute, HealthBridge, PlacemakingX, and several universities, as well as others to be announced.

THEME: As humanity confronts multiple historic challenges, our settlements and their characteristics are set to play a central role – especially so in a time of historic rapid urbanization. Our cities, towns and suburbs are where we interact, move about, consume resources, develop and deploy our technologies, and create most of the impacts we are having on Planet Earth. In that sense, our settlements are major contributors to our challenges – but they also offer an important platform for joining up key issues of emissions and contamination, resource use and depletion, and ecological destruction, as well as opportunities for equitable human development, health, and well-being.

The International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) invites you to share your work, meet and discuss with others, and join in this collaborative platform for “learning from nature, culture, and history.” We will gather internationally prominent policy leaders, practitioners, community leaders and top scholars, to share lessons and discuss potential collaborations. A major aim of the conference will be to serve as a “springboard” toward new research, new collaborative action, and new ways of communicating and driving the necessary transition ahead.

ABOUT THE VENUE:

The historic hill town of Cortona has a rich history going back to Etruscan times, with splendid and instructive examples of urban space and place. The city and the region offer many lessons about contemporary challenges of health, economic well-being, agriculture, food, climate adaptation, viable small-town and rural life amid rapid urbanization, and new models of economic diversity and resilience. Cortona is approximately 1.5 hours from Florence and 2.5 hours from Rome, accessible by train, bus or car, with an assortment of historic hotels, inns and home rentals. The city is famous as the setting of Frances Mayes' autobiographical 1996 book Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy. Cortona is the Sister City of our 2021 venue, Carmel, Indiana.

The venue is the City of Cortona’s Conference and Event Centre, located in the historic convent of Sant'Agostino in the city center. There are many small hotels and rental homes nearby. Late October is an excellent time to travel affordably and find ample accommodation in central Italy, with generally very good weather.

TOPICS: You may contribute an abstract describing your work (to be presented at the conference, and also developed into a full conference paper if you wish) on any one or a combination of the following topics:

• Great Public Spaces for ALL: Learning from Italy, and Elsewhere
• Cities on Foot: The Power of Urban Walkability and Public Transportation
• The Place of Beauty: Neuroscience, Health and Sustainability in Placemaking
• Slow Food, Slow Cities: Food Quality, Health, and Urban Well-being
• Markets and Marketable Local Products: Viable Small-Town Businesses
• The Next Renaissance? Rebuilding Homes, Neighborhoods and Towns
• Zoom Towns, Livable Places, and the New Economy
• Jane Jacobs and the Power of Diversity, Equity, and Web-Networks
• Christopher Alexander and the Power of Patterns, and Timeless Ways of Building
• Building Better: Tools, Strategies, and Design Ideas
• Rapid Urbanization: Implementing the New Urban Agenda
• Climate Change and Urban Form: Mitigation, Adaptation, Resilience
• Financial Tools and Externality Feedbacks: Making It Pay
• Sustainable Infrastructure: Complete Streets, Regenerative Utilities and Transit
• Access For Everyone: Bringing the Benefits of Livable Cites to ALL
• The Ecology of Place: Concepts, Metrics, Practices
• Learning from Nature, Culture, and History for Contemporary Challenges

Papers will be published in the conference e-reader, to be shared with all attendees. They will then be published as 61st IMCL Proceedings on Academia.com, with a publication DOI number. There are also other options for subsequent publication in affiliated peer-reviewed journals, following attendee comments and revisions – contact us for more details at the email given below.

DEADLINES:

Abstracts are due July 31, 2024
Notifications will occur by August 15, 2024
Speaker registration is required by September 15, 2024
Papers must be submitted for the e-reader by October 1, 2024

REGISTRATION FEES:

Accepted speaker registration is $595.00 (Approx. EUR 553.00)
Early Bird registration (non-speaker) is also $595.00 (through July 31)
Discount registration (non-speaker) is $695.00 (Through September 30)
Full participant (non-speaker) registration is $795.00 (after October 1)
Student (non-speaker) registration is $295.00 (ID required)

SCHEDULE AT-A-GLANCE

Tuesday, October 29
9AM Optional Tours
5PM Welcome Reception

Wednesday, October 30
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)

Thursday, October 31
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)


Friday, November 1
8AM Registration
9AM-5:30PM Conference
7PM Evening Activity (TBC)

Saturday, November 2
9AM Optional Tours TBA

For more information, or to submit abstracts or register: https://www.imcl.online/2024-cortona

We hope you will join us for a wonderful conference!

Michael W Mehaffy, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Lennard Institute for Livable Cities / IMCL
michael.mehaffy@livablecities.org