World Workplace Europe 1-2.6.22 // Amsterdam

Panel discussion on Liveable Cities and Neighbourhoods with Kenneth Dooley, Kathy Michell, Floor Zwiers and Elina Alatalo, facilitated by Vitalija Daviska.

World Workplace Europe is the largest and most well-respected conference for facility management and related stakeholders in the region. Held annually, World Workplace Europe facilitates idea-sharing and knowledge-exchange between professionals who support and sustain the built environment to ensure smarter, more efficient, healthier, sustainable and safer facilities.

As part of the conference, the panel discussion on Liveable Cities and Neighbourhoods brings citizens into the focus. With over half of the world’s population living in cities and numbers constantly increasing, there is continuous pressure to improve the liveability of cities and satisfy the needs of their citizens. By integrating people, places, processes and technology, FM can play a decisive role in creating functional, comfortable and enjoyable cities by employing a people-centric approach and methods in line with liveable cities principles – citizen participation, smart solutions and sustainability. However, translating building-level functions to city-level activities comes with its hurdles. The session discusses what is required to develop people-centric spaces and services for more liveable cities, what initiatives are out there already and how FM can transition from building to block, neighborhood and city level.

The insights that Elina Alatalo will bring into the discussion deal with “the insurgents of work”, the people realizing their dreams of a better everyday of work supported by self-organized coworking spaces. She will share learnings from facilitating the network of these spaces. The combinations of face-to-face and internet-mediated practices have supported the growth of the network to a suprising diversity. The concept of Nordic Superblock, developed as a continuation from workshops with citizens, will also be discussed. Nordic Superblock allows for new kind of sharing ecosystem on a block level, resulting in tools to support lively streetscape and local energy communities. In addition, the conversation will benefit of experience from a variety of co-creative processes by and with citizens, that Alatalo has been part of, with a special focus on taking vacant spaces back into use.

when: 2.6.22 at 9-10.30 a.m. // where: The Hallen Amsterdam Studios, Amsterdam

Photo by Sebastian Jäntti, year 2015 in a self-organized coworking space called Työhuone 33, Turku