57th International Making Cities Livable Conference

You are warmly invited to join us for a very special 57th IMCL Conference! 

The IMCL is the premier international leadership conference on urban quality of life since 1985, bringing together many of the world’s most innovative and successful mayors, planners, economic development specialists, designers, developers, NGO officials, and researchers and scholars.  Importantly, the IMCL conferences cover not just big cities but also small towns and suburbs, since such a large percentage of the world’s inhabitants live in these areas, and many of the world’s social, economic and environmental challenges occur there too.

Please join us for our 2021 Conference, “From Sprawl to Neighborhoods: Livable Cities (and Suburbs) for ALL.” The transformation of sprawl into livable, walkable, sustainable neighborhoods remains an urgent challenge, especially so in an age of unprecedented rapid urbanization.

We’ll gather this year in Carmel, Indiana, a fascinating USA case study of transformation from a sprawling bedroom community to a walkable, diverse, thriving and livable town. Using Carmel as one concrete example, we’ll ask, what are the effective new tools and strategies to bring positive change to suburban areas?  What are the barriers Carmel and other similar success stories faced, and how did they overcome them? (Or if they didn’t, what can we learn from those lessons too?) What are their successes and lessons learned, and what can other places learn from them?

And we’ll examine other related challenges for cities and towns today, including the crisis of affordable housing, the need for climate resilience and adaptation, promoting neighborhood health, achieving urban equity, promoting active mobility, age-friendly cities, neighborhoods for children, and much more.  We’ll also consider the timeless requirements for human scale architecture and mixed-use urban fabric, for reviving city and town centers, and creating vibrant public places where people can gather for farmers markets, festivals, outdoor cafes and community social life.

We’ll hear from leading researchers about the best evidence on emerging challenges and effective methods, including financial tools, regulatory innovations, design strategies, and promising (and occasionally worrisome) new technologies. We’ll hear from practitioners on the front lines about their successes and challenges, and the latest research on effective approaches. We’ll learn the latest trends from around North America, Europe, and other parts of the world, in livable and sustainable development.

Speakers will include international policy experts like Laura Petrella of UN-Habitat; experts in economic development and financial tools like Christopher Leinberger of George Washington University; leading international designers like Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of DPZ Co-Design; leading researchers in sprawl transformation like Ellen Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech; leading researchers in public health like Dr. Richard Jackson of UCLA; and hands-on mayors like Sven von Ungern-Sternberg, former Mayor of Freiburg Germany, and George Ferguson, former Mayor of Bristol UK -- and of course, Carmel's own remarkable mayor, Jim Brainard, and his staff.

Carmel is highly accessible (just 35 minutes from the major hub airport of Indianapolis) with a wide range of accommodation available. Indianapolis has regular direct flights from all over the US as well as Canada, Europe and Mexico, and also convenient connections through Chicago, New York and Washington. Rail service is also available through Chicago, Minneapolis or Washington, affording the opportunity for fascinating side trips. 

In case of cancellation, a refund with a $100 cancellation fee will be issued. A refund cannot be issued if cancellation is made less than six weeks before the conference.