Festival of the Future City 2017

Festival of the Future City 2017

Season

Please note : this season finished in Oct 2017

How do we make the cities that we really want to live in? The future of cities is fraught with challenges, but full of possibility.

Set over three days, the second Festival of the Future City – which aims to be the largest public debate about the future of cities – brings together politicians, writers, artists, scientists, change-makers, academics, journalists, students, the public, economists, futurists, policy makers, roboticists, philosophers, filmmakers, think tanks, charities, social enterprises, city-builders and more and provides a focus for debate, partnership-building and learning.

Join us to explore the key issues for the future of our cities: how we can solve growing inequality and segregation; build healthy cities and places; foster sustainable cities; ensure that all ages can live and flourish at all levels; and explore a future of devolved powers.

The Festival of the Future City is presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas in association with Future Cities Catapult.


Previous screenings & events in this season

#ThereISBlackInTheUnionJack

Festival of the Future City
#ThereIsBlackInTheUnionJack
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2017
Film

A screening of this film and history project by Black South West Network (BSWN) which looks at the relationships between heritage, race, identity and belonging for the Black and Ethnic Minority community in Bristol.

Brexit and the Future of Cities

Festival of the Future City
Brexit and the Future of Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Nearly 52 per cent of people in the UK voted to leave the EU in the referendum of 2016. However, most major cities voted to remain. A panel will discuss this split and what it means for the future of the UK.

Citizen Jane

classified PG Festival of the Future City
Citizen Jane
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2017
Film

Journalist and activist Jane Jacobs's fight to save historic New York architecture.

How Do We Create Child-Friendly Cities?

Festival of the Future City
How Do We Create Child-Friendly Cities?
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

What is a child-friendly city? How does this link to other city visions for healthy, green, resilient, connected and fair places? What policy changes need to be achieved to make cities truly child-friendly?

Bristol: One City - Shaping the Future

Festival of the Future City
One City Plan: Shaping the Future of Bristol
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

This is a participative session, allowing attendees to share their vision for the city and shape Bristol’s future on topics such as health and well-being, education and skills, growth, communities and transport and infrastructure.

People, Healthy Towns and Cities

Festival of the Future City
People, Healthy Towns and Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

The growing importance of cities provides a great opportunity to radically rethink how we live and how we can improve health in the built environment. But how do we make cities and towns healthier places to be?

Race, Gender and the Future of Cities

Festival of the Future City
Race, Gender and the Future of Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

The #ThereISBlackInTheUnionJack project looks at race in Bristol through the generations, including women of colour.

Building Integrated and Inclusive Cities

Festival of the Future City
Building Integrated and Inclusive Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Bringing together cutting-edge research into inclusive growth and city leadership the panel addresses how future cities can avoid the problems of past growth and become places for all.

We Can Make: Affordable Citizen-Led Housing
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

This session brings together innovators from across the UK who are experimenting with new ways in which the citizen sector can play a bigger role in making the homes we want and need.

Future Cities Catapult: Healthy Cities

Festival of the Future City
Future Cities Catapult: Healthy Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

The health concerns associated with urban living are not new, but they are challenges that are growing in significance. In this session a number of key topics will be outlined in presentations by experts and then explored further in a chaired panel discussion.

Walk: How Technology Shapes Cities: Past, Present and Future
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

In this Harbourside walk Peter Madden describes Bristol’s history and suggests how we can plan effectively for the future.

Social Mobility and the Future of Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

The British love the idea of social mobility, but Britain fails to make it a reality for many today. This panel discusses the role of cities in social mobility and how we can make major change happen.

waveshed
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Workshop

What does Bristol think about immigration, past, currently and for the future? People from the Bristol community come together to discuss and debate attitudes to immigration.

Building a Healthy City

Festival of the Future City
Building a Healthy City
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

This series of short presentations highlights local projects that are creating a healthier and more environmentally sustainable future city. 

If Women Built Cities

Festival of the Future City
If Women Built Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

How different would cities be if women built them? How do we extend the rights to the city to all?

Immigration and Future Cities

Festival of the Future City
Immigration and Future Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

In the wake of the decision to leave the EU following the 2016 referendum this session asks how might immigration change after Brexit? What are the risks or opportunities? And can a common ground be found or will there be further polarisation?

Keeping it Circular: The Opportunity of Locally Focussed Money
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

What are the benefits of this locally-focused financial ecology and what makes Bristol a centre for it all?

Artificial Intelligence, Innovation and US Cities in the Age of Trump
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

Andrew Moore will be in conversation with Nick Pearce about the current horizon for artificial intelligence, robotics and Big Data and the social, economic and political implications of technological change.

Sustainability and the Future of Cities

Festival of the Future City
Sustainability and the Future of Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

How do we create sustainable cities? What powers must central government part with to allow cities to be free to act? How radical can cities be?

New Approaches to Urban Living

Festival of the Future City
New Approaches to Urban Living
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

This session brings together researchers, their partners and funders with the public to identify what has been learned about cities; identify strategies and programmes of work that will see cities transformed in the future; and identify where research is needed next.

Sustainable Development Goals and Cities: An International Perspective
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

This panel explores how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (which cover 17 areas where major progress is needed by 2030) are being implemented across the world.

Giving Power to the People: The Future of Devolution
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Michael Heseltine has always been a strong supporter of cities and devolution. He talks now about his vision for cities for the future and where devolution can go next.

Urban Speculations: Imagining Alternatives to the Built Environment
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Workshop

This workshop looks at the lessons learned about the commercialisation of city spaces and the impact this has on the built environment.

Using Research for City Futures: Keynotes
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

How do we use research to provide practical solutions to city problems and what partnerships can be developed to secure the best results from research?

Future Cities Catapult: Data Visualisation Workshop
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Workshop

This hands-on workshop for SMEs is a beginner’s introduction to the tools, techniques and storytelling skills required to turn raw city data into striking visualisations.

Making the City Playable

Festival of the Future City
Making the City Playable
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

This one day conference will explore the theme of the Playable City and how public space, creativity and imagination combines to create unexpected interactions and new kind of dialogue.

Cities, Research, Urban Futures and the Political Response
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

What happens to city research? Our panellists discuss what happens in government and what might be done to improve the research/policy-making process.

Cities of the Past
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

What lessons can we take from the great cities of the past that can help us today and into the future? Philosopher Julian Baggini chairs this panel discussion.

Radical Technologies and the Future of Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Everywhere we turn, a startling new device promises to make life easier, more convenient and more productive. What challenges do these innovations present to us, as individuals and societies?

On Looking at Cities and Cityscapes, Art and Cinema
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

From great works of art to tourist photographs, from cityscapes to cinema, through science and protest, propaganda and refusals to look, filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins illuminates how we construct as well as receive the things we see.

DiverCities: What Makes Your Bristol?

Festival of the Future City
DiverCities: What Makes Your Bristol?
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

Take one location in the city. How would you culturally and creatively represent Bristol? This workshop introduces the Creative Europe project Future DiverCities.

Civil Society and the Future of Cities

Festival of the Future City
Civil Society and the Future of Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Julia Unwin explores the future needs and opportunities of civil society in cities.

Will Driverless Cars Liberate Cities?

Festival of the Future City
Driverless Cars
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

It is said that 40 years from now our cities will look very different to how they look today thanks to driverless cars.

Future Architecture and Future Cities

Festival of the Future City
Future Architecture and Future Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

What's the best new thinking about the future of cities coming from architects, politicians and architectural commentators and what can we learn from recent experience in the UK, Brazil, Syria and elsewhere?

Good Work in the Future City

Festival of the Future City
Good Work in the Future City
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

What is the future of work in cities? What can city leaders do to promote good work? Our panellists examine work trends, low-pay, universal basic income and the evidence base for the future of work, among other issues.

Future Cities Catapult: City Information Models
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

The way in which we use information about our cities is about to undergo a fundamental change. This session will explore some of the trends and how the concept of city information models can begin to tie together some of the disparate developments in technology, city planning and management.

The Future of Metro Devolution

Festival of the Future City
The Future of Metro Devolution
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Six new combined authority mayors were elected in May 2017. Together they have responsibility for nearly ten million people and economies worth over £200bn. What can mayors do with the powers they have now? What will the future bring?

Smart Cities and Smart Citizens

Festival of the Future City
Smart Cities and Smart Citizens
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

How do we make sure that smart cities involve citizens and bring together commercial and community uses?

Future Cities Catapult: Urban Mobility

Festival of the Future City
Future Cities Catapult: Urban Mobility
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

A look at urban mobility challenges and the impact of their deployment in the wider city environment.

World Cities

Festival of the Future City
World Cities
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

What can we learn from cities worldwide? Leading researchers, novelists, city planners, writers and commentators report on cities that they work in, know intimately, continue to praise and worry about.

Psychology and the City

Festival of the Future City
Psychology and the City
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Talk

Charles Landry and Comedia have long been pioneers of new thinking about cities. With Chris Murray (Core Cities), Landry outlines why urban psychology is important. They are joined by Michael Sanders (Behavioural Insights Team) who talks about how the behavioural sciences can help create better policy in places for the future.

How Should Cities Deal with the Legacies of Guilt?
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

How cities and places should deal with guilt due to past actions is a debate around the world and it’s a big debate in Bristol too.

Workshop: Collaborating with Communities in Creating Their Own Spaces with the City
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Workshop

Grass-roots activities can regenerate areas and empower communities to take ownership of their own shared spaces within the city. This panel explores the interplay between ‘top down’ and ‘ground up’ interventions and places in between.

New Cities for a New World

Festival of the Future City
New Cities for a New World
Please note: This event took place in Oct 2017
Event

How do we create better cities for the world we now live in? In this session we discuss modern slavery, how to rebuild cities after war, and how American cities are leading the way on many positive initiatives.

Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle

classified PG Festival of the Future City
Dispossession: The Great Housing Swindle
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2017
Film

Paul Sng's documentary explores the catastrophic failures that have led to a chronic shortage of social housing in Britain.

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