in the framework of the Spring Summit 2011

 

On the occasion of the Spring Summit of Mayors held on 28 May 2010 in Brussels, Mayor Angela Spizig, city of Cologne, announced the first GCD nationwide conference series in Europe to be launched in Germany under her patronage.

Entitled “GCD - Executive Briefing Forum for Cities” (GCD eBFC), the GCD conference series offers to Mayors, High Political Representatives (HPR) of local authorities and their c-level executives the opportunity to discuss and learn at first hand specific issues related to the Information and Knowledge Society with their peers and experts from the scientific community and the industry.

 

The first conference successfully took place on 1 July 2010 in Eschborn at the Cisco Customer Briefing Centre. Participants debated over “the city transformation in an ageing society” as the shrinking population in Europe and especially in Germany is one of the most crucial political and social challenges in the decades to come that cities have to take on. Two experts offered introductory presentations on key facts: Dr. Ole Wintermann's presentation is a worst case scenario of demographics in Germany. Diogo Vasconcelos' presentation describes some global demographic trends.

 

Please find here the article in German language presenting the context of GCD eBFC as well as the English version.

 

The next GCD eBFC conference will be held on 22 February 2011 in Cologne, Germany, and will be embedded within the upcoming Spring Summit 2011. Due to the success of the conference series, the "small but smart" approach has to be replaced by a larger approach in a wider context as many cities confirmed their interest in attending the event. The conference addresses cities committing themselves to fighting climate change by going green and will deal with ICT tools targeting efficient cost savings.

 

Participation in the GCD nationwide conference series is only by invitation: interested Mayors and HPRs of local authorities in Germany and Europe may contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for receiving more detailed information on the event. Please read the Programme in English or the Programme in German  and consider attending it!

 

The GCD conference series initiated by Mayor Spizig may be duplicated by other GCD members in their respective countries, a proposal that the members of the Steering Committee is fully agreeing with.