speeches followed, Nigel Lee Head of Planning, Liverpool City Council spoke about ‘The City Region, Past Present and Future’, Dr Beatriz Garcia from the University of Liverpool spoke about ‘Impacts 08 – early reflections on the impact on Liverpool as a European Capital of Culture’ and Peter Nears the Strategic Planning Director of Peel Holdings unveiled their ‘Future Vision for the Region’. The RTPI President Martin Willey also addressed the Congress and welcomed the delegates to the UK. The RTPI had held their General Assembly on the same day as the opening plenary and some joined the delegates both for the opening plenary and opening reception The Closing Plenary on Saturday afternoon returned to the theme of ‘Why Can’t the Future be more like the past?’ and reflected on the history of the planning academy from different perspectives. The session was packed and the audience were richly rewarded with four fascinating and challenging presentations. Peter Batey (Liverpool University) reflected on 100 years of the planning academy by describing the history of Civic Design (a presentation that was complemented by an exhibition ‘Making Plans - 100 years of Civic Design’ that was held in the Victoria Museum and Art Gallery throughout the Congress). Michael Batty (UCL) explored ‘A Science of Planning is the making; Notes from the Part and What we Might Expect in the Future’, Ben Davy from Dortmund challenged the audience with a presentation entitled ‘European planners definitely have a future – but who are they?” and finally Mickey Lauria (Clemson USA) provided a perspective from North America ‘Why can’t the future be more like the past? A North American Perspective’. The Congress itself was organised around an Opening and Closing Plenary and seven parallel sessions where over 119 separate groups of papers organised around 18 different tracks. Particular thanks are extended to the track chairs whom vetted the abstracts and organised their track into groups of papers to for coherent sessions.
Track title
Track chairs
No of sessions
1
Planning Theory
Heather Campbell Tore Sager
9
2
European Territorial Cooperation and Cohesion Policy
Simin Davoudi Andreas Faludi
5
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