The 'From Post-Industrial City to the New Urban Campus' conference will take place in Milan on November 14-15. Organized by the Class of 2020, this conference will explore how former industrial, neglected areas are being transformed into knowledge hubs and the brightest beacons of innovation.
Knowledge is undeniably one of the most valuable resources a city needs to nurture and attract, in order to innovate in a field of global competition. This requires connectivity and collaboration and is stimulated through flexible, diverse and welcoming environments. This is the new urban campus: where higher education and entrepreneurship are integrated with housing that meets the needs of the younger cohorts of talent.
Julie Wagner, former senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and president of Urban Insight, emphasizes the role of higher education institutions in the city: "In the vast majority of innovation districts globally, universities play a central role. They are the locus of a growing intellectual class, they have (or many do) have extensive R&D portfolios that are driving innovation, they are naturally connected globally and locally offering that important perspective to discussions, and they increasingly, have a role in growing and supporting start-ups."
The emergence of the new urban campus and a future generation of urbanites with changing needs in a time of reimagining cities, is at the heart of this conference.
more: theclassof2020.org (82)