What kind of places do Europe’s northern cities want to be as they look forward to 2020? Can they tell a distinctive story of optimism, inclusiveness and imagination?

Glasgow as a city is often pulled south- by comparison, competition and control- to Edinburgh, Manchester and London.  But what if Glasgow chose to look north and east instead? Might its Nordic neighbours provide a better ‘urban peer group’ for Glasgow to exchange ideas, learn and collaborate?

You are invited to this this day-long symposium in Glasgow that will bring together the next generation of leaders, urbanists and activists from Nordic cities to explore their shared futures as northern European cities. Through an interactive process participants will help create manifestos of hope and action that will contribute to Glasgow 2020, a yearlong mass imagination project to develop new stories for cities based on people’s everyday lives and aspirations (www.glasgow2020.org.uk). 

Issues for exploration include:

• How can Northern European cities build community cohesion in the context of increasing social diversity and changing patterns of identity?
• How should Northern European cities respond to the challenges of the ‘creative age’ in their economies, public services and systems of political participation?
• Can cities in the Northern European region pull together and be more than the sum of the individual parts? What are the shared projects and points of collaboration?

The Programme

22^nd  June 2006

Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art

350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD

8pm                 Drinks and Dinner

An informal welcome drinks and dinner. Participants will get a chance to meet each other

23^rd June 2006

St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art
2 Castle Street, Glasgow, G4 0RH

9:30-11am       The Northern Lights Showcase

This session will introduce the Nordic cities, including a review of their social, political and cultural profile, emerging trends, hopes, fears and opportunities. Confirmed participating cities include Gothenburg, Aarhus, Stockholm, Bergen, Helsinki and Glasgow.

11-11:30am     Coffee

11:30am-1pm  Generating the Northern Lights Agenda

This session will be about trading, learning and testing insights and ideas on range of questions decided by the participants as the most important current and emerging issues facing Northern cities.  These might include questions relating to issues such as social diversity and creativity, trust and public space, democracy and public service innovation.

1- 1:45pm        Lunch

1:45- 3:30pm   Building Visual Manifestos 

This will be a hands-on session where participants get the chance to create a visual manifesto of their ideas for a Northern European city in 2020. What might its civic brand and core beliefs be? What might its landscape and architectural icons look like? What might its people share and feel? What might the story-line of events, actions and leadership be to get there? 

3:30-4pm         What Happens Next?

One of the aims of the day is to promote learning and collaboration between Northern cities. This session is about exploring how such activity might be sustained into ongoing exchange and relationships.

Tramway Theatre
25 Albert Drive, Glasgow, G41 2PE
4.30pm             Glasgow School of Art Exhibition and Drinks
A bus will take delegates to visit the Master of Fine Art Degree Show.  The eighth graduating show at Tramway takes place as a precursor to a show in Denmark at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde.