The Change

Event Description

Learn about urban sustainability and what Vancouver is doing to become the first 'eco-logical' city in North America.

The 2010 Gaining Ground Conference is targeted to practitioners and advocates across a range of fields working to advance and accelerate urban sustainability—in Vancouver and North America.

Gaining Ground 2010 intends to promote Vancouver’s green economy, vision, culture, and achievements, and in all ways to assist Vancouver to become North America’s first ‘eco-logical’ city—making it a front-runner in green practice and economy much as it has been in urban design and city-making for two decades.

In that regard, the conference is also designed to solidify Vancouver’s image as an urban sustainability transaction hub…the ‘head office’ for the exchange and presentation of green city knowledge and innovation.

The conference will be three full days (Oct. 5/6/7) with a pre-conference day on Oct. 4. Each of the three conference days will have a particular focus or emphasis:

• Day 1 - Governance and Industry Collaboration: The hard part’s the ‘how’—transforming the urban sustainability vision into strategy, policy and successful industry partnerships.
• Day 2 - Green Economy: Building the 'real value' case for sustainability, capturing the opportunity in the green economy for building a green business culture.
• Day 3 - Community Engagement and Social Innovation: Examining the intersection between urban design and planning, and human health and community well-being.

These themed conference days will stand alone for those with a particular area of interest and limited time but build powerfully on each other for those who invest in the full-conference experience.