INTERNATIONAL
CALENDAR

         

We co-organized a plenary session together with Brookings Institution, one of Washington DC’s most recognized think tanks; the topic was ‘The Role of Cities in Global Leadership and the Multilateral System’, and it was a high visibility event. It featured three Metropolis’ members mayors (of Kyiv, Tijuana and Bogotá), and high-level speakers (US Ambassador to the United Nations; US Special Ambassador for City Diplomacy; ICLAI president and Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa; and UCLG Secretary General). I moderated one of the sections, and Metropolis and Brookings promoted the whole event as co-organised. It was a successful, high profile, high visibility event, with interesting content and good interventions, and which put our name in the program in a prominent place. But it did not showcase what Metropolis is and does, and we cannot easily capitalize on it from that point of view.

• Our partnership with Tony Pipa and Kait Pendrak at the Centre for Sustainable Development of Brookings Institution for the event went rather well – we still need to meet for a formal debrief and evaluation next week – and I hope we can build this partnership with another knowledge institution that is genuinely interested in the international activities of city governments.