Dr. Parag Khanna, a leading next-generation voice on the nexus between international affairs, economics and technology, gave an insightful opening keynote on “Future Trends in the Century of Cities” and moderated a discussion, titled “Reimagining Cities: Transforming the 21st Century Metropolis”, at the 2014 New Cities Summit in Dallas.

In this talk, Dr Khanna lays out some of the context and challenges that cities around the world are facing today, and argues that the city has to reinvent itself. He begins by looking at Big Data – currently 50% of people live in urban environments, and that number is increasing by 10% per year. By 2025, 100 of the 600 richest cities will be based in China, representing the majority of the world’s GDP. When combining these figures with India, the pace of urbanisation becomes staggering – the two largest countries demographically will become collections of cities.

But how will cities reinvent, adapt and transform themselves to fit the capacity of these growing populations, integrate new technologies, and become more dynamic both economically and culturally? Watch discussions from the summit below for more insight!

Speakers:
Hiroo Ichikiwa, Executive Director, the Mori Memorial Foundation
Jaime Lerner, Celebrated Urbanist, Former Mayor, Curitiba, Brazil
Arturo Sarukhan, Former Ambassador to the US, Mexico
Richard Sennett, Centenial Professor, London School of Economics
Mpho Franklyn Parks Tau, Executive Mayor, Johannesburg

Moderator:
Dr. Parag Khanna, Managing Partner, Hybrid Reality

For more information on how to book Parag Khanna as a speaker, please contact Alex Hickman at alex@chartwellspeakers.com or call +44 (0) 20 7792 8004.