The Urbanism Summit is the premier event on creating thriving cities in New England. The Summit convenes urbanists of all backgrounds for two days of regionally-focused idea-sharing, storytelling and collaboration.
2017 Urbanism Summit | Boston, MA
Bringing New Urbanism to Scale: New England
Thursday 3/30 | Harvard Square, Cambridge
Friday 3/31 | District Hall, Boston
The Urbanism Summit features the best of what is happening to create thriving places in New England. The conference brings together urbanists of all backgrounds for a full day of regionally-focused idea-sharing, storytelling and collaboration.
featured speakers
Robin Chase
Author, "Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism"
She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world; Buzzcar, a peer to peer carsharing service in France; and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. She is also co-founder of Veniam, a vehicle communications company building the networking fabric for the Internet of Moving Things.
Sheila A. Dillon
Cabinet Chief of Housing and Director of Neighborhood Development, City of Boston
As a member of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s Cabinet, Chief Dillion acts as advisor to Mayor Walsh on housing issues in the City, including the execution of the Walsh Administration’s housing plan Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030, and its Action Plan to End Veteran and Chronic Homelessness in Boston 2015-2018. She oversees the management of the Boston Home Center, the Neighborhood Housing Development team, the Real Estate Management and Sales team, and spearheads the City’s efforts around housing Boston’s homeless.
Scott Bernstein
Founder and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Center For Neighborhood Technology
Scott leads CNT’s work to understand and better disclose the economic value of resource use in urban communities, and helps craft strategies to capture the value of this efficiency productively and locally. CNT is a signer of the Charter of the New Urbanism and Scott is a member of the Urban History Association, which includes urbanists old and new.
Friday Venue: District Hall, Boston
Volunteer at the Urbanism Summit
We are currently looking for volunteers for audio-visual and day-of tasks either on a half-day or full-day basis. Volunteers are offered a guest pass but are only available on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you are interested, please email us at admin@cnunewengland.org.
Past Summits
2016 | Providence, R.I. | Getting It Built: Connecting Ingenuity to Opportunity
Our focus this year was on getting stuff done — especially small projects. In the time it takes a big project to attract the right investors and win the needed approvals, a small project can get built and can start to work its magic, bringing new life to its neighborhood. And when the private and public sectors work together to provide leadership and direction, the pace of reinvestment and revitalization can be accelerated even more.
2014 | Somerville, Mass. | A Toolkit for Vibrant Neighborhoods
This Summit worked to build more resilient, livable neighborhoods in the context of New England. By engaging participants through civic engagement, shaping the physical neighborhood and changing how we plan and build, the Summit will prepare you to how to take the next steps in creating better neighborhoods in your community.
2011 | New Haven, Conn. | Addressing Climate Change in New England
The Urbanism Summit aims to inspire and connect professionals, public servants, academics and citizens, who together will seed a larger campaign. New England has the physical framework to become a model for sustainable urbanism at every scale. Healthy and complete town centers are one of the most comprehensive solutions to climate change. Building on this assumption, Summit speakers will address the critical challenges facing our towns.