CityAge: Hong Kong
The Asia Society
9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong
December 10, 2015
Asian cities are leading the most important urban migration in human history. How urban regions throughout Asia are built — and rebuilt — over the next few decades will shape our global future.
CityAge: Hong Kong will address the investment models, new partnerships, design tools and ideas shaping the business of city building. Key themes and case studies will focus on emerging trends in infrastructure, resilience, finance, research and design.
CityAge: Hong Kong builds on prior CityAge editions in New York, London, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, Kansas City and Philadelphia, among other locations. These events have convened global experts in city building and business, and now form a leading network of the individuals and institutions building the future. View a list of past participants here.
Space is limited and will fill up quickly, so please register as soon as possible at: www.cityage.org/hongkong
8:00 am Breakfast served
8:45 am Opening Remarks by Conference MC: Francis Moriarty, Freelance Journalist
9:00 am Welcome from: Simon Galpin, Director-General, Invest Hong Kong
9:10 am Presentation by: Jonathan Woetzel, Senior Partner and Leader, Global Cities
Initiative, McKinsey
9:30 am Presentation by: Keith Griffiths, Chairman, Aedas
9:50 am Session 1: Building Asia’s Mega Region
The Pearl River is taking the idea of the city to a new level. Its 11 cities cover 55,000 sq km, hold 80 million people and will have an economic output of $2 trillion by 2030. What are the investments and systems that will connect this economic powerhouse, keep it productive and ensure both livability and resilience? To what degree will the Pearl River Region provide the lessons for future cities? And what lessons can other cities – such as Singapore and further afield – offer in terms of models of urban development?
Panel Chair: Angela Mackay, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Financial Times
10:35 am Morning Break
11:00 am Presentation by: Christine Loh, Under-Secretary for the Environment, Hong Kong
11:20 am Presentation by: Trevor Vivian, Managing Director, Benoy
11:40 am Session 2: Investing in The Asian City
The current rate of urban growth means unprecedented need and potential for urban investment in Asia. What are the new investment models — public, private or a mix in the form of private, public partnerships (PPPs)? Where are the key investment sectors — public transport, infrastructure, development — and what are the potential returns? To what extent is this the realm of government, sovereign funds, regional investors or the global marketplace?
Panel Chair: Douglas Betts, Senior Counsel, McMillan LLP
12:25 pm Presentation by: Terry D. Bennett, Senior Industry Strategist, Autodesk
As the digital reality and the actual reality comes closer to each other, great values will be generated. New demands from a shifting generation will come and in the end, maybe, quite possibly the result will be living in better cities and in a better society. How we design, how do we compare it with how we could/should do it; collaborative, iterative, communicative – with focus on facts, letting the sustainability and other important facts drive the design to better quality, a better communicated design and more interesting design as well. This discussion will center on S.M.A.R.T. cities and perspectives on future proofing tomorrow’s adaptive city which will require supporting infrastructure systems that adapt to people and conditions over time, not people adapting to them.
12:45 pm Lunch
1:45 pm Presentation by: Peter Kindel, Director of Urban Design and Planning, Asia, SOM
2:05 pm Session 3: The Business of City Building ~ Why Transit-Oriented Development is
Vital Amid Growth
The scale of urbanization in Asia is unprecedented. This means that Asian cities — new and old — have the opportunity to be leading platforms for the better use of resources, capital and new city building models in how to achieve livable densification in Asian cities. This panel will outline why transit-oriented development and a human-centered design are vital to Asia’s urban future.
Panel Chair: Bryant Lu, Vice-Chairman, Ronald Lu & Partners
2:45 pm Presentation by: Stephen Yim, Chief Architect, Development and Standards, Hong
Kong Housing Authority
3:05 pm Presentation by: Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor, City of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
3:25 pm Session 4: Building The Innovation City
As Asia sees unprecedented migration to cities, innovative partnerships involving business, universities and cities will catalyze new economic successes. What are the examples of partnerships between business, cities and academe that are shaping the future urban economies? How can the private sector, cities and universities work together to make cities magnets for human talent that is essential to remain competitive in the 21st Century’s global economy?
Panel Chair: Jeffrey S. Lehman, Vice Chancellor, NYU Shanghai
4:15 pm Conference Close