The Augmented City podcast’s John du Pre Gauntt sat down with me in November to recap the inaugural edition of LA CoMotion. (Note: we both sound utterly exhausted after four exhilarating days.) Please click through to give it a listen. And get ready: LA CoMotion will return to the Arts District of Los Angeles on Nov. 15-18. See you there.

If you’re free in New York on January 23rd, please join us at A/D/O in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (29 Norman) for Where the Robot Meets the Road: Autonomous Everything, the second installment in a series of URBAN-X events on the future of autonomous vehicles and infrastructure and how they will change the design and function of cities. Description and registration link below:

For 75 years, visions of autonomous urban systems have revolved around the self-driving car. But while AVs remain just over the commercially available horizon, autonomous stuff is already here: delivery bots on the sidewalks of London and San Francisco, a self-driving convenience store in Shanghai, and drones delivering blood to Swiss hospitals.

Anthony Townsend, Bryan Boyer and Greg Lindsay will host an interactive debate where provocative scenarios will be discussed, voted and proposed. This event will come after an afternoon closed-doors workshop with experts across disciplines including urban planning, technology, policy, and real estate, who will also be participating in this session.

How can autonomous systems help solve existing challenges for cities, rather than provide solutions to non-existent problems? Join the discussion.

Free registration here.

In lieu of a year-in-review, here’s a brief clip from last month’s LA CoMotion highlighting its “Street of the Future,” which I helped develop. Here’s to a restful holidays and renewed sense of purpose in 2018! See you on the other side.

I speak frequently about the future of cities, work, mobility, and occasionally the future of the future itself. Past engagements and events include the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Urban Forum, and the World Economic Forum. I speak frequently to companies (McKinsey, Microsoft, Intel, KPMG, Deloitte, AECOM, RE/MAX, BMW, Ford, Starbucks), organizations (the OECD, U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Energy, U.K. Treasury, Canada Council for the Arts), member associations (ULI, NAHB, NAIOP, SIOR, FIA, CoreNet) and universities (Harvard Business School, the MIT Media Lab, Columbia, Princeton, the Royal College of Art, the London School of Economics).

Below is the current list of past and future appearances, always bound to change. If you’re interested in helping to arrange a speaking appearance, please send me an email. A complete list of speaking topics can be found here.

June 5, 2024. Jersey City, NJ.
NAIOP.

May 23, 2024. Montréal, QC.
CSC.

May 22, 2024. New York, NY.
Smart City Expo USA.

May 7, 2024. Chicago, IL.
DLA Piper.

April 29, 2024. Scottsdale, AZ.
Mountain West Conference.

April 25, 2024. Laramie, WY.
AIA Wyoming.

April 18, 2024. Cincinnati, OH.
Design-Build for Transportation/Aviation.

April 10, 2024. Chicago, IL.
Genesis Insurance.

March 19-20, 2024. Austin, TX.
Connexions.

March 14, 2024. Rosemont, IL.
Coldwell Banker EMPOWER.

March 11, 2024. Orlando, FL.
ULI Central Florida.

March 10, 2024. Austin, TX.
South by Southwest.

March 9, 2024. Austin, TX.
U.S. Conference of Mayors.

March 1, 2024. Dallas, TX.
CORFAC.

February 22, 2024. Baltimore, MD.
University of Maryland-Baltimore.

February 15, 2024. San Antonio, TX.
Airports Council International North America.

December 13, 2023. Kansas City, MO.
National Association of College and University Food Services.

December 7, 2023. Los Angeles, CA.
Southern California Association of Governments 14th Annual Economic Summit.

December 6, 2023. Columbus, OH.
Kokosing Construction.

November 27, 2023. Montréal, QC.
Fiera Capital.

November 6, 2023. Washington D.C..
Fast Company & Booz Allen: “The Age of Principled AI.”

November 2, 2023. Dubai, UAE.
Dubai Business Forum.

October 26, 2023. Istanbul, Turkey.
Gyoder.

October 19, 2023. New York, NY.
HOK.

October 12, 2023. Dallas, TX.
Realty Resources.

October 10, 2023. Montréal, QC.
Ivanhoe Cambridge.

October 3, 2023. New York, NY.
WRLDCTY.

September 26, 2023. Bethlehem, PA.
SIOR Philadelphia.

September 25, 2023. Quebec City, QC.
Convention Centres of Canada.

September 21, 2023. National Harbor, MD.
ICSC Mid-Atlantic.

September 19-20, 2023. New York, NY.
Fast Company Innovation Festival.

September 12, 2023. Las Vegas, NV.
BICSI.

September 11, 2023. Baltimore, MD.
URMIA.

July 11, 2023. New York, NY.
The Metaverse Metropolis Symposium.

June 22, 2023. New York, NY.
At What Point Managed Retreat?

June 21, 2023. New York, NY.
Nexxworks.

June 14, 2023. Montréal, QC.
The Conference of Montréal.

June 7, 2023. Miami Beach, FL.
FIABCI World Real Estate Congress.

June 1, 2023. Santa Clara, CA.
Augmented World Expo.

May 16, 2023. New York, NY.
Fast Company & Siemens: The Industrial Metaverse — Gaming. (virtual)

May 2, 2023. New York, NY.
DEPT “Prepare to Pioneer.”

April 27-28, 2023. New York, NY.
NYU Metaverse Collaborative and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

April 27, 2023. New York, NY.
Fast Company & Siemens: The Industrial Metaverse — Scaling Transformation. (virtual)

April 20, 2023. Cambridge, MA.
Design & Solidarity MIT book launch.

April 3, 2023. New York, NY.
University of Michigan A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. (virtual)

March 28, 2023. New York, NY.
Pennsylvania Association of Realtors. (virtual)

March 21, 2023. New York, NY.
The Metaverse Metropolis: Placemaking Across Realities.

March 16, 2023. New York, NY.
Fast Company & Siemens: The Industrial Metaverse — Digital Twins. (virtual)

March 7, 2023. New York, NY.
Design & Solidarity New School book launch.

February 24, 2023. Orlando, FL.
Lowndes.

February 21, 2023. New York, NY.
Conversations on the City: The Augmented City. (virtual)

February 1, 2023. Montréal, QC.
McGill University.

January 24, 2023. Montréal, QC.
Metaverse & The City Manifesto. (virtual)

November 18, 2022. Kitzbühel, Austria.
Re.comm.

November 17, 2022. Orlando, FL.
Business Facilities LiveXchange Emerging Industries 2022.

November 4, 2022. Houston, TX.
Central Houston Inc.

October 26, 2022. Quebec City, QC.
Canadian Automobile Association.

October 23-24, 2022. Portsmouth, NH.
Strategic HR.

October 20, 2022. New York, NY.
Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors Global Real Estate Summit.

October 13, 2022. Scottsdale, AZ.
Lightbox PRISM.

October 4, 2022. New York, NY.
Moss Adams. (virtual)

September 21, 2022. New York, NY.
Realcomm NYC CIO Property Technology Forum.

September 20-22, 2022. New York, NY.
Fast Company Innovation Festival.

September 19, 2022. Chicago, IL.
Coldwell Banker Commercial.

September 15, 2022. Denver, CO.
Colorado Commercial Real Estate Symposium.

September 13, 2022. Tucson, AZ.
RE/MAX Commercial Symposium.

August 11, 2022. Atlanta, GA.
Council for Quality Growth.

July 21, 2022. New York City, NY.
Patcraft.

June 17, 2022. Fox Harb’r, NS.
Kal Tire.

June 9, 2022. Alexandria, VA.
Bonaventure Holdings.

June 8, 2022. Montréal, QC.
CBC Chatter. (virtual)

June 3, 2022. Victoria, BC.
Kal Tire.

June 1, 2022. Toronto, ON.
Coldwell Banker Canada.

May 25, 2022. Miami, FL.
International Fresh Produce Association.

May 25, 2022. Istanbul, Turkey.
Digital Age Tech Summit. (virtual)

May 12, 2022. Houston, TX.
Hines IMAP.

May 4, 2022. Las Vegas, NV.
Expedia Group EXPLORE 2022.

April 26, 2022. Montréal, QC.
Webfleet Mobility Conference 2022. (virtual)

April 6, 2022. Phoenix, AZ.
National Association of Realtors.

April 5, 2022. Miami, FL.
Citywire.

March 30, 2022. Santa Barbara, CA.
Cartus.

March 8, 2022. Austin, TX.
Coldwell Banker Commercial.

February 16, 2022. Scottsdale, AZ.
Tiger 21.

February 9, 2022. Orlando, FL.
International Builders Show.

February 8, 2022. Fairlawn, OH.
Continental.

February 1, 2022. Montréal, QC.
University of Pennsylvania, “Design with Risk”. (virtual)

January 20, 2022. Raleigh, NC.
Alumni of World Entrepreneurs. (virtual)

January 20, 2022. Raleigh, NC.
North Carolina Transportation Summit.

December 14-16, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Fast Company Innovation Festival 360. (virtual)

December 7, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Greenfield Cities Alliance Dialogues #3. (virtual)

December 3, 2021. Montréal, QC.
“Designing for a Future of Care,” the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

December 1, 2021. Dallas, TX.
NAHB Multifamily Leadership Board.

December 1, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Henley & Partners Global Citizenship Conference. (virtual)

November 30, 2021. Montréal, QC.
The Economist & JLL. (virtual)

November 16-18, 2021. Los Angeles, CA
CoMotion LA.

October 28, 2021. San Antonio, TX.
Municipal Advisory Council of Texas.

October 20, 2021. Chicago, IL.
Worldwide ERC Global Workforce Summit.

October 20, 2021. Chicago, IL.
New York University Rudin School of Transportation Policy and Management. (virtual)

October 19, 2021. Chicago, IL.
University of Washington. (virtual)

October 19, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Smart City Festival Belgrade. (virtual)

October 15, 2021. Montréal, QC
City of Buenos Aires. (virtual)

October 9, 2021. Turin, Italy
Torino Stratospherica Utopian Hours.

October 6, 2021. Venice, Italy
ADP Virtual Pro Summit. (virtual)

October 2, 2021. Tirana, Albania
Tirana Design Week.

September 28, 2021. Montréal, QC
Fast Company Innovation Festival. (virtual)

September 27, 2021. New York City, NY
National Association of Realtors.

September 23, 2021. New York City, NY
Greenfield Cities Alliance Dialogues #2.

September 13, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CREtech Climate: MOVE. (virtual)

August 25, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Greenfield Cities Alliance Dialogues #1. (virtual)

July 29, 2021. Atlanta, GA.
Council for Quality Growth.

July 21, 2021. Portland, ME.
American Council on Germany. (virtual)

July 6, 2021. Portland, ME.
Henley & Partners. (virtual)

July 2, 2021. Portland, ME.
Moscow Urban Forum. (virtual)

June 29, 2021. Portland, ME.
The Weather Report. (virtual)

June 22, 2021. Portland, ME.
Plastarc. (virtual)

June 22, 2021. Portland, ME.
UK Network Rail. (virtual)

June 17, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Siemens Smart Buildings Virtual Partner Summit. (virtual)

June 16-17, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion Miami. (virtual)

June 1, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Association for Supply Chain Management. (virtual)

May 19, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion MOTIVATE SoCal. (virtual)

May 11, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CBRE Institute 2021 Global Forum. (virtual)

April 29, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Brandywine Realty Trust. (virtual)

April 29, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College. (virtual)

April 20, 2021. Montréal, QC.
NewCities x Future of Cities: Rewilding Cities. (virtual)

March 16, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CORFAC. (virtual)

February 18, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CoreNet Northern California. (virtual)

February 10, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: New Administration, New Priorities: The Transportation Infrastructure That Will Power the Roaring Twenties.. (virtual)

February 5, 2021. Montréal, QC.
AXA 2021 Foresight Report. (virtual)

January 27, 2021. Montréal, QC.
CREtech Business Intelligence Virtual Summit. (virtual)

January 14, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Fast Company Future of Work. (virtual)

January 7, 2021. Montréal, QC.
Fast Company Futurecast. (virtual)

December 17, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Sharing Space: Coworking Goes B2B. (virtual)

December 15, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Urban Land Institute Orange County & Inland Empire: Reconstructing the American Dream. (virtual)

December 10, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Urban Land Institute Orange County & Inland Empire: Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2021. (virtual)

December 10, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Moscow Urban Forum. (virtual)

December 9, 2020. Montréal, QC
SE Florida Transportation Online Summit. (virtual)

December 1-3, 2020. Orlando, FL
Higher Ground. (virtual)

November 24, 2020. Montréal, QC
York University Schulich School of Business. (virtual)

November 18, 2020. Montreal, QC
Richmond Hill Public Library. (virtual)

November 17-19, 2020. Montreal, QC
CoMotion LA LIVE. (virtual)

November 17, 2020. Montreal, QC
Canadian Parking Association. (virtual)

November 12, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Henley & Partners. (virtual)

November 6, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Veb. (virtual)

November 2, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: Mobility in 2024 – Charting a Path Forward for America. (virtual)

October 24, 2020. Torino, Italy
Torino Stratospherica Utopian Hours. (virtual)

October 23, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce. (virtual)

October 22, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Moss Adams. (virtual)

October 14, 2020. Montréal, QC.
City of Tomorrow. (virtual)

October 10, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Skolovo School of Management. (virtual)

October 8, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Fast Company Innovation Festival. (virtual)

October 5, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Patcraft. (virtual)

October 1, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Canadian Institute of Actuaries. (virtual)

September 30, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CREtech: Reimagining Real Estate Sustainability Summit. (virtual)

September 15-17, 2020. Montréal, QC.
NewCities Wellbeing Cities Forum. (virtual)

September 9, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CREtech: Reimagining Cities and the Entire Built World. (virtual)

September 9, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Citywire New York. (virtual)

August 19, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: AVs Follow the Money. (virtual)

August 5, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: Is Concrete The New Gold? (virtual)

July 29, 2020. Montréal, QC.
The Big Rethink: Is It Finally Infrastructure Week? (virtual)

July 22, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoreNet NYC: The Data-Driven Case For Working Face-to-Face. (virtual)

July 14-16, 2020. Montréal, QC.
New Housing Solutions LIVE. (virtual)

June 30-July 1, 2020. Miami, FL.
CoMotion Miami LIVE. (virtual)

June 18, 2020. Montréal, QC.
ULI Orange Country/Inland Empire. (virtual)

June 10, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: Life After Lockdown: Learning from Asia’s All-Delivery Future. (virtual)

June 3, 2020. Montréal, QC.
Broadscale. (virtual)

June 2, 2020. Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Waze. (virtual)

May 20, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: How Britain Gets Moving Again. (virtual)

May 19, 2020. Montréal, QC.
The Big Rethink: Decarbonizing the Hard Way. (virtual)

May 13, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: Rethinking the Street. (virtual)

May 12, 2020. Montréal, QC.
The Big Rethink: The How, What, and Where of Work. (virtual)

May 5, 2020. Montréal, QC.
The Big Rethink: Beyond Megacities – Rethinking Density. (virtual)

April 22, 2020. Montréal, QC.
CoMotion LIVE: Is Sharing Dead? What Micromobility 2.0 Will Look Like in Post-COVID Cities. (virtual)

April 14, 2020. Montréal, QC.
The Big Rethink: How Public Transit Bounces Back. (virtual)

April 7, 2020. Montréal, QC.
The Big Rethink: Pandemics and Public Space. (virtual)

March 30, 2020. Montréal, QC.
McGill University. (virtual)

February 20, 2020. Brantford, ON.
2020 Vision of the Future Conference.

February 9-12, 2020. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
World Urban Forum 10.

January 27, 2020. San Juan, Puerto Rico
3M Commercial Solutions.

January 23, 2020. Las Vegas, NV
NAIOP Southern Nevada.

December 4, 2019. Brooklyn, NY.
URBAN-X: Green New Deal Flow.

November 14-15, 2019. Los Angeles, CA.
CoMotion LA 2019.

November 6, 2019. Raleigh, NC.
ULI Triangle.

October 24, 2019. Toronto, ON
AON.

October 17, 2019. Beijing, China
ANREV.

October 10, 2019. Richmond, VA
VCU Real Estate Trends Forum.

October 3, 2019. St. John’s, NL
Atlantic Planners Institute.

September 26, 2019. Wakefield, ON
Export Development Canada.

September 19-20, 2019. Prague, CZ
reSITE 2019: REGENERATE.

August 22, 2019. Mexico City, Mexico
México Economía Digital

July 25, 2019. Detroit, MI
Detroit Moves.

July 5, 2019. Moscow, Russia
Moscow Urban Forum.

June 25, 2019. Miami, FL
CoMotion Miami.

June 19-20, 2019. Montreal, QC
The Wellbeing Cities Forum.

June 13, 2019. Orlando, FL
ULI Florida.

June 11, 2019. London, UK.
Procurious.

June 9, 2019. Jackson Hole, WY.
CRETech Trailblazers.

June 6-7, 2019. New York, NY.
New Housing Solutions.

May 15, 2019. New York, NY.
Smart Cities NYC.

May 9, 2019. Dallas, TX.
DW Distribution.

May 1-2, 2019. Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Aldar.

April 23, 2019. West Point, NY.
United States Military Academy.

April 15, 2019. Tampa, FL.
ThinkTransit.

April 13, 2019. Washington, D.C.
SIOR.

April 10, 2019. Carlsbad, CA.
North American Meat Institute.

April 3, 2019. New York, NY.
Designing Our Future New York.

March 27, 2019. Los Angeles, CA.
CREtech Los Angeles.

March 25, 2019. Denver, CO.
Denver Architecture Foundation.

March 16, 2019. New York, NY.
The City of Tomorrow @ 92nd St. Y

February 24-25, 2019. Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Future Studio.

February 22, 2019. Scottsdale, AZ.
CORFAC.

February 21, 2019. Las Vegas, NV.
National Association of Home Builders.

February 19, 2019. Brooklyn, NY.
ReversaL: A Public Forum on The Partial Shutdown of The L-Train.

January 31, 2019. Richmond, CA.
Micromobility.

January 22, 2019. Carlsbad, CA.
Institutional Real Estate, Inc.

January 11, 2019. West Point, NY.
United States Military Academy.

November 29, 2018. New York, NY.
Ennead.

November 27, 2018. New York, NY.
URBAN-X: The Hyper-Legible City.

November 14-17, 2018. Los Angeles, CA.
LACoMotion.

November 13, 2018. Los Angeles, CA.
UCLA.

November 6, 2018. Los Angeles, CA.
Principal Financial.

November 3, 2018. New York, NY.
Mohawk Group.

October 22-24, 2018. Nashville, TN.
Nissan.

October 16, 2018. Jacksonville, FL.
NAIOP Northeast Florida.

October 9, 2018. New York, NY.
Municipal Art Society.

October 4, 2018. Nashville, TN.
Constellation Homebuilders.

October 3, 2018. Dayton, OH.
NAIOP.

October 1, 2018. Detroit, MI.
CityLab Mobility Dinner Series.

September 27, 2018. New, York, NY.
URBAN-X Demo Day.

September 26, 2018. Montreal, QC.
NewCities Foundation.

September 25, 2018. New York, NY.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

September 17, 2018. Boston, MA.
CityLab Mobility Dinner Series.

September 17, 2018. Cambridge, MA.
Harvard GSD.

September 14, 2018. Tampa, FL.
Café con Tampa.

September 13, 2018. Tampa, FL.
Tampa Innovation Summit.

September 11, 2018. San Francisco, CA.
CityLab Mobility Dinner Series.

June 14-15, 2018. Prague, Czech Republic.
reSITE.

June 12, 2018. Berlin, Germany.
Dream Global REIT.

June 4, 2018. New York, NY.
Where the Robot Meets the Road: Pay to Pave.

May 31, 2018. Riga, Latvia.
MadCity.

May 24, 2018. Albuquerque, NM.
Urban Land Institute New Mexico.

May 17, 2018. New York, NY.
MoMA Design Store.

May 17, 2018. New York, NY.
WORKTECH18 New York.

May 14, 2018. New York, NY.
Onward: Mobility in the Next New York.

May 10, 2018. New York, NY.
MSCI U.S. Real Estate Investment Conference.

May 9, 2018. New York, NY.
Smart Cities NY.

May 9, 2018. New York, NY.
CoreNet.

May 3, 2018. New York, NY.
NAIOP National Forums Symposium 2018.

April 26, 2018. London, United Kingdom.
Procurious.

April 19, 2018. Toronto, ON.
CIBC 23rd Annual Real Estate Conference.

March 27, 2018. New York, NY.
CREO.

March 22, 2018. Victoria, BC.
Canadian Home Builders Association.

March 19-21, 2018. Auckland, New Zealand.
ITS New Zealand.

March 14, 2018. Chicago, IL.
National Shared Mobility Summit.

March 12, 2018. Boston, MA.
VHB.

February 1, 2018. Los Angeles, CA.
Woods Bagot.

January 31, 2018. New York, NY.
BMW iVentures Urban Mobility Forum.

January 28, 2018. San Antonio, TX.
American Traffic Safety Services Association.

January 27, 2018. New York, NY.
City of Tomorrow Real Estate, Architecture, and Design Summit.

January 25, 2018. Orlando, FL.
ULI Central Florida.

January 23, 2018. New York, NY.
Where the Robot Meets the Road: Autonomous Everything.

January 9, 2018. Orlando, FL.
National Association of Home Builders.

December 18, 2017. Cambridge, MA.
Stuart Frankel.

December 7, 2017. Durham, NC.
CREO North Carolina General Meeting.

December 6, 2017. New York, NY.
Mixed-Up Use: Toward More Diverse Real Estate.

December 6, 2017. Saratoga Springs, NY.
Associated General Contractors of NYS.

November 30, 2017. New York, NY.
Starbucks.

November 15-19, 2017. Los Angeles, CA.
LACoMotion.

November 7, 2017. New York, NY.
Intel & URBAN-X.

November 2-3, 2017. Los Angeles, CA.
Aerial Futures.

November 1, 2017. San Antonio, TX.
CCIM.

October 24-25, 2017. New York, NY.
Fast Company Innovation Festival.

October 17, 2017. Albany, NY.
NY Public Transit Association.

October 11, 2017. New York, NY.
British Land.

October 10, 2017. New York, NY.
American Council on Germany.

September 28, 2017. Chicago, IL.
Procurious.

September 26, 2017. New York, NY.
RealInsight Emerging Trends Summit.

September 19, 2017. Victoria, BC.
Platform: A Retreat for Design Visionaries.

September 18, 2017. Denver, CO.
RE/MAX Commercial Symposium.

September 14, 2017. Columbus, OH.
Columbus Partnership.

September 13, 2017. New York, NY.
The Wall Street Journal.

September 8, 2017. Kelowna, BC.
Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada.

August 23, 2017. Albuquerque, NM.
Sandia National Laboratories.

August 22, 2017. Colorado Springs, CO.
Deloitte.

August 17, 2017. San Francisco, CA.
Ford City of Tomorrow.

August 16, 2017. San Francisco, CA.
Intel.

July 20, 2017. Los Angeles, CA.
Central City Association.

July 13, 2017. Milford, CT.
CCIM Connecticut.

June 29, 2017. Bangkok, Thailand.
Ananda Urban Tech.

June 22, 2017. Montreal, QC.
Metropolis.

June 12, 2017. New York, NY.
MadCity NYC.

June 8-9, 2017. Incheon, Republic of Korea.
New Cities Summit.

June 5, 2017. New York, NY.
CoreNet.

June 1, 2017. Montreal, QC.
Triovest.

May 13, 2017. Brooklyn, NY.
A/D/O: Common Sense.

May 12, 2017. New York, NY.
DLD Future of Cities.

May 5, 2017. New York, NY.
Global Coworking Unconference (GCUC).

May 4, 2017. New York, NY.
WorkTech NYC 2017.

May 3, 2017. Brooklyn, NY.
Smart Cities NYC.

April 19, 2017. Toulouse, France.
SNCF.

April 5, 2017. New York, NY.
Bloomberg Aspen Initiative on Cities and Autonomous Vehicles.

April 3, 2017. Brooklyn, NY.
A/D/O. “Manufacturing Happiness.”

March 30, 2017. Brooklyn, NY.
URBAN-X: “Where the Robot Meets the Road.”

March 29, 2017. Oslo, Norway.
PostNord.

March 7, 2017. Fort Lauderdale, FL.
CORE Network.

March 6, 2017. Dallas, TX.
Downtown Dallas, Inc.

February 24, 2017. San Diego, CA.
CORFAC.

February 22, 2017. Chicago, IL.
IC Bus Next Stop Innovation Summit.

February 17, 2017. Hollywood, FL.
Accesso Partners.

February 13, 2017. Brooklyn, NY.
“The Internet of Very Bad, No Good Things.”

January 27, 2017. Brooklyn, NY.
A/D/O Launch Festival.

January 17, 2017. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
World Future Energy Summit.

January 10, 2017. Los Angeles, CA.
AECOM Urban SOS: Fair Share.

December 13, 2016. New Orleans, LA.
National Association of Home Builders.

November 22, 2016. Bordeaux, France.
SNCF.

November 15, 2016. Dallas, TX.
USAA.

November 4, 2016. Tokyo, Japan.
Cities on the Move.

November 1, 2016. New York, NY.
TransitCenter.

October 26, 2016. Cambridge, MA.
MIT.

October 20-21, 2016. Tokyo, Japan.
World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Summit.

October 18, 2016. Los Angeles, CA.
AECOM.

October 14, 2016. Miami Beach, FL.
Harvard Business School.

October 12, 2016. San Antonio, TX.
University of Texas-San Antonio.

September 27, 2016. Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Deloitte.

September 21-22, 2016. Ann Arbor, MI.
SmithGroup JJR.

September 20, 2016. London, United Kingdom.
Cushman & Wakefield.

September 19, 2016. Atlanta, GA.
CORE Network.

September 16, 2016. Holland, MI.
Haworth.

September 15, 2016. Irvine, CA.
Urban Land Institute.

July 13, 2016. Boston, MA.
NCREIF.

June 21-22, 2016. Montreal, QC.
New Cities Summit.

June 17, 2016. New York, NY.
Columbia GSAPP Durst Conference 2016.

June 15, 2016. New York, NY.
Urban Design Forum: New Ideas for Urban Freight.

June 10, 2016. Brussels, Belgium.
UITP.

June 7, 2016. Trenton, NJ.
PlanSmart NJ Summit.

May 26, 2016. New York, NY.
Urban Salon.

May 26, 2016. New York, NY.
WorkTech 2016.

May 18-20, 2016. Leipzig, Germany.
International Transport Forum 2016.

May 11, 2016. Providence, RI.
Providence Committee on Foreign Relations.

May 10, 2016. Indian Wells, CA.
California Travel Summit.

April 28, 2016. San Francisco, CA.
Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers.

April 26, 2016. Strasbourg, France.
The Automobile Forum.

April 12, 2016. New York, NY.
Fordham University.

April 4, 2016. San Antonio, TX.
Trapeze User Conference.

March 31, 2016. Washington D.C..
Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

March 24, 2016. New York, NY.
Messe Frankfurt.

March 23, 2016. New York, NY.
Columbia University GSAPP.

March 7, 2016. Newport Beach, CA.
American Automotive and Leasing Association.

March 4, 2016. Manila, the Philippines.
Asian Institute of Management.

March 2, 2016. Manila, the Philippines.
Urban Land Institute Philippines.

February 11, 2016. London, United Kingdom.
Transport for London.

February 10, 2016. London, United Kingdom.
New London Architecture.

February 9, 2016. London, United Kingdom.
Royal College of Art.

January 22, 2016. New York, NY.
Interbrand.

December 8-9, 2015. King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
Cityquest.

November 21-22, 2015. Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Expo 2020.

November 18, 2015. Pasadena, CA.
California Transit Association.

November 17, 2015. New York, NY.
NAIOP.

November 12-13, 2015. Cambridge, MA.
Disrupting Mobility.

November 10, 2015. Zurich, Switzerland.
The Circle.

November 9, 2015. Paris, France.
New World Forum.

October 27-28, 2015. Eden Prairie, MN.
Optum.

October 22, 2015. New York, NY.
Municipal Art Society Summit.

October 20-21, 2015. Singapore.
Abraaj Annual Forum.

October 14, 2015. London, United Kingdom.
Cities on the Move.

October 7, 2015. New York, NY.
Center for Architecture.

September 30, 2015. York Regional Municipality, ON.
York Regional Council.

September 28, 2015. Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
ILTM Americas.

September 22, 2015. San Antonio, TX.
Texas Travel Industry Association.

September 16, 2015. London, United Kingdom.
Federation Internationale de l’Automobile.

September 14, 2015. Nashville, TN.
Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association.

September 4, 2015. Los Angeles, CA.
Gensler.

June 18-19, 2015. Prague, Czech Republic.
reSITE.

June 9-11, 2015. Jakarta, Indonesia.
New Cities Summit.

June 2, 2015. New York, NY.
The Happiness Industry: Book Discussion with Will Davies, Greg Lindsay, and Melissa Aronczyk.

May 28, 2015. Bursa, Turkey.
Bursa Innovation and Design Summit.

May 20, 2015. Seattle, WA.
NAIOP.

May 19, 2015. Redmond, WA.
Microsoft Research.

May 15, 2015. Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Emaar.

May 6, 2015. Orlando, FL.
University of Central Florida Real Estate Conference.

May 5, 2015. Miami, FL.
eMerge Americas.

March 12, 2015. Cambridge, MA.
MIT & Iceland Naturally.

February 20, 2015. Washington, DC.
U. S. Department of State.

February 20, 2015. Washington, DC.
Global Solution Networks.

February 19, 2015. Fort Worth, TX.
Fort Worth Lecture Society.

February 12, 2015. Orlando, FL.
Association of Energy Services Professionals.

January 30, 2015. San Francisco, CA.
Gehl Studio.

January 27, 2015. Berkeley, CA.
University of California.

December 11, 2014. Minneapolis, MN.
Made in Minnesota: Celebrating university innovators.

December 9, 2014. New York, NY.
Influx and Exodus: Two Conversations on Urban Density.

December 3, 2014. New York, NY.
Re-Programming Mobility: What Do Smart Phones and Self-Driving Cars Mean for Future Cities?

December 2, 2014. Cambridge, MA.
Harvard Graduate School of Design.

November 24, 2014. New York, NY.
Frog Design.

November 19-21, 2014. Santa Fe, NM.
“Acting Locally, Understanding Globally.” Santa Fe Institute.

November 12, 2014. New York, NY.
Urban Salon: NYC Transportation in 2030.

November 11, 2014. London, United Kingdom.
Grimshaw Architects.

November 11, 2014. London, United Kingdom.
Archiboo.

November 10, 2014. London, United Kingdom.
Airport Operators Association.

October 23, 2014. New York, NY.
Jane Jacobs Forum.

October 22, 2014. Brooklyn, NY.
Makeshift Society.

October 10, 2014. Ottawa, ON.
Canada Council for the Arts.

October 9, 2014. Baltimore, MD.
Element Vehicle Management Services.

September 28-30, 2014. Los Angeles, CA.
CityLab.

September 22-23, 2014. Toronto, ON.
KPMG.

September 16, 2014. Detroit, MI.
Techonomy Detroit.

July 28, 2014. Los Angeles, CA.
Global Business Travel Association.

July 14, 2014. New York, NY.
Center for Architecture.

June 27-30, 2014. Aspen, CO.
Aspen Ideas Festival.

June 23-25, 2014. Denver, CO.
Clinton Global Initiative America.

June 20, 2014. Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.

June 19, 2014. Dallas, TX.
The Purpose City.

June 18, 2014. Mississauga, ON.
Element Fleet Management.

June 17, 2014. Dallas, TX.
New Cities Summit.

June 16, 2014. Dallas, TX.
Ericsson & UN Habitat.

June 10, 2014. Chicago, IL.
NeoCon.

June 4, 2014. Venice, Italy.
STREAM Lectures at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

June 2, 2014. Montreal, QC.
Canadian Automobile Association.

May 21, 2014. New York, NY.
Internet Week New York.

May 20, 2014. Seattle, WA.
NBBJ.

May 20, 2014. Seattle, WA.
CoreNet.

May 16, 2014. Angeles City, Philippines.
Clark Aviation Conference 2014.

May 13, 2014. Manila, Philippines.
The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.

May 8, 2014. Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Worktech14.

April 25, 2014. Chicago, IL.
American Society of Landscape Architects.

April 22, 2014. New York, NY.
The New York Times’ Cities for Tomorrow

April 11, 2014. New York, NY.
Mobilities in Cities: From Visible to Invisible.

April 9, 2014. Toronto, ON.
Smart Cities Canada.

April 1, 2014. New York, NY.
Extrastatecraft: A Salon with Keller Easterling.

March 22, 2014. New Orleans, LA.
Sun Life Financial.

March 10, 2014. New York, NY.
“Youth Think Tank: The Next Big Ideas from the Next Generation,” 92nd St. Y.

March 6, 2014. Mountain View, CA.
Cities on the Move.

February 27, 2014. New York, NY.
Smart Law for Smart Cities.

February 14, 2013. Los Angeles, CA.
UCLA A+UD.

January 30, 2014. New York, NY.
“When Computers Take Over The City,” World Policy Institute.

January 16, 2014. Garden City, NY.
Build a Better Burb: ParkingPLUS Design Challenge.

January 14, 2014. Calgary, AB.
City of Calgary.

December 10, 2013. Washington, DC.
Atlantic Counci

Earlier this month, I was delighted to attend “Aerial Futures: Leading Edge,” the second symposia about the future of airports and cities organized by the Berlin-based agency PLANE-SITE. In addition to joining a behind-the-scenes tour of LAX and imagining how airports of the future might function, I was honored to moderate a discussion about airports-as-public-spaces featuring the Los Angeles Times’ architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, architect Curtis Fentress (of Denver International fame), Project for Public Space’s Cynthia Nikitin, and aviation consultant Andrew Vasey. A brief video recap is above.

UPDATE: Video from my panel, “Defining the Commons,” is posted below:

If you’re free in New York on Dec. 6th, please join us at Good Goods in SoHo (121 Prince) for a special URBAN-X event on the future of real estate as categories like “offices” and “retail” become increasingly blurred together. Description and registration link below:

The urban mix has become mixed-up as retailers fear extinction at the hands of Amazon, hotels are being redesigned to feel like living rooms – or are living rooms courtesy of AirBnB – while knowledge workers are setting up shop in coworking spaces, restaurants and public places – anywhere but the office. What does it mean for cities when old paradigms such as the office tower, department store, factory, and park fall by the wayside or blur together? What are the opportunities and challenges when pop-ups proliferate because no one can meet the landlords’ asking price? When cafes prove more appealing than cubicles, and parks are more than the sum of their playgrounds?

Moderated by Greg Lindsay, writer, futurist and Urbanist-in-Residence at URBAN-X.

Featured panelists:

Eric Ho, CEO of Good Goods

Preston Pesek, CEO of Spacious

Shin-pei Tsay, Executive Director at Gehl Institute

Free registration here.

The inaugural edition of LA CoMotion is in the books, with nearly a thousand attendees of its invitation-only “Cities in Motion” conference joining several thousand Angelenos over the weekend to make it one of the largest events of its kind.  I was honored to serve as the master of ceremonies during the conference, introducing Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti as well as dozens of the smartest people working in urban mobility – including LADOT general manager Seleta Reynolds, Transport for London’s Ben Plowden, and Whim’s Sampo Hietanen, to name just a few.

Two of my favorite participants (both pictured below) were Piaggio Fast Forward’s adorable rolling robot, Gita, and Gensler’s SWITCH! – a prototype form of reconfigurable street furniture coming to the LA neighborhood near you. It was through their contributions (among many others) that this wasn’t just another conference or trade show. Watch this space for more to come on next year’s installment!

On November 7th, BMW MINI and URBAN-X hosted “Start Your Autonomous Engines,” a panel discussion and reception continuing the conversation around the “Passenger Economy” – the $7 trillion ecosystem of goods and services we will someday salvage from the time now spent driving.

Serving in my dual role “Urbanist-in-Residence” at URBAN-X and as one of the authors of the report, I moderated a short discussion between Intel Ventures’ Trina van Pelt, URBAN-X’s Micah Kotch, Urban.Us’ Shaun Abramson, and Via’s Alex Lavoie. Video from the event isn’t available yet, but please check out Intel’s new explainer video above.

Back in May, I moderated a panel at the inaugural Smart Cities NYC conference on “Integrated Urban Mobility” starring Motivate CEO Jay Walder, car2go North America GM Aaron Landry, Zipcar VP of fleet and supply chain Dan Curtin, and EV-Box CEO Kristof Vereenooghe. The recording is evidently audio-only, so think of it as a podcast you can leave open in a tab while catching up on email.

(Arup’s in-house Web magazine Doggerel interviewed me about my work imagining the world created by my teammates Rafi Segal, Susannah Drake, and co. for the Regional Plan Association.)

Asked to consider resilience strategies for the New York metro area by the Regional Plan Association (RPA), an influential research and advocacy group, a team of designers depicted a dramatically reshaped 2067 shoreline. They envisioned a coast capable of accommodating fluctuating water levels, encouraging amphibious commercial and recreational uses while protecting dense communities on higher ground.

The team asked Greg Lindsay, a journalist and urbanist, to develop a backstory for its design, thinking about what could make ambitious design strategies of this kind politically and economically viable in the coming decades. He dreamed up Hurricane Hermine, a giant storm that would cause unprecedented damage in 2022, convincing everyone from President Zuckerberg to residents of low-income waterfront communities of the need for change.

But just a few months later, Lindsay watched multiple disasters of similar magnitude to the one he had described play out in Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico. “I imagined a storm half again the size of [2012 Hurricane] Sandy, with losses at around $150 billion. [Hurricane] Harvey topped $190 billion and the scale of devastation in Puerto Rico dwarfed anything we imagined,” he said. “My teammates had charted the likely damage to infrastructure in the [New York] region – everything from sewage to fuel storage, to the fact that 75% of electricity generation sits in the 100-year floodplain. And now we’re watching millions of Americans suffer without power or water for weeks – and likely months.”

The hurricanes’ political and economic dimensions also seem uncomfortably familiar to the RPA-convened team. Lindsay depicted a 2023 financial crisis triggered by a collapse in coastal housing values, leading to subsequent implosions in the mortgage, bond, and insurance markets, starting with the National Flood Insurance Program. Today, this same program is billions of dollars in debt and faces an uncertain future due to the looming end of its congressional authorization period – challenges that are compounded by an expected $9 billion in new claims. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s woes are compounded by the commonwealth’s debt crisis and resulting quasi-bankruptcy.

Whereas Hurricane Hermine catalyzed large-scale urban resilience efforts in Lindsay’s fictional future, it’s too soon to know what lasting impacts Harvey and Maria will have on the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. While there may be more and more voices calling out for measures like those described in the New York proposal, the reality is that large-scale, forward-thinking change will always be a challenge beyond the difficulty of pushing the kind of creative, out-of-the-box thinking that Lindsay and his team are advocating; there’s also the very real limitations imposed by existing circumstances. Resources that might be allocated to future resilience measures are too often, by necessity, diverted to address current rescue and redevelopment efforts. The perpetual push and pull between preemptive design projects and reactive recovery in the wake of real-time disasters is a resilience catch-22.

Which has left Lindsay wondering: What will it really take to make ambitious coastal resilience strategies possible? How can policymakers and designers better understand the risks cities face? How can artists and futurists create stories and visions that convey the urgency of the situation? And how can we get all the right people to the table to tackle the logistic challenges inherent in such a design revolution?

“It’s not just long-term thinking that’s needed, but more weird thinking,” he said. “How do we actually understand the massive disruptive consequences that will be weirder and more sudden than are really even slightly acceptable to discuss?”

The need to think more broadly and deeply is rooted in the multifaceted nature of the disasters that have battered cities around the world in recent years. “Harvey’s a perfect example of what my futurist friends call ‘Wexelblat Disasters,’ which refer to natural disasters triggering bigger man-made ones,” he said. “Katrina caused New Orleans’ levees to break; an earthquake triggered a tsunami that led to a meltdown at Fukushima, and so on.” The increasing likelihood of these kinds of domino events means that it is more crucial than ever to reconcile the creative push for resilient design with practical applications in the real world.

As that world becomes increasingly complex and interdependent, effecting meaningful change will require a new set of tools, Lindsay believes. “It’s one thing to calculate new floodplains from sea level rise,” he said. “We need to do a better job applying foresight and systems thinking to understand deep risks and imagine perverse failures. Otherwise we’re left with the spectacles of presidents throwing paper towels and tech companies rushing in to provide broadband before power or water.”