Providing mobility, health, education, job opportunities, and a safe and clean living environment in times of structural as well as climate change are common challenges for municipalities around the globe. A lot can be achieved at the local level. Through international city2city cooperation, these achievements can be shared, spreading best practices and impact beyond city limits and national borders.

Following a workshop, the public panel discussion addressed the benefits of city2city cooperation, including corporate and civil society initiatives, and brought together experts and practitioners to answer the following questions: When does city2city cooperation work well? What are the challenges to international city cooperation? What role does the corporate and civil society sector play?

Panel discussion with Miriam Roure, Christian Herzog, and Andrés Ramirez.

Miriam Roure is passionate about improving cities through technology and design. She is the Program Director at URBAN-X, an accelerator built by MINI and Urban Us, dedicated to investing in and supporting entrepreneurs developing urban solutions. Previously, Miriam worked at MIT Senseable City Lab, a research laboratory dedicated to exploring the future of cities from a data and sensor-based technology perspective. Trained as an architect and urban planner, she also worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam. Miriam holds degrees from Harvard University (MArchII) and Cornell University (BArch). She co-organized the first Harvard xDesign Conference in 2013. 
Urban X

Christian Herzog is the first point of contact at Berlin Partner for startups, investors, to be digitized SMEs and upscaling companies being interested in Berlin. Over the last 4 years, he has grown the capital into a “Start Alliance” aiming to strengthen the cooperation between Berlin and other international startup hubs, such as NYC, Tel Aviv, Shanghai and Paris. Christian holds the position of Head of Division Digital Business and drives the development of Berlin as an internationally known place to be for startups and as a breeding ground for innovations in the area of Smart Cities, ICT, Media, Creative Industries and Digital Transformation. 
Berlin Partner for Business and Technology
Start Alliance

Andrés Felipe Ramirez is a Colombian writer, curator and cultural producer, working in the realm of architecture, urban planning and media. He is the co-founder and Managing Director of PLANE–SITE, an agency devoted to the production and dissemination of original content about the built environment. At PLANE–SITE, Andrés leads a wide-range of projects – from exhibitions and publications, to design competitions and international conferences. Andrés co-founded and directs Aerial Futures, a nonprofit research platform that convenes timely conversations surrounding the architecture of flight. Andrés conceived the traveling exhibition Denise Scott Brown: Wayward Eye (2018); curated Garden City Mega City, Urban Ecosystems of WOHA, at the Museum of the City of Mexico (2017); curated of the first contribution of the Seychelles to the XV Venice Architecture Biennale Between Two Waters, Searching for Expression in the Seychelles (2016), and co-curated Medellín, Topography of Knowledge at the Aedes Architecture Forum (2015).
PLANE-SITE

In cooperation with Berlin Partner, TOA, the German Consulate General New York , the American Council on Germany, and TEP.

Photos: Karsten Staiger