We welcome delegations from nine countries to the first Partner Cities Conference on 10 and 11 April 2019 in our city: Düsseldorf, Ljubljana, Lodz, Manchester, Mulhouse, Tampere, Timbuktu, Usti nad Labem and Volgograd.

At the same time, the EUROCITIES Cultural Forum will be held in Chemnitz from 10 to 13 April – around 110 participants from 59 European cities have confirmed their attendance.

Mayor Sven Schulze had announced both conferences in the city council with the expectations: “Talking to each other, learning from each other, networking for future tasks and new projects – that is the goal of these conferences.

“Town twinning in challenging times”

The twin city conference in the city hall is dedicated to the main topics of urban development, culture and of course the application for the European Capital of Culture. The aim is to exchange views with the twin cities on how public space is experienced, how it can be staged, developed and designed, what promotes urbanity and what impulses cities can provide.

We expect best practice examples and valuable process experience. Davor Buinjac, project coordinator for Ljubljana’s application to become European Capital of Culture 2025, will report on the Slovenian capital’s strategy for art in public space.

A second focus will be on strategies for the city of the future: It will be possible to find out how Volgograd has changed or which path Manchester is following, how mobility issues are dealt with in Usti nad Labem. Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel will report, for example, on how the development of a cultural mile is being promoted in Düsseldorf under the title “Blaugrüner Ring”.