A lot can happen in forty years and while we can’t predict the future, we can anticipate some of the urban challenges and begin to address their potential impacts.

On the evening of Thursday, February 24th, 2011,
Arup invites you to NYC2050.

Join us for a two hour session of participative discussion and collaborative problem-solving.

We will kick off with a panel of guest speakers who will give us an overview of the urban challenges that they foresee for NYC in 2050. Their insights will lead to an evening of rapid design prototyping where everyone will be asked to imagine how we might redesign our city in response to some of the challenges ahead.

ORGANIZERS

Francesca Birks | Senior Foresight & Sustainability Consultant and Facilitator, Arup

Francesca Birks is a strategic planner, facilitator, analyst, marketer and trainer with fifteen years of international experience in media and design. For the last 5 years she has worked as a Senior Consultant and Facilitator with Arup's foresight and sustainability teams and in this capacity she has designed, project managed and facilitated workshops and design events in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She is particularly interested in human-centered foresight and in engaging public stakeholders in collaborative design processes.

Mayra Madriz | Urban Planner & Sustainability Consultant, Arup

Mayra Madriz is an urbanist and sustainability consultant based in San Francisco. She has over 10 years of experience in community development, socio-cultural analysis, and facilitation. Her academic research focused on community-based development with an emphasis in rural communities in Latin America, and the Latino Diaspora in the United States. In 2010 Mayra planned and ran a series of workshops on urban informatics, data visualization, and applications of mobile media to sustainable urban development. She also co-wrote and published a paper on acoustic data in the urban environment.

PANELISTS

Molly Wright Steenson | Princeton PHD candidate and Digital Strategist

Molly Wright Steenson is a digital strategist and architectural historian. She is a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University's School of Architecture, where her dissertation focuses on the history of computing and interactivity in architecture and urbanism in the 60s and 70s. Her contemporary research examines how technology and interactivity fit into our cities and everyday lives.

Sarah Rich | Writer, Editor and Co-Founder of Longshot Magazine and the Foodprint project

Sarah Rich is a writer, editor and new media entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of Longshot Magazine and the Foodprint Project, a former senior editor at Dwell, and co-author of the bestselling book Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century. Her work has been published in BusinessWeek, Wired, Gourmet, Fast Company, The Globe & Mail and The Huffington Post.

Sonali Sridhar | Senior Interaction Designer, R/GA

Sonali joined R/GA in March 2010 as Senior Interaction Designer using web, print and mobile electronics to explore the connectivity and psychology of design. Prior to R/GA she spent two years as an Interaction Designer for The Open Planning Project where her work focused primarily on web applications that fostered citizen engagement with government entities. In her spare time Sonali also works with wearable technology, designing objects that interact with daily life, form addictions and provide comfort.

Aaron Koch | Policy Advisor, New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability

Aaron was an author of the New York City Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan and is working with multiple City agencies to implement the NYC Green Infrastructure Plan. He is also currently developing a citywide strategy for the protection and restoration of wetlands and working to create the City’s strategy for building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Jackrit Watanatada | Managing Partner, KJK Climate Investments LLC, and KJK Ventures LLC

Over ten years of experience in the environmental and socially responsible investment sector have provided Mr. Watanatada with an unparalleled insight on the environmental finance markets, clean technologies, climate change regulation, and sustainable development issues. His career has included exposure to numerous sectors, from solar, biomass power, biofuels, waste management, to water, land use, and software. He has a comprehensive understanding of technical, legal, regulatory and business matters that are vital in the growing field of environmental finance.