Dear Members and Friends,

We kindly ask you to promote the 52nd ISOCARP Congress in Durban, South Africa, Sept. 2016, by forwarding the Congress Announcement to your colleagues.

We are pleased to share the following congress update with you:

Parallel Sessions:
A record number of almost 300 abstracts was submitted this year. General Rapporteur Guy Perry and his congress team made a selection for presentation in the following tracks:
• Transforming Human Settlements
• Planning Activism and Social Justice
• Envisaging Planning Theory and Practice for the next decades
• Urban Planning and Policy making in times of uncertainty, fragility and insecurity
• Intelligent Cities for People
• Planning for an interlinked and integrated rural-urban development.

Keynote speakers: 
Vanessa Watson, Professor in the City and Regional Planning programme and deputy director of the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
Nicholas You, Director of Global Programmes and Projects of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation.

Technical Workshops:
On the first congress day, 12 September, six technical workshops/tours will be organised to provide an experience of the “cities we have” in South Africa. You will see how South African cities work and the very orderly, dynamic and creative processes which animate them. The workshops are organised such that they cover at least two or more of the conference themes. They also provide an experience of the diverse South African environments in terms of rural, urban, industrial, informal, suburban and oceanic locations.

ISOCARP Awards:
As each year ISOCARP grants awards for exceptional projects and publications.
Awards for Excellence: conferred in recognition of exceptionally innovative urban and regional initiatives
Gerd Albers Awards: for best publication by an ISOCARP Member
Students’ Award: for best final design project, dissertation, studio project etc.
Please also inform your colleagues about the possibility to submit an entry. The Awards for Excellence and the Students’ Award are both for members and non-members.

Post-Congress Tours:
The Durban Local Organising Committee has prepared six wonderful post-congress tours to extend your stay.
Information on accommodation will soon be on the website.

Deadline for early bird registration: 30 June 2016