Over 500 Urban Resilience Professionals to Explore New Approaches to 21st Century’s Most Significant Urban Challenges
NYC on Display as ‘Living Laboratory’ for Resilient, Multi-Benefit Solutions
NEW YORK—As cities step onto the front lines of the world’s most complex challenges, 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation(100RC) will join New York City in hosting the largest ever gathering of urban resilience practitioners at the first 100RC Urban Resilience Summit. The four-day event will begin on Monday, July 24th and convene members from the global network of 100RC leaders – including approximately 80 Chief Resilience Officers (CROs) – to spur new solutions and collaborate on best practices to tackle 21st century resilience challenges.
With gridlock and partisanship becoming increasingly symptomatic of national and international governments, cities – already home to over 50 percent of the world population – have filled leadership voids with smart, practical solutions. The summit will bring together resilience experts who, through the 100RC network, have arrived at resilient solutions designed to tackle the migration crisis, climate change, severe weather events, radicalization, and other major challenges.
“By bringing the worlds brightest urban resilience minds together, we hope to give cities the tools they need to succeed in the face of the massive threats of the 21st century,” said Michael Berkowitz, President, 100RC. “This work is critical now, as cities are stepping forward to fill the leadership void left by national governments, and it will only grow in importance as the world gets drastically more urbanized over the coming decades.”
“Cities are at the forefront of local solutions to the global problems of climate change and inequality. I am honored to welcome the 100RC Urban Resilience Summit to New York City, where we are already hard at work building a more fair, just and resilient city as outlined in our OneNYC plan,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This is an opportunity for us to share our knowledge and learn from others, in order to meet the challenges of the future head on.”
Mayor de Blasio will address resilience leaders from more than 40 countries on six continents, outlining the importance of municipal leadership in meeting and confronting challenges at a local level, rather than waiting for national action.
“When The Rockefeller Foundation launched 100 Resilient Cities in 2013, we did so with the hope of sparking a global movement to build urban resilience,” said Dr. Raj Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “Four years in, we see Chief Resilience Officers helping to drive planning and improvements in scores of cities, working with their fellow leaders and their communities to realize the vision of more resilient people and places, where improving the lives of the poor and vulnerable is a paramount priority. This summit will further strengthen this community of urban innovators, bringing together hundreds of resilience professionals from around the world for a week of intensive partnership and learning right here in New York City, which has championed urban resilience through its partnership with 100 Resilient Cities and beyond.”
The four-day conference in New York City will use the city as its campus, providing real-world context for the Summit’s ideas. Attendees will tour some of the resilience-building innovations in the “Living Laboratory,”, including the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, Cornell Tech and the Edgemere neighborhood.
“New York City is the ideal setting for the first ever Urban Resilience Summit, having both survived and thrived in the face of 21st century challenges, and we’re looking forward to sharing with members of the 100RC network and others what resilience-building looks like here in New York City,” said Daniel Zarrilli, Chief Resilience Officer, New York City. “City leaders here recognize the threats we face, ranging from outdated infrastructure to extreme weather exacerbated by climate change. We built a citywide strategy – OneNYC – to put us on a path to stability and we’re proud to be convening the brightest resilience minds to discuss how we can replicate these solutions and learn from each other to promote city resilience for decades to come.”
Since announcing the 100 Resilient Cities network’s first cohort of 32 cities in December 2013, more than 75 cities have appointed CROs to work in municipal government and collaborate directly with city leaders to develop their own, unique resilience strategy.