On 22, 23 and 24 February, the World Trade Center in Barcelona was transformed into a hub where regions, cities and provinces from four continents demonstrated their perspectives in order to define a policy agenda from a local point of view.

Through debates, reflection and ideas for now and the future, the European local authorities made themselves heard. Their local perspective was reflected in issues such as their role in questioning current social and economic models.

The Metropolis project "Global Fund for Cities Development (GFCD)" will organize a meeting parallel to the World Urban Forum (WUF5) on 25 March at 15h at the SEBRAE (Brazilian Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Support Service) headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

The city of Shanghai, a member of Metropolis, will host the 2010 World Expo from 1 May to 31 October 2010 under the theme "Better City, Better Life".

The topics offered by the modules of each city reflect their strength in the process of participative democracy, drawn from solid experience of public policies developed by each one of them. The themes of the modules involve different dimensions of democratic management.

Urban Innovation for Sustainability survey seeks information about the top priorities of municipal leaders around the world and their efforts to create more sustainable cities. The survey is part of a research project that explores the challenges cities face; how city leaders introduce innovations; where cities are today in their quest to be more sustainable; and how city leaders perceive the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in fostering greater sustainability.

The event was organized within the framework of the “Urban Mobility India 2009 conference” and was designed to strengthen relations between Metropolis and Asian cities overall, and to engage more Indian cities in the activities of Metropolis.

Being part of the Urban Mobility conference in New Delhi, which brought together more than 500 delegates, the participants in the Commission 2 meeting were able to benefit from the interaction with experts from many cities.

The first METROPOLIS Commission 3 meeting was held in the city of Porto Alegre on 24 and 25 November. The meeting was part of the Democratic Governance in Cities International Symposium, which as well as the Metropolis event, also addressed the bases of urban innovation and participative democracy. The Symposium attracted over 700 participants from such diverse cities and institutions as Bamako, Barcelona, Belo Horizonte, Rosario, Salvador, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Edinburgh, Estado do México, Katmandu, Porto Alegre, Roma, Melbourne, UNDESA, UNESCO y CISCO Systems.

The 2nd Metropolis Women International Network Forum “Dynamic Cities Need Women: Visions and Challenges for a Women-Frienly City” was held in Seoul on October 21-24 2009.

Due to the IT improvements recently undertaken by the metropolis Secretariat General, from now on our emails adresses will be replaced.

Please find above the new email adresses:
• Metropolis Secretariat General: metropolis@metropolis.org
• Josep Roig (Secretary General): jroig@metropolis.org
• Christine Piquemal (Deputy Secretary General): cpiquemal@metropolis.org
• Ariadna Pujol (Chief Operations Officer): apujol@metropolis.org
• Agnes Bickart (International Relations): abickart@metropolis.org