This online event will be held in English.
Co-organized by City Diplomacy Lab, the Columbia Global Paris Center, the U.S. Embassy in Paris, and the United Nations Environment Program.
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For a long time, the Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games have been a source of competition among candidate cities. In recent years, however, a new question has become the priority: how can hosting the Olympics contribute to a city's sustainable development? Indeed, the Olympic and Paralympic Games have become catalysts of sustainable urban transformations that, once implemented in host cities, can be replicated elsewhere.
The conference will focus on this emerging trend from the angle of Paris, Los Angeles, and Brisbane, the host cities of the 2024, 2028, and 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, respectively.
Opening Remarks
- Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Founding Director, City Diplomacy Lab
- Mr. David McCawley, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy in Paris
- Ms. Gulnara Roll, Head of Cities Unit, UN Environment Program
- Mr. Pierre Rabadan, Deputy Mayor of Paris for Sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Seine
- Ms. Katy Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles City Councilmember, Chair of the City Council’s Energy & Environment committee, and Vice-Chair of the Ad Hoc Olympics committee
- Ms. Krista Adams, Deputy Mayor, Civic Cabinet Chair for the Economic Development, Nighttime Economy and the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Committee and Councillor for Holland Park, Brisbane City Council
Round table
- Dr. Tania Braga, Head of Olympic Games Impact and Legacy, International Olympic Committee
- Ms. Erin Bromaghim, Deputy Mayor of International Affairs, City of Los Angeles
- Ms. Krista Adams, Deputy Mayor, Civic Cabinet Chair for the Economic Development, Nighttime Economy and the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Committee and Councillor for Holland Park, Brisbane City Council
- Mr. Yann Krysinski, Director of Operations at SOLIDEO
Moderator: Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi, Founding Director, City Diplomacy Lab
Organizers
Launched in September 2021, the City Diplomacy Lab aims to foster the understanding and practice of city diplomacy. A fast-emerging field, the latter refers to those international collaborations between cities to promote sustainable development while responding to shared challenges such as climate change, rising inequality, and migration.
Through applied research and capacity-building programs conducted in collaboration with Columbia University's Centers worldwide, the Lab has emerged as a global platform for the debate on city diplomacy's impact, challenges, and evolution. Moreover, the Lab's events allowed cities to participate in multiple global fora, including the 2022 World Urban Forum, the 2023 UNECE Forum of Mayors, and COP 27.
The Lab's contributions to multilateral and multilevel cooperation on transnational challenges have notably led to its designation as a Center of Excellence on City Diplomacy and Sustainable Urban Development by the United Nations Regional Commission for Europe (UNECE).
The Lab’s action benefits from the support of an Advisory Board, which features the participation of city diplomacy champions, including the Cities of Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, and Rio de Janeiro. Finally, the globally renowned urban affairs and international relations scholars of the Lab's Scientific Committee oversee all its research activities.
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The Columbia Global Paris Center addresses pressing global issues that are at the forefront of international education and research: agency and gender; climate and the environment; critical dialogues for just societies; encounters in the arts; and health and medical science.
Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Those initiatives include the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. Our mission is to address complex global challenges through groundbreaking scholarly pursuits, leadership development, cutting-edge research, and projects that aim for social impact. Our long-term goal is to reimagine the university’s role in society as not only a nexus for learning and intellectual exploration but also as a catalyst for creativity and impact locally, regionally, and globally.
