On behalf of METROPOLIS and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, we are pleased to invite you to Live the City, the METROPOLIS Annual Meeting to be held in Buenos Aires, from May 18 to 21, 2015. This event will provide the leading political and technical representatives of the world’s largest cities with the opportunity to meet and exchange knowledge and cutting-edge practices in metropolitan management.

Buenos Aires has been experiencing a comprehensive development process, becoming a green, inclusive and innovative city, where citizen participation is an essential factor in local management. In 2015, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires wishes to share its experience particularly with METROPOLIS members and stakeholders.

Live the City will be the first METROPOLIS Annual Meeting in which on-the-ground experience will take the leading role and be the starting point for the discussions about the large cities we want for the future. The major novelty at this event will be a working approach on a human scale that will frame the debate with on-the-ground practice. A large part of the Live the City program is therefore reserved for real-life experiences in different parts of Buenos Aires, the city of all Argentines.

Inclusion, Innovation and Sustainability will be the strategic thrusts of the event and are in line not only with the pillars of urban management in the city of Buenos Aires, but also with the issues of METROPOLIS’s new, cross-cutting political agenda, which shows the ways that the world’s major metropolises can and must recognize each other as mutual reference points.

The emphasis which the Argentinean capital puts on real-life experiences will enable participants to get out onto the streets and see first-hand both the concerns that arise in day-to-day living and specific actions that enable a better life. In this way, the participants will obtain an integrated vision of urban management and will be able to relate what they have experienced with their own local contexts.

The event program will also include the METROPOLIS statutory meetings. Furthermore, at the Voice of the Mayors Plenary Session, we will debate the METROPOLIS contribution for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), which in 2016 will define the urban agenda for the coming decades. Finally, Buenos Aires will also be the site to conclude the METROPOLIS’s 30th Anniversary celebrations, with a Gala Dinner offered by the METROPOLIS President.

We hope to see you in Buenos Aires between next May 18 and 21 to share these new ways to Live the City.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Yours sincerely,