DLDcities Rio de Janeiro: Solutions for Infrastructure and Society

On 8 August 2013, DLDcities touches base in Rio de Janeiro, a city of the future and a city of extremes. Two mega-events, the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, are on the horizon and posing substantial challenges to the city as well as to its inhabitants and institutions. Social discontent, pressing infrastructural issues as well as climatic and ecological changes require long-term planning. The DLDcities roundtable in Rio will be dealing with these challenges as well as the opportunities offered by digital and technological progress.

The Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, will be the keynote speaker at DLDcities Rio. Further speakers include Rodrigo Baggio, social entrepreneur and founder of the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI), who will talk about social innovation through the provision of computer hardware and training to people in poor, rural areas of Brazil. Fernanda de Arruda Camargo and her company Livewright are experts for the transfer of value creation involved in the upcoming mega-events to other areas by launching public-private partnerships and economic initiatives. As CEO of the number one infrastructure provider Siemens, Paolo Stark will present smart grid and efficient infrastructure solutions. The debate will aim at defining the future of urban environments and at establishing what could be learned from the current protests.

DLD founder and Managing Director Stephanie Czerny and DLDcities Curator Lukas Kubina: "In our new, urbanized world, cities are the places where all social challenges are culminating. The effects of the economic crisis, gross ecological neglect, the political climate and large-scale migration are topics that will soon concern us all. We believe that cities are more than a mere reflection of the current state of the world; they are seismographs of future developments, hotbeds of innovation and avant-garde thinking, and the arena in which to tackle the challenges involved in the rapid urbanization. The DLDcities conference in the megacity of Rio de Janeiro will allow us to listen and get involved in the debate. We want to learn and find out how to master these challenges."

In only a few decades, up to 80% of the global population will live in big cities. This is why issues such as sustainability, pollution, infrastructure and energy consumption are increasingly taking center stage. With the rise of new technologies in cities, new buildings and objects, these are beginning to communicate with us. Companies, governments and citizens are more and more closely connected and will have to step up their cooperation. An interdisciplinary approach is key in this endeavor. Architecture is turning toward biosynthetic materials, energy companies are experimenting with 'window farming', design is focusing more strongly on technology and vice versa.

For more information on DLDcities 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, please see http://dld-conference.com/DLDcities13Rio

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Background information:

DLD is a hub for an innovative exchange on digitalization and the lasting effects it has on our lives.  Since its early days in 2005, DLD has grown to become one of Europe's leading digital conferences. As a first, in 2012, the spin-off DLDcities dealt specifically with the challenges and opportunities of cities on a government level, urban architecture and design, active citizenship and the power of technology. The first DLDcities conference took place on 21 September 2012 at the Crystal in East London. Staged in cooperation with DLD's long-standing partner, Siemens, the one-day event marked the kick-off for an ongoing debate on urban planning.

DLD is a global conference network on innovation by Hubert Burda Media. DLD Media hosts Europe's leading digital conference DLD, the female themed conference DLDwomen as well as international networking events in Palo Alto, New York, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing. Additionally to the conferences, DLD Media produces publications, online and video formats, studies and consults partner companies, startups, investors and institutions. Stephanie Czerny, who co-founded the DLD conference in 2005, is managing director.

For further information please contact:
Katharina Kirsch
Senior PR Manager Digital

Corporate Communications
Hubert Burda Media


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