Conference Brief

Theme: Inclusion – A Principle for Lifelong Learning and Sustainable Cities

1. Place and date of the conference: The conference will be held in Medellín, Colombia, from 1 to 3 October 2019.

2. Aim: To identify, discuss and promote effective lifelong learning policies and practices that support the development of inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities.

3. Theme and sub-themes: Inclusion – A Principle for Lifelong Learning and Sustainable Cities The following sub-themes will be discussed in the plenary:
1) Policies for inclusion at the local level.
2) Governance structures to support inclusive policies.
3) Monitoring mechanisms for learning cities. To facilitate interaction among participants parallel sessions will take place as follows: a) youth at risk; b) refugees and migrants; c) digitally excluded populations; c) people living in slums and deprived neighbourhoods; d) disabled population; and e) other groups, including elderly and imprisoned populations.

4. Participants: The conference will bring together some 650 participants from all around the world, including mayors, city education executives, officials from ministries of education, and representatives of UN agencies, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and private-sector representatives

5. Working languages: English, French and Spanish (with simultaneous interpretation) Information Package 2019

6. Logistics: The city of Medellín will provide local transportation during the conference, as well as transit to and from the airport. The host city will provide lunch for participants for the three days of the conference. Participants will bear the costs of their travel to the conference and their accommodation.

7. Conference venue and hotel: The conference venue is Centro de Convenciones Plaza Mayor: https://plazamayor.com.co/ The organizers of the conference have a special agreement with some hotels and have already reserved a number of rooms at the hotels listed below:

Hotel	Website
Hotel Dann Carlton	https://www.danncarlton.com/
Hotel NH Collection	https://www.nh-collection.com/es/hotel/nh-collection-medellin-royal
Hotel Estelar Milla de Oro	https://www.estelarmilladeoro.com/
Hotel San Fernando Plaza	http://www.hotelsanfernandoplaza.com/
Medellin Marriott Hotel	https://www.espanol.marriott.com/default.mi
Hotel Holiday Inn	https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/es/medellin/mdeex/hoteldetail

N.B.: When booking hotels, please clearly indicate ‘ ICLC participant’, and the hotels will apply discounted rates, subject to verification.

8. Visas: Regarding visa requirements, all participants are invited to consult the Cancilleria de Colombia website. To find out whether you need a visa to enter Colombia and to learn more about the visa application procedure, please click here. Participants may also contact the Colombian consulate nearest to their current place of residence. The corresponding contact information is available here.

9. Registration: All participants will need to register before 16 August 2019 via the conference website: www.learningcities2019.org

10. Previous conferences: To find out more about the previous conferences, reports are available on UNESCO’s website:
* 1st International Conference on Learning Cities – 2013 – Beijing, China
* 2nd International Conference on Learning Cities – 2015 – Mexico City, Mexico
* 3rd International Conference on Learning Cities – 2017 – Cork, Ireland