Speakers

Confirmed speakers at the conference:

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  Anni Sinnemäki

  Deputy Mayor for the City of Helsinki, responsible for Urban environment.

  Anni Sinnemäki is the Deputy Mayor for the City of Helsinki, responsible for Urban environment since 2017. Her special focus areas in city politics are sustainable growth and low carbon transport. The most important project for her has been the ambitious Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2030 Action Plan. Sinnemäki was Member of the Finnish Parliament for 15 years (1999–2015), representing The Greens of Finland. She was Minister of Labour and chair of the Green party from 2009 to 2011. Sinnemäki is born in Helsinki, is married and has two children. She has published two collections of poems and she also wrote lyrics for albums by Ultra Bra group.

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  Kristof De Mesmaeker

  Head of Planning and Strategy Department at Brussels Mobility, one of the main representatives of the Brussels Sustainable Mobility Plan GOOD MOVE.

  Kristof is a Director of the Planning and Strategy Department at Brussels Mobility, the administration in charge of the mobility policy, public works and road safety for the Brussels Capital Region. His department is in charge of the strategic matters regarding mobility with the main focus on preparation, implementation, ensuring monitoring and evaluation of the regional mobility plan Good Move, a plan that received the 2020 Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan award from the European Commission. The Planning Department is also in charge of road safety, mobility management and sensibilization, mobility legislation and services, data analysis, strategic studies and partnerships with other stakeholders in mobility policy (in the first place the 19 municipalities). Finally, the department is also the supervisory authority of Brussels public transport operator (metro/bus/tram).

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  Valentina Orioli

  Architect and urban planner, Bologna’s commissioner in charge of New Mobility from 2021 to 2024.

  Valentina Orioli is associate professor of Urban Planning at the University of Bologna. In 2021-2024 she has been commissioner at the Municipality of Bologna in charge of New mobility, infrastructures, public transport, 30 km/h City, protection of cultural heritage and historical gardens. In the previous administrative mandate (2016-21) she was commissioner in charge of Urban Planning, Environment, Nomination of “I Portici di Bologna” to Unesco WHL and deputy mayor since 2020. Her teaching and research activities are oriented towards the production of “useful knowledge” to promote innovation both in public policies and in spatial transformations, with a particular focus on public spaces and urban regeneration processes. She is President of Urban@it, a National center for urban policy studies based at the University of Bologna and a member of the International Commission for the History of Towns (ICHT).

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  Ladislav Miko

  Environmental Advisor to the President of the Czech Republic, natural scientist and former Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic.

  Ladislav Miko has served as Deputy Minister and Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic and held leading positions at the Environmental Inspectorate. In European structures, he has helped nature, the environment and human health, for example as Deputy Director of the EC Food Safety Commission or as Director of the Natural Resources Protection Unit of the EC Directorate-General for the Environment. In addition to teaching at Charles University, he has also been a visiting professor at the University of Antwerp for many years. He currently serves as an advisor to the President of the Czech Republic in the field of environment.

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  Ondrej Horváth

  City Architect, Head of the Department of Urban Development and Concepts of the City of Trnava.

  Ondrej has extensive experience with architecture and urban planning from architectural offices in Slovakia, USA and Ireland. He is also co-founder of his own architectural studio an!arch in Trnava. Since 2020, he has been the city architect and head of the Department of Urban Development and Concepts of the City of Trnava. His work focuses mainly on urban development strategies and planning.

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  Martina Němečková

  Mayor of the Town of Planá since 2010.

  Martina Němečková’s work emphasizes user-friendly public space, functional public buildings, responsible spatial planning and public discussion of projects with citizens. She assumes that a well-informed public can be interested in participating in decision-making on urban projects. Wherever possible, it runs open architectural competitions in which not only price but also quality is the main criterion. She was behind the reconstruction of the historic square, the revitalisation of the city park with a water area, sports fields and a large recreation area right in the centre of the town. The conversion of the cinema into a cultural and social centre KINONEKINO was awarded the Building of the Year of the Pilsen Region in 2018 and was also shortlisted for the Czech Architecture Award.

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  Štěpán Pavlík

  Mayor of the City of Tábor.

  Štěpán Pavlík is a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague with experience in architecture studios in Tábor and Prague. In 2002 he founded his own architectonic studio in Tábor. In 2018 he was elected mayor of Tábor, and for the previous 4 years he was a representative of the local movement Tábor 2020, of which he is still a member. He has been very civically and culturally active since his youth, active in several bands and associations, and has several multi-year festivals to his credit. In Tábor, among other things, he tries to revive public space for citizens to meet, to calm the centre with traffic and to create pleasant and safe places to spend time. Under his leadership, for example, a temporary pedestrian zone was created on Žižkov Square.

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  Milan Kostohryz

  Councillor of Prague 5, in the period 2022-2024 Chairman of the Transport Committee of Prague 5 Municipal District.

  In Prague 5 Municipal District, he strives to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, with a focus on the most vulnerable – children and the elderly. He was involved in a project to calm traffic at the Grafická Primary School in Smíchov using tactical urbanism, which for the first time in Prague proposed the use of asphalt art. He was also involved in the establishment of the first school street in Prague 5 (the Pod Žvahovem Primary School in Hlubočepy) or the calming of the area around the German School in Jinonice.

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  Petr Hejl

  Mayor of the Municipality of Prague-Suchdol

  Petr Hejl was first elected mayor of the municipality in 2006. He has advocated for a sensible management of the motorway ring road around Prague and supports the development of cycling transport, for example by installing bike racks at public transport stops, shops and other institutions in the district. In 2008, he advocated for the zone 30 on all streets in the borough except the radial, and organised the restoration of dirt roads with tree planting, which are now used for pedestrians and cyclists. Last year, he was responsible for the implementation of the measures resulting from the Safe Routes to School project, which had been prepared a year earlier with the participation of students from M. Alše Primary School. Under his leadership, the town hall has supported community and social life in the district and has also won several architectural awards.

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  Lukáš Štefl

  Urban landscape architect and co-founder of the design studio Šteflovi.

  Lukáš Štefl is a practicing landscape architect, specializing in the preparation of strategic documents for the development of urban greenery and projects for the creation of public and private greenery across the Czech Republic, he also works as an urban landscape architect for the cities of Úvaly and Vysoké Mýto. He is a co-founder of the design studio Šteflovi, with whose team he has won several awards in professional competitions (Adapterra awards, Park of the Year, Garden of the Year). Academically, he is an associate professor at the Institute of Green Biotechnics at the Faculty of Horticulture at MENDELU in Lednice. He is a professional guarantor of the study programme “Implementation and Management of Greenery” and co-author of several books and dozens of articles on urban greenery.