That’s a pre-pandemic photo of Fabrizio Prati with NACTO (the National Association of City Transpo Officials) and Dr. Sunhoon Oh with AURI (Architectural Urban Research Institute) in Seoul Korea. Sunghoon managed to nab an onstreet table at one of the famous fish market eateries for an epic seafood dinner. And yes, it was fresh and very very good.
I was invited to Korea as a plenary speaker for a well-run think tank on enhancing pedestrian safety and environments. We all really looked forward to coming back to Seoul for the Walk 21 Conference which is being held next week.
Seoul itself has done some remarkable public space work, including the Cheongyyecheon Stream daylighting, pedestrian priority streets and the repurposing of an old highway overpass into a publicly accessible arboretum.
The pandemic put a big kibosh on attending the conference. But with great ingenuity, the Seoul Walk21 sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government is offering this three day conference online absolutely free.
Very happily the conference agenda also dovetails nicely in the Pacific Time Zone, starting Wednesday May 26 during the day, with sessions on Thursday May 27 and Friday May 28 commencing at 5:00 p.m.
The presentations for this conference are juried, and represent the latest in projects, design and thought around the globe. You can take a look at the varied speakers list here.
This is part of an international conference series that has literally been around the world in the last two decades, and was in Vancouver ten years ago.
I had the honour of being the Conference Chair when the conference was in Vancouver, and the Walk Metro Vancouver Society is a legacy of that conference.
Dr. Sunhoon Oh is one of the Seoul Walk21 Conference Committee members and this promises to be a great conference for learning and discussion.
You can register by clicking on this link. See you next week in Seoul!
