Urban Future Conference: Europe's largest gathering of city changers
"This is our city. We belong here and we are all part of it. It matters how we treat it." The sense of ownership by the people is an important factor for a city to function well. A shared vision therefore works best, when the people shaping it can communicate it clearly. To strengthen this skill among the people building tomorrow's cities, the Toni Piëch Foundation supports the Urban Future Conference, Europe's largest gathering of urban changemakers. At the 2026 edition in Ljubljana, TPF funded a dedicated track on strategic communications and brought its own work on responsible AI to the stage.
WHERE CITY CHANGERS MEET
First hosted in 2014 in Graz, Austria, the Urban Future has become one of Europe's leading built environment events and a magnet for the people who move cities forward. Its 2026 edition in Ljubljana drew around 2,000 participants from 290 cities across 48 countries, alongside some 180 speakers and dozens of field trips. The event is known for its practical spirit: less theory, more action, and honest conversations about what works and what does not. Many of the field's key players attend, which makes it a rare place to reach architects, planners, mayors, and activists gathered in the same room.
GOOD SOLUTIONS NEED GOOD STORIES
Good solutions for the built environment already exist. Too often though, they stay locked inside technical reports and never reach the public, policymakers, or the professionals who could put them to work. TPF has been addressing this gap for years, including through its support for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and its narrative and storytelling working group for the built environment. The Urban Future Conference offered a natural next step: a stage where those messages could reach thousands of people already committed to change.
PUTTING COMMUNICATIONS ON THE PROGRAM
TPF funded the "Change Communications" track at the 2026 edition, dedicated to strategic communications and storytelling for city changers. Within that track, the foundation co-designed a workshop with its network on using AI to strengthen impact communication. It also took the main stage in one of the conference's standout sessions, speaking on the wider question of how cities can harness AI for positive change. This drew on the understanding of responsible AI the foundation has built through its cooperation with the Center for Humane Technology.
HOW THIS FITS TPF'S STRATEGY
Communication and storytelling are among the foundation's main areas of intervention and TPF acts as an enabler in this space. By bringing its communication and AI work to Europe's largest urban stage, the foundation helps the built environment community to further its outreach and be heard.
The Toni Piëch Foundation supports the Urban Future Conference with a grant of EUR 30,000.
Photo credit: © Adam Slowikowski