Empowering the Civic - an exploration into how the physical and virtual world can be harnessed to engage people in reimagining and shaping their own cities, both in these strange and uncertain COVID-19 pandemic times, and into the future.

• In this complex and changing world, how do we really empower and activate people to consciously participate in the transformation of South Africa’s cities and towns?
• What are the big opportunities if people and places are empowered by technology to achieve our objective of inclusive, resilient, safer and liveable cities and towns?
• And how can an all-of-society approach to activating citizens be ensured if tech remains inaccessible to many South Africans?

The inaugural Urban Festival presented and hosted by the South African Cities Network (SACN) in partnership with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Civic Tech Innovation Network (CTIN), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Our Future Cities (OFC), will run from 1-31 October 2020, culminating on World Cities Day.

Urban Festival’s overarching focus on inclusivity, accessibility and digital innovation will be primarily based around a Main Programme of speakers from government, independent organisations and industry. This will be complemented by an Emergent Programme of wide-ranging additional presenters and organisations who have responded to our Open Call. SACN, partners and the OFC curatorial team therefore invite all civil society, organisations, designers, planners, storytellers, civil servants and city-dwellers to join the virtual conversation so that stories, tours, research and voices are preserved, and can be used to foster greater understanding and better solutions.

Events include workshops, lectures, discussion groups, film screenings, Instagram takeovers, podcasts and virtual exhibitions.

Visit our dedicated CTIN Urban Fest Media page for all the content from our Urban Fest Programme, including recorded sessions, articles and presentations from the session.