Cynthia Nikitin will speak at the upcoming MICE Expo in Incheon City South Korea on November 10th.

Korea Convention Bureau is a part of the Korea Tourism Organization, and provides a wide range of advice and assistance to those considering holding meetings in Korea. Ms. Nikitin will offer valuable insights in relation to Korea’s overseas promotion of its nation/cities/regional provinces as destinations.
The MICE Knowledge Forum is one of the special programs in the 10th Korea MICE Expo . The forum is hosted by Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and Korea Convention Science Society (KCS), and organized by IOCONVEX.
The purpose of the MICE Knowledge Forum is to initiate the MICE leaders (invited speakers) to share their various, professional and insightful opinions under one agenda about the MICE industry. This year’s agenda is ”Driving Forces for Korea’s Competitiveness as MICE Destination.”

The forum will be an open session, and the observers at the forum would be key people and young professionals in the Korea MICE industry. We are expecting an approximate number of 150 observers to attend this year’s forum.
MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions.
For more information, click here.

Gary Toth following up on his reflections on the USDOT webinar, Forum on Livability.
As a career transportation geek, I found it particularly encouraging to hear talk about a new transportation planning process attached to performance measures which go beyond the overused and myopic focus solely on auto oriented benchmarks such as pavement quality, bridge inspections and level of service (congestion). To be clear, I am not saying it is bad to keep our bridges standing and safe and the roads that I use to travel to Vermont, Pennsylvania and Delaware from getting overclogged with traffic. Keep it up DOTs! However, we the public allow government to tax us because we want our lives improved and our agencies responsive. Having worked in the state DOT world for 34 years, I can tell you that most DOT insiders have lost track of that concept - and the public has noticed. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a major part of the reason why states and federal politicians will no longer vote for increased gas taxes.   Do we transportation professionals need to be hit in the head with a rock to figure this out?

USDOT gets this, as evidenced by last months webinar on Livability. So what would a more robust, 21st Century planning process look like?

For starters, it would be one which addresses environmental, energy, housing, economic, land use and development, and equity policies. There are ample models out there within some of the more progressive Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), which are the regional planning organizations mandated by federal transportation legislation. For instance, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Council (DVRPC) has generated a number of Scenario Performance Measures including amount of land development, average annual household transportation expenses, vehicle miles traveled and relationship within planning areas of jobs to housing. California’s State Bill 375 mandates Blueprint planning, which - like the DVRPC model — measures success of transportation planning against benchmarks that matter to the average citizen in every day life: how much does transportation cost eat into their budgets; is the regional planning helping folks to find affordable housing; does the transportation network help economize personal time or it is forcing them to drive around everywhere to bring kids to school, get a quart of milk, to take mom to the doctor?

These kinds of people based performance measures must count for as much (if not more) than how smooth the pavement is. Examples like DVRPC and California’s SB 375 must become the standard, not the remarkable case study.

This robust and accountable planning process must then be used to drive transportation investments. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Yet, the American public would be disillusioned to find out how much mismatch there is between long range plans and how state DOTs actually invest the transportation dollars that we provide to them. Federal law requires only that the investment plans (Transportation Improvement Plans or TIP for short) be “consistent” with metro or long range transportation plans. “Consistent” has become a term of art and is subject to strong-arming by the DOTs, which come equipped with bridge, pavement and congestion performance measures: DOTs can threaten to move money from one MPO to another if they don’t toe the DOT line. Politics also plays a big role in distorting the planning process. A majority of MPO voting members are elected officials who feel compelled to press for investment in the sub region that they represent. Fix it first projects often give way to huge investments in freeways or roadway widening. These have much more political visibility, satisfy economic interests in opening up new land for sprawling development or to satisfy the complaints of voters sitting in traffic. The end product barely resembles the plan.

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Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office

The memorable experiences of one’s education often take place in the most comfortable and socially engaging places on a campus.  Campus planning has sometimes been neglectful of allowing for and creating such places, instead focusing more narrowly on single-use facilities and isolated design statements.

Harvard University has been quietly challenging this pattern and opening up to our Placemaking approach.  PPS worked with the university’s North Campus - which previously felt disconnected from the school’s well-known Harvard Yard - to develop recommendations in 2005 regarding seasonal uses and short-term experiments to activate the campus and make it feel more connected to the Yard.  In 2006, Harvard announced plans for a new Allston Campus, which will be built over the next 50 years.  With PPS’s help, this plan is being framed, in part, around key campus destinations and connections to the surrounding community.

This semester, Harvard brought Placemaking to its main campus, establishing a Steering Committee on Common Space to make campus life even better.  The Committee, dedicated to making sure the campus’ physical environment better supports the intellectual and social vitality of the University, has already installed colorful movable chairs and tables in Harvard Yard and the Radcliffe Quad.  A variety of foods will be offered nearby, and student performances will further activate the spaces.  For such a revered space, which never had any seating simply because there never was any historically, this is a big move and we applaud Harvard’s willingness to have a little fun with their most sacred space.

We are excited to see Placemaking being embraced on many college campuses.  A former PPS intern has been leading campus Placemaking efforts on the campus of Colorado College.  PPS has also been applying Placemaking to campuses in the development of new student unions, gathering areas and master plans on for institutions including, University of Madison Wisconsin, Stanford University, Duke University, George Mason University and University of Michigan Flint. Please share with us any examples that you may be involved with.

With Harvard taking these bold but simple steps, we are hopeful that campuses around the world will be inspired to find innovative ways to make their campuses more inviting and more memorable, and better contribute to the public realms of the communities they serve.

What are the dynamics behind the incredible resurgence of public markets and farmers markets in North America? Through PPS’s innovative research, grant-making and technical assistance programs, we have gained an unparalleled perspective on how markets work.

To be truly successful, markets need four crucial elements: the right mix of vendors and products; a strong sense of place; solid economic and operational underpinnings; and a firm commitment to the surrounding community.

Through How to Create Successful Markets, a 2-day interactive training course, learn about each of these elements and more through work sessions and on-site tours of New York City’s thriving open-air farmers markets and indoor public markets.

Click here for more information.

“Placemaking” is an overarching idea and a hands-on tool for improving a neighborhood, city, or region. It has the potential to be one of the most transformative ideas of this century.
-Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago, IL

A two-day PPS training course, How to Turn a Place Around introduces new ways of thinking about public spaces and how Placemaking can be used to bring communities together and revitalize underperforming spaces.

Click here for more information.

Phil Myrick will deliver a plenary address at the Texas Chapter of the APA conference in Galveston, TX. The overall theme of this year’s conference will be planning for disaster resiliency. Phil will speak about how placemaking should be a central consideration as Texas communities consider strategies for recovering from desvastation of natural, as well as economic, disasters.

The New York City Department of Transportation will host the 10th International Walk21 Pedestrian Planning Conference. PPS is serving on the conference advisory committee.