Play and activity experts across the board at Child in the City 2024

Published on 31-10-2024 at 09:00

How much physical activity are children getting? (Shutterstock)

Wherever they live in cities globally, physical activity and having access to play opportunities is vital for children and young people.

But in a world where such opportunities are restricted due to factors ranging from neighbourhood design, a lack of playgrounds and the proliferation of social media, too many youngsters are still living a ‘sedentary lifestyle’.

Our forthcoming Rotterdam seminar, Keep on Moving, will examine the various multidisciplinary ways on how to tackle these issues, with academics, urban planners, policymakers and health experts all coming together to discuss our three main themes: Inclusive Spaces and Initiatives for Play and Sports; Children’s Mobility; and Climate Change and Climate Justice.

Our expert speakers represent the entire spectrum of professionals working for the benefit of children and/or cities, and many will be taking part in our parallel sessions. These are a series of ‘break out’ sessions held across the two days, featuring diverse topics like the following:

How Children’s Ideas Led to the Creation of Temporary Play Streets
Climate risk and child care: considering a new mapping and planning framework for stabilizing critical early childhood infrastructure
Mapping and Enabling Neighbourhood Play in the North-East of England
Empowering Cities to Design Streets for Kids: Engaging and Evaluating with Children in Mind
How to make a consistent ‘teenagers web’

Our speakers include Elena Parnisari, an architect with a Masters in Urban Planning. Also a PhD candidate in architecture, Elena is researching how to formulate more inclusive urban policies, beginning by, in her words, ‘exploring co-responsibility in some of the social housing neighbourhoods in southern European cities, assuming children as indicators of urban inequality and as determinants of inclusive urban design’.

We also welcome Karen Lee, a chartered town planner and project manager. Specialising in urban integration and city management strategies, Karen is also a certified safety playground inspector leading ‘intergenerational play space’ as a new typology of play space in Hong Kong in order to promote inclusive, intergenerational play to improve community well-being.

Thomas Morgenthaler is also a PhD candidate, at University College Cork in Ireland and Queen Margaret University in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. His research focuses on developing instruments to investigate the environmental qualities of schools and public playgrounds. Thomas is an occupational scientist, occupational therapist and preschool teacher trained in Austria.

This just gives you a flavour of the expertise we have lined up for you at Keep on Moving, which is being held in Rotterdam from 3-4 December.

If you’d like to attend then please visit our dedicated event website, where you find the full programme, speakers and how to book your place.

We look forward to welcoming you to Rotterdam.