Monocle Conference Quality of Life
We kicked off September with a visit to the beautiful city of Munich to attend the Monocle Quality of Life Conference. What an experience! The city was gorgeous in the late summer sun, with a blue sky sprinkled with white clouds and a friendly, typically Bavarian atmosphere.
Having exciting conversations in the English Garden over drinks by Schuman’s was the perfect start for the event. Guests from all over the world shared their knowledge and experiences on travel, business, design or simply exchanged pizza recipes…
The main conference day was an inspiring run of presentations and panel discussions all related to the conference theme -quality of life. Starting with Mirco Borsche’s insights about the Bavarian understanding of quality life, the conversation continued with François Trausch from Pimco and Aurelia Rauch from Bergos Bank, exchanging ideas about office regeneration and branding strategies that work for banks and cities.
Carlos Moreno presented the 15-minute city concept where all necessary activities and relevant places are within a 15-minute cycle ride. In theory this could be implemented even in big cities like New York or London, by developing local neighbourhoods that offer places to work, play, meet and enjoy. And following that in a podium discussion Sadie Morgan from dRMM, Ya-Ting Liu, chief public officer from NYC, and Eleni Myrivili, global chief heat officer at UN Habitat and Arsht-Rock, were discussing how they work with local authorities and government bodies in their own cities and countries to enable those changes in design guidelines and infrastructure. For major steps like that the planning system has to be in place to provide protection and also possibilities for architects, developers and citizens.
Other speakers included the mayors of Dallas and Bratislava, sharing insights and exchanging ideas about their city developments and proposed projects.
And on the topic of city development - two inspiring guests were Giacomo and Luca from Stratospherica, who are organising the Utopian House Festival in Torino, 14-15th October. If that’s of interest to you, have a look here.
To keep pace with the inspiration and beauty, the conference day ended with dinner at Galerie Thomas. Surrounded by modern art and elegant heritage architecture, the inspiring conversations continued alongside delicious food and wine…
Galerie Thomas, Munich
The final catch-up the next morning was further north at Seehaus. Again Munich at its best - a lush garden under the sun, with a view of Kleinhesseloher See. It was pure joy to spend time there, chatting away with all the wonderful people I met the day before. Discussing notebook layouts with Leuchtturm owner Axel Stuerken and learning about the art scene in Andorra from Galeira Alta owner Pancho Saula; personally, this was just the perfect finale of those three days. Alta’s next show ‘Iconic’ is an exhibition of 20 photographs by renowned fashion photographer Steven Meisel. If you happen to be nearby, it opens on 7th October.
As a former citizen of Munich I still feel very much at home in this city. And having enjoyed such a beautiful experience there just made that bond even stronger, and my appreciation for the city greater!
Kleinhesseloher See, Munich
