The 56th WPC will take place within the period of 8 November 2020 and 4 February 2021, spread over four virtual events (organised in November and December 2020, and January and February 2021). The opening event will happen, as planned on 8-10 November 2020 – to start with marking the World Town Planning Day (8 November) and to conclude with the ISOCARP's 16^th Annual General Meeting of members (10 November). On 9 November, ISOCARP's 16^th annual World Planning Congress Review will be presented, together with the announcement of the winners of the 2020 ISOCARP Awards edition – Award for Excellence, Gerd Albers Award, and Student Award. The 10^th of November is also reserved for a first selection of virtual paper presentations.

The opening event of the 56^th WPC will be preceded by a number of online events to be organised and/or co-organised by ISOCARP.

Description of virtual activities:

1. 56^th WPC Promotional Activities. These include, among others, the 3^rd Cyber Agora event to be held on 17 September 2020 and the Urban Thinkers Campus 5.0 in October 2020, the 2^nd Urban Economy Forum on 5 October 2020 and the World Town Planning Day Webinar in collaboration with our partner SACPLAN on 4-6 November 2020. While the foregoing are standalone activities with different topics and are outside the congress organisation, these will serve as venues to actively promote and encourage urban planners, researchers, scholars, and practitioners to participate in and contribute to the Virtual Congress. 
   
   
2. Opening Events of the 56^th WPC. The three-day opening events of the Congress will consist of a two-hour plenary session to mark the World (Town) Planning Day, including a plenary session with keynote presentations  (8 November),  the launch of ISOCARP's 16^th World Planning Congress Review, announcement of the 2020 edition ISOCARP Award winners, and presentation of the Award for Excellence winning entries (9 November), and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ISOCARP and the first among six parallel events for paper and case study presentations as well as session proposals (10 November).
   
   
3. Virtual Presentations/Parallel Events. These consist of thematic presentations for the seven tracks, a special track on the "Future of Hot Cities", and a special track on COVID-19 divided into six parallel events with three sessions per event.
   
   
4. Closing Events of the 56^th WPC. To conclude the Congress, the one-day closing event will consist of a plenary session with a keynote presentation, the concluding remarks of the Congress Team/General Rapporteurs based on papers, case studies, and session proposals presented, presentation of the last 15 laureates of the Award for Excellence, the delivery of the 56^th World Planning Congress Declaration, and the handing over to the host of the 57^th WPC in Doha, Qatar.  

You can find the detailed programme here.

List of Activities and Meetings*

*This page is a work in progress. We will be updating the list of activities, programme, and schedule on a regular basis.