I was honored to co-organize the Placemaking Weeks in Amsterdam (2017) and Valencia (2019), working with amazing teams to gather hundreds of placemakers from all over the world to exchange know-how and experience on the emerging profession. It's amazing to be able to connect so many talented people, motivated to advance more human scale cities through placemaking. As it goes with people pioneering in their field, it's refreshing to step out of local projects sometimes, to work with likeminded peers for a few days. There's so much to learn from others best practices, especially if you get to understand how they overcome challenges. Placemaking is tough sometimes, as you're changing the system one movable chair at the time, and it's very encouraging to know you're not alone. It's a movement, and more and more people are jumping on the band wagon. To be part of that, and being able to play my part in helping to advance it, feels super rewarding. With the co-creative process of organizing a Placemaking Week we always aim to have a lasting impact on the hosting city or cities, as well as build longterm collaborations between our network partners. These are among the fruits of the hard work I enjoy most.
