SXSW's Julie Yost on Why Conversations Around Cities Are So Important

We’re avid fans of a good conference here at The Urban Developer, having launched our own cities' conference last year, Urbanity.

On the other side of the globe in Austin Texas, the 2018 SXSW festival and conference has just wrapped up.

If you were lucky enough to attend you may have caught this years Cities Summit, the SXSW music festival or even witnessed Bill Murray reciting a poem about dogs.

Spanning across two days, this years summit focused primarily on three fundamental ideas, "cities as narrative", "cities of innovation" and "cities for all".

With over 35 keynote sessions we thought it best to get an overview of this years Cities Summit from someone who knows it well, so we reached out to SXSW's programmer and producer Julie Yost.

Yost has worked with the SXSW team for the last four years developing the ever-growing Cities Summit.

The Urban Developer spoke with Yost about the major takeaways from SXSW 2018 and why we should be talking about cities now more than ever.

TUD: Give us a bit of an overview about how you put the program together, what were the big issues you felt the summit should address?

JY: We started planning about a year ago for the Cities Summit. Before we even opened for session submissions, I identified three themes I felt would contextualise the program within SXSW: Civic Innovation, Cities for All, and Cities as Narrative.

Broadly, these focuses would cover technology and design solutions for local governments, equity and inclusion, and the concept of storytelling as it relates to cities, or how we tell stories about cities and how cities craft their own narratives.

Once the themes were settled, I began identifying topics I wanted to touch upon, and that process continued until the program was finalised just a few weeks ago.

When the US pulled out of the Paris agreement, I knew climate change was a must, and the session we ended up with, featuring Austin’s Mayor Adler and Google CSO Kate Brandt, fit nicely into civic innovation.

Ageing was another one I really wanted to touch upon, because even though we know the US has an ageing population, it’s not always discussed through the lens of equity and inclusion.

The "Cities as Narrative" theme was one I knew I’d need to heavily curate, and I’m so pleased with how it presented itself at the Summit. We had sessions on comic books, choreography, and a talk with the first Chief Storyteller from the City of Detroit.

TUD: Why is a Cities Summit at SXSW so important? What do you gain from using the SXSW platform over other more traditional urban development, architecture and property platforms?

JY: That’s a great question and something I’ve thought quite a bit about. I think all self-defined urbanists -- architects, planners, and policymakers -- fully grasp how place influences nearly every aspect of our lives, but have a difficult time communicating that outside of their professions.

SXSW presents a distinct opportunity to bring the power of place to an interdisciplinary audience. Our built in community of film, music and interactive attendees also bridge the tech and arts & culture communities, which are two distinct subsets of urbanism that rarely seem to converge at events.

Programming for both of these groups was an exciting challenge, and I think we managed to blend these two schools of thought related to cities pretty well.

TUD: Since when did cities become a thing? Do you think cities are now being spoken about in a much broader conversation and what do you think has driven this?

JY: I read an article recently that said cities had become a thing because the architecture profession is bad at talking about itself, so people say “cities” when they really mean the built environment.

I don’t fully disagree with that idea, because cities and place are often conflated, but I also think the term “cities” implies a wealth of interests: energy, mobility, social equity, placemaking, and design.

As I mentioned above, self-defined urbanists are also often self-segregating, into the transportation community, for instance, or the placemaking one.

Cities are exciting because the world is rapidly urbanising, so the term is inherently inclusive of the growing population of all types of people who inhabit cities, and the challenges and opportunities that go along with that.

TUD: Now that cities have people's attention, where do you think that conversation will go?

JY: My hope for both the Summit’s program and the broader conversation about cities is that more people will view cities as places to test ideas and create the change they’d like to see.

On one hand, I am talking about place in this instance, because public spaces are incredibly influential and can be modified by all types of people to become more just, more beautiful, more useful, or just more fun.

In the US particularly, we’ve seen a wave of recent civic engagement, and I’m hoping the focus on cities drives more people to run for office, join a board, or just advocate for the causes they’re passionate about at the local level.

TUD: What were a few of the really interesting sessions that generated some unique discussions and or debate?

JY: Carol Coletta, Senior Fellow at the Kresge Foundation, moderated a stellar panel with artist Theaster Gates, Gia Biagi of Studio Gang, and Katharine Otts-Lovell who is the Commissioner for Parks & Rec in Philadelphia.

Their panel “Reimagining the Civic Commons,” rethinking who has access to the valuable civic assets of a city, and how public places can heal social divides set a great tone for the event.

Citylab’s Kriston Capps moderated a panel about superheroes in the city with some comic book writers and fans. It was a bit of a wildcard session, but due to the expertise on the panel, became a really insightful discussion about how the built environment influences the stories we tell.

Amber Payne of Teen Vogue moderated a fascinating panel about gentrification, where NBC’s Trymaine Lee brought up how the term “displacement” is too neutral for the trauma that comes with people losing their neighbourhoods and intellectual communities.

Finally, speculative architect (and Australian!) Liam Young closed down the Summit with City Everywhere: A Storytelling Tour through the Landscapes of Technology.

A creative researcher and filmmaker, Liam travelled to far-reaching corners of the world to better understand the hidden implications and particular human costs of a fully automated smart city and gave a multimedia performance to shut down the summit. It was one of my favourite moments of the two days.

TUD: What in your opinion are a few of the overarching challenges or major trends that are going to affect cities in the coming decade?

JY: Growing inequality is an issue that is already changing the population and shape of our cities. We have to prioritise inclusive solutions to rising costs and learn to coexist across socioeconomic differences.

I also believe technology has great possibilities for making our cities more sustainable and equitable, but in itself tech is not a solution and needs to be considered part of systemic change. I think we are going to see cities continue to grow their focus on innovation and design teams and bridge public private partnerships to solve social challenges.

At least I hope that’s what happens.