The question of how to shape urban citizen participation was intensively discussed in all sessions. The city of the future should open up new spaces for participation and make use of innovative opportunities to engage citizens. Cordelia Polinna, who supports cities and local initiatives in cooperative planning processes with her company Urban Catalyst, presented examples of successful citizen participation. In Berlin, just over 200 people took part in the Bundesplatz initiative to redesign their neighbourhood.

In the subsequent discussion rounds with other urban development practitioners, factors for good participation processes were identified. Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that participation formats need to be inclusive. They should not only appeal to those who are interested in politics or who want to prevent a certain measure at all costs. Instead, diverse formats are needed that also reach other groups of citizens and, for example, meet different needs with a mixture of online and offline participation. When designing the formats, it is crucial to encourage constructive debate, for example by openly discussing specific topics instead of posing confrontational yes/no questions. Ultimately, the courage to try out new processes and to allow mistakes to be made was also promoted.  

Cities need to develop ideas on how they can promote the necessary decarbonisation of the economy while maintaining quality of life, argued Wolfgang Teubner in his presentation. The Regional Director Europe for ICLEI, a network of local governments for sustainable development, also emphasised the potential of public-private partnerships to mobilise financial resources for investments in sustainability. During the discussion, participants stressed that new mobility and energy concepts can only be implemented through the cooperation of many stakeholders, with cities playing an important facilitating role. In addition, the aim of strengthening regional added value was emphasised in order to contribute to greater resilience and shorter transport routes. The surrounding area of cities should always be taken into account.

However, cities and municipalities can only play their central role in building sustainable economic structures if they have the financial resources to do so. The corona crisis will affect all municipalities, but to varying degrees, which is why targeted aid is indispensable. This is why Gesine Schwan suggested that EU aid from the planned recovery fund should also go directly to municipalities.