The Ljubljana Castle played host to the Ljubljana Forum 2011 international conference, City Developers Foresight Conference: European Metropolitan Growth Area 2027.

On 13 and 14 October 2011, Ljubljana Castle played host to the Ljubljana Forum 2011 international conference, City Developers Foresight Conference: European Metropolitan Growth Area 2027.

The "Ljubljana Forum 2011" conference, whose purpose was to stimulate and activate a development circle of South Eastern European urban regions, to showcase financial instruments in the Danube strategy and to connect practical regional investment projects, was opened by Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković and Minister for Education and Sport Dr Igor Lukšič. The conference was also an opportunity to encourage good practice and practical co-operation between all those who co-create projects for urban development.

As part of the conference, there was also a round table entitled ‘The urban development of Ljubljana/metropolitan region and the Danube strategy’, at which the participants were Dr István György, Deputy Mayor of Budapest, Milan Bandić, Mayor of Zagreb, Maria Vassilakou, assistant to the Mayor of Vienna, Dr Miomir Mugoša, Mayor of Podgorica, Zoran Janković, Mayor of Ljubljana and Miran Gajšek MA, head of the City of Ljubljana’s Department for Spatial Management, who initially introduced the core themes of the round table. Mayor Zoran Janković stressed that we live in a safe, clean and green city that is friendly for all – as much for its residents as for its visitors and emphasised the importance of sharing good practice from one city to another and becoming unique in this.

The conference was attended by numerous top experts from the fields of metropolitan urban development and urbanised areas including Jerome C. Glenn, the author of important business and political concepts, Anton Rop MSc., Vice President of the European Investment Bank and architect Boris Podrecca, whose work has developed urban concepts.

The Ljubljana Forum 2011 conference was organised as part of the Centre for Egovernance Development (CeGD) organisation under the patronage of Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković.