The world's largest cycling conference, Velo-city, started on 14 June 2022 at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre with a number of expert meetings and a varied accompanying program, continuing up to Friday, 17 June 2022.

The central theme of the world's largest meeting in the field of cycling, cycling infrastructure, cycling innovation, bicycle safety and social and cultural changes brought about by cycling globally is Cycling the Change. The conference is attended by over 1,000 participants from 58 countries in Europe, America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Africa. During the four days of the conference, seven plenary sessions and more than 60 parallel sessions will take place, with over 310 speakers and 126 exhibitors presenting their activities during the conference.

The conference was opened by Mayor Zoran Janković, who pointed out that for him Ljubljana is the most beautiful city in the world, it is a clean, green, safe and friendly city where different people live together with mutual respect. He highlighted two important international awards we have received recently – the organization European Best Destinations declared Ljubljana the best green capital of Europe last year, and this year we hold the title the best destination in Europe, awarded to us by travellers from around the world.

The Mayor invited conference participants to take time during the conference to discover our city by bike or on foot, as its central area of almost 17 hectares is reserved only for pedestrians and cyclists.

The President of the European Cyclists' Federation, Henk Swarttouw, congratulated the Mayor on all the achievements in the field of cycling in Ljubljana and pointed out that Ljubljana is a role model to other cities in this field, paving the way.

Jan Gehl also spoke in the introduction, he is one of the world's greatest urban planners and author of the book Cities for People, which has already been translated into 38 languages, and the Slovenian translation was published within the framework of the conference.

Jean-François Decaux, one of the CEOs of the JCDecaux Group, which also manages the BicikeLJ system, pointed out that Ljubljana is the most successful among all cities with a bicycle rental system. Here, each bike is rented eight times a day, rental is free-of-charge for 60 minutes, while in Paris only 30 minutes. Among other things, he quoted Nelson Mandela that vision without action is merely daydreaming, the same goes for action without a vision and said that Mayor Zoran Janković already had a vision and courage for its implementation in 2010 when they started discussing the setup of a bicycle rental system. That is why this system is most successful in Ljubljana, Decaux added.