The United Nations-Habitat Programme teamed up with the city of Shenzhen on Monday on ways cities can innovate in their development.

"A Virtual Expert Group Meeting on Culture, Creativity and Urban Innovation: What Next?" was held by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) on Monday as a sideline event at the United Nations' 76th General Assembly in New York.

The research project: "Culture, Creativity and Urban Innovation", initiated by UN-Habitat and the city of Shenzhen, in South China's Guangdong province, looks at the development trajectory of different cities around the world to explore what inherent tendencies exist and what global and local mechanisms spur the evolution of dynamics that also foster innovation and creativity. 

The first three sections of the meeting reflected the preliminary findings by the project's expert team, including "Trajectory of Urban Cultural Development in Sample World Cities", and "Reflections on the Current Development: Culture Innovation, Connectivity and Interaction" worldwide. The meeting later held an open discussion on "What Next?". 

The meeting introduced Shenzhen, London, Milan, Hong Kong, and some cities in Southeast Asia and Africa as typical city case studies.

Other topics were "Reflections on the Experience of Global Urban Renewal", "Digital Platforms Rely on Co-Creation", "If Culture Is an Asset, How Can Cities Build a Creative Cultural Ecosystem?" and "How Is the Urban Culture Measured?"

Globally, the stage is set for taking culture and creativity to a new level as a key for urban development, but only under certain conditions, the organizer said. Meanwhile, crises like the pandemic provoke a dramatic reordering of priorities, as well as deep reflection and rethinking. That has changed the context in thinking about culture, creativity and urban development dramatically.

The deliberations will serve as input to the final report of UN-Habitat "The Story of Shenzhen-Culture, Creativity and Urban Innovation" project.