MIPIM Horizons announces the participation of Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas - international expert on urban development and Director of the geography department at the University of Cologne, Germany - in a special keynote session: "Megacities and Global Change: key challenges, action models and strategic solutions" - 2 December 12:00 pm to 12:45 pm.


MIPIM Horizons, the first professional property market dedicated to high-growth regions, to be held from 2 to 4 December 2008, in the “Palais des Festivals” in Cannes – France, will offer far more than just a meeting place for developers and investors. A gold-standard conference programme, with over 150 conferences, workshops, geographical, financial and legal focuses, “speed matching sessions” and a closed door “Leadership Summit” will enable international investors to familiarise themselves with the specific features of these new markets and learn how to prospect these territories.



“By 2015, more than 600 million people will live in approx. 60 megacities worldwide. Megacities are new phenomena of the worldwide urbanisation processes associated with accelerating globalisation and are subject to global ecological, socio-economic and political change. Conversely, they also influence these changes due to their strong developmental dynamics, achieving unprecedented high spatial and demographic expansion and concentration of population, infrastructure, economic power, capital, and decision-making, as well as excessive and partially self-energising acceleration of all the development processes. Increasingly, megacities are subject to an as yet unmeasured loss of formal governability and control – with the consequence that processes are unregulated and take place informally or illegally. Megacities have developed into new socio-economic and political ‘laboratories of the future’,” commented Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas.


Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas has a PhD and Habilitation in geography, and has been a Professor since 1996, teaching geography at the University of Cologne, Germany. An expert in human geography issues, Prof. Dr. Kraas is a member of numerous high-level organisations studying this subject, including the famous Academia Europaea. The University of Cologne is one of the largest and oldest universities in Germany, and its geography department – a major centre for preparing teachers of this discipline – has nearly 1,700 students a year.

Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas is a member of numerous high level organisations:

- Human geography department – University of Cologne
- Fondation GeoUnion Alfred Wegener (Vice-President)
- Academia Europaea
- Megacities – Our global urban future (SIT)
- MegaCity TaskForce (IGU)
- Forum of Urban Future in Southeast Asia (ForUm)
- Executive Scientific Steering Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme
- Senate Commission on GeoSciences of the German Research Foundation
- German National Committee of Global Change Research
- UN IYPE


Four months before MIPIM Horizons, a panel of outstanding real estate projects from 24 fast-growing countries has already been confirmed. Nearly 4,000 square meters of exhibition space will be dedicated to Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and Eastern Europe - notably Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia and Ukraine – and also to the Russian Federation, Brazil, Nicaragua, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and many others. A vast range of long-term investment opportunities will be presented to the 3,000 real estate professionals, including 500 investors, who are expected to attend the first edition of MIPIM Horizons.


For more information on MIPIM Horizons, please go to www.mipimhorizons.com.

source : MIPIM Horizons