21st AIVP World Conference Cities & Ports: four days devoted to shaping the future of port city territories
Date
21st AIVP World Conference Cities & Ports: four days devoted to shaping the future of port city territories.
Dunkirk – 3 to 6 November 2026 “Cities and Ports in Motion: Time for Action!”
From 3 to 6 November 2026, Dunkirk will host the 21st World Conference Cities & Ports, organised by AIVP in partnership with the port of Dunkirk and the Dunkirk Urban Community. As the annual highlight of the worldwide port city network, the four-day event will bring together close to 400 participants of 40 nationalities — decision-makers, experts, representatives of local authorities and port authorities, companies and researchers — to debate, compare their respective experiences and share solutions addressing the major issues shaping the future of port city territories.
Held under the theme "Cities and Ports in Motion: Time for Action!", this 21st edition will examine the far-reaching transitions currently under way in port territories: decarbonisation and the energy transition, reindustrialisation, adaptation to climate change, changing uses and planning models, and port city governance, as well as quality of life, health and relations with citizens. At a time when cities and ports must respond simultaneously to economic, environmental and social imperatives, the conference aims to foster dialogue between international experiences and to identify courses of action capable of reconciling economic performance, environmental protection and the well-being of populations.
Over four days, plenary sessions, roundtables, keynote addresses, case studies, thematic workshops and field visits will structure the discussions, with contributions from close to 60 prominent guests and speakers from the host country and abroad.
The World Conference Cities & Ports: the annual international gathering for port cities and the port city community
Founded in 1988, AIVP today brings together 190 members across five continents and works to strengthen the relationship between cities, ports and citizens. Its World Conference Cities & Ports is the flagship annual event of this international network: a unique forum for meeting, debating and sharing experience among players who, despite operating in very different geographical settings, face the same challenges. Open to AIVP members and non-members alike, the conference is hosted each year by a different port city, with a deliberate commitment to alternating between territories and continents.
After New York in 2025, the conference now drops anchor in Dunkirk in 2026, a special edition, as it also marks the return of the World Conference Cities & Ports to France for the first time since 2012.
Quality of life in Port Cities: the guiding theme of this 21st edition
Port territories occupy a strategic position within the economic, geopolitical and energy transformations now under way. Yet their evolution also raises a fundamental question: how can these changes be steered so that they benefit as many people as possible while enhancing the quality of life of those who live there?
This question will form the guiding thread of the 2026 edition. Planning and development, the energy transition, governance and dialogue between cities, ports and citizens, health, adaptation to climate change, all these dimensions will be examined in order to consider how port city territories can transform themselves while remaining attractive, liveable, resilient and robust in the face of crises.
Beyond a shared assessment of the challenges, the World Conference aims to encourage the comparison of experiences and of the solutions implemented in different regions of the world. The discussions will bring together the perspectives of policymakers, port executives, local authorities, researchers, experts and businesses, to identify the levers likely to support the transitions in the territories.
Four days to envision tomorrow's Port City
The conference will open on 3 November with the AIVP General Assembly. The following three days, 4, 5 and 6 November, will be punctuated by keynotes, high-level roundtables, parallel sessions, workshops, field visits and exchange times.
The program will address the major challenges currently facing cities and ports: how can the energy transition and decarbonisation be accelerated? How can port territories be adapted to climate-related risks? How can economic development, biodiversity and residents' expectations be reconciled? How can increasingly sought-after land be shared? And what form of governance should be established between cities, ports and citizens?
From 4 November onwards, several sessions will focus on European ambitions for carbon neutrality and clean growth, on joint investment by cities and ports in environmental, energy, urban and societal transitions, on climate resilience, and on the implications of global geopolitics for port cities.
On 5 November, conversation will extend around resilience to extreme weather events, the involvement of local stakeholders in environmental innovation, public health and climate risk governance. The day will also give a special place to Dunkirk with technical visits of the territory.
Finally, 6 November will open up a longer-term perspective. Following a keynote address on the human-scale port city, a roundtable will bring together the views of city and port representatives on governance and land use. The highlight of these four days will be a major plenary debate exploring the question: "What future for port city territories in 2050?".
No fewer than 60 distinguished guests and speakers from France and abroad are expected to contribute to and lead the discussions, among them Édouard PHILIPPE (FR), Mayor of Le Havre and President of AIVP; Olga FARMAN (CA), CEO of the Port of Québec and Vice-President of AIVP; Carlos MORENO (FR), French-Colombian researcher and professor, Scientific Director of the "Entrepreneurship, Territory, Innovation" Chair at IAE, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; Gaetan SIEW (MU), former President of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and Ambassador of Mauritius to the People's Republic of China; Inés REY GARCÍA (ES), Mayor of A Coruña; Bonnie LOWENTHAL (USA), Harbor Commissioner of the Port of Long Beach; and Johan KLAPS (BE), Chair of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and Deputy Mayor of Antwerp for Port Affairs and the Economy.
2nd edition of the AIVP Prize Antoine Rufenacht and highlighting development projects that reinvent the port city relationship
This edition will be marked by the announcement of the winner of the 2nd AIVP Prize Antoine Rufenacht. Created in tribute to the former mayor of Le Havre and founder of AIVP, the prize recognises urban development projects that help strengthen the relationship between the city and its port. Through this award, AIVP intends to highlight concrete achievements capable of renewing the port city interfaces and showing how development can contribute to a better integration of the port into its territory.
Dunkirk, full-scale testing ground for port city transitions
The selection of Dunkirk as host city for this 21st edition is meaningful. As a major port city in northern Europe, the area is currently undergoing a far-reaching transformation of its economic, industrial and logistics model. Decarbonisation of activities and of maritime and land transport, modal shift, renewable and low-carbon energy, green reindustrialisation, with the rise of new sectors such as electric batteries, the agri-food sector, the production of alternative and sustainable fuels or the establishment of data centers: Dunkirk brings together, within a single area, many of the very issues that will lie at the heart of discussions during the conference.
This transformation extends well beyond industry and the port itself. It also raises questions of mobility and spatial planning. The Dunkirk area is accordingly rethinking both travel patterns and territorial organisation as new activities take root, with the development of bus routes to the west, and consideration being given to car-park-free factories and to autonomous shuttles. Such measures also serve to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance quality of life.
Through the cooperation between the Urban Community of Dunkirk and the port of Dunkirk, the area has become a genuine full-scale laboratory for port city transformation, where the respective strategies of the port authority and the local authority converge around decarbonization, mobility, planning, quality of life and citizen involvement. Following New York in 2025, the choice of Dunkirk for this 21st edition thus underscores the area's strategic standing within the European port landscape.
USEFUL INFORMATION
21st AIVP World Conference Cities & Ports From November 3 to 6, 2026 – Dunkirk, France Kursaal – Dunkirk Convention Center
Theme: “Cities and Ports in Motion: Time to Action!”
Information, schedules et registration: AIVP World Conference Cities & Ports 2026
PRESS CONTACTS
Agence Oxygen
Lara Van Campenhout – lara.v@oxygen-rp.com – 06 89 50 33 17
Sophie Robert-Beys – sophie.rb@oxygen-rp.com – 06 34 99 94 10