Keeping the watery (and summery) theme of the last blog going, what makes for a great city?

Last year we considered what gives a place a good vibe. I have travelled to lots of cities over the last year. I think there are a few things that stand out in the most special ones, those with a great ‘Feng Shui’ – from UK regional cities to foreign capitals:
1) Great buildings, often with a mix of striking new architectures, as well as some great old designs too – sometimes with supplemented grandeur from the surrounding mountains or forests.
2) A sense of movement in the place, often due to water running through the city (or when on the coast, around it). This movement of water seems to have a positive impact on the flow of people and energy (from the practical use of ferry’s to culture of the city)

We have written before of the useful lesson from good design: function and beauty – something worth considering in product development, workplace creation and event design.

Additionally, I think a truly majestic city is due to a mix of structure and flow: the visible beauty of both the natural and created environment plus the way that water (and people) move through it.

So The Great City can be a metaphor for an event. The agenda, the structure (the stone, the wood) is one thing – we might think of this as the anatomy.

The water is the other – the physiology, the life, the movement, the surprise.

So, thinking of cities with water running through them, (such as London, Sydney, Paris, Cambridge, Amsterdam, Newcastle, Shanghai etc.) we might want to think of how to moderate meetings to bring the agenda to life.

Tags: energy, innovation