Topic: Urbanism

Sebastian Seelig

Sebastian is a chartered urban and regional planner with more than 15 years’ experience in integrated and innovative masterplans in Europe and beyond.

As Director of Buro Happold’s Cities team in Berlin, he leads urban development projects in Europe and internationally that require comprehensive analysis, strategic frameworks and decision making processes for neighbourhoods, cities and metropolitan regions.

Sebastian leads large scale planning projects on district, city and regional scale. He has been instrumental in winning and leading work on smart and sustainable districts in Germany (Berlin, Heidelberg, Hamburg and Dusseldorf ) and consulted public and private clients on questions of district development, urban development and regional planning.

Internationally, Sebastian leads masterplanning teams in the Middle East (Special Economic Zone Programme in Qatar and various projects in Saudi-Arabia), Russia (Molzhaninovo Vision and Kama Tri City Plan) and Australia (Western Sydney Aerotropolis). He has also worked with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) in India and China.

Sebastian completed his PhD at TU Berlin on urban strategies for climate sensitive neighbourhoods and lectures for the international master program „Urban Development“ at TU Berlin. In 2018, he held the endowed professorship on “Smart City Solutions” at the University of Applied Science in Stuttgart. Sebastian frequently lectures at conferences and his work has been widely published in international journals and books.

Pablo Sanchez Chillon

Pablo Sánchez Chillón, Lawyer, Political Scientist, Researcher and Strategic Advisor on Urban Innovation, Policy Making and Smart Cities. Co-founder and CEO of Sánchez Chillón Abogados and Eolex Citylab, two teams of strategists and social innovators, helping private and public stakeholders to ideate, develop and disseminate innovative Smart City projects. Pablo is Strategy and Public Affairs Advisor and Urban Counselor for Cities, Mayors and Institutions. He is a renowned consultant on Urban Diplomacy and City-branding, and CEO (2015) of Foro Global Alicante, ‘A City in Motion’ a digital/real network of Excellence committed to support and disseminate the innovative City-brand of Alicante (ES) by creating a Public-Private Platform for Urban Diplomacy.

Pablo has a Law Degree in ICADE (Madrid, 1997), and has completed Post-graduate Studies on Urban Public Affairs (PDAP – ICADE Madrid, 2014), Urban Planning (FUNDESEM BUSINESS SCHOOL, 2013) & Public Management (FUNDESEM, 2013). Pablo will get his Degree in Political Science in 2015 (June, expected).

Pablo has been invited Lecturer at the Master of Advanced Tools for Sustainable Planning Università degli Studi di Sassari (IT), Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (ES) & Pontificia Universidad Católica Puerto Rico (PR). He has recently joined EIC, International School of Communications & Public Affairs (Madrid) and ICEM ESIC University as a Faculty member.

In 2014, Pablo was appointed CEO of Elche Smart City Project (Spain) and member of the Steering Committee of the Smart City Exhibition Bolonia (Italy 2012-today), My Neighbourhood Project (Portugal, 2013- Today)) y Executive Advisor for the Corredor Digital Santurce Project/ Smart City (San Juan de Puerto Rico, 2013-Today) and for the EU Project UrbanIxD. (2013-2014).

In 2016, Paul has joined Both EIC, International School of Communications & Public Affairs (Madrid) and ICEMD- ESIC (Institute for the Digital Economy) (Madrid) as a Faculty member. I is an active member of the Steering Committee of the Smart City Exhibition Bologna (Italy), Lecturer at the Master on Design of People Centered Smart Cities, (Univ. Roma Tor Vergata ) and Advisor of the EU Project UrbanIxD and "My Neighbourhood Project".

With a solid experience as International Keynoter on Urban Innovation, Strategy and Smart City matters, from 2013, Pablo co-organizes the Smart City Congress “Thinking Capitals”, the regional event in Valencia (ES) about the Smart City paradigm and the role of Digizens, new Digital Citizens (term coined by Pablo).
Pablo is Editor of the influential blog URBAN 360º on Urban Innovation, Digital Cities & Urban Diplomacy and guest editor of the International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence and contributes to the Tech Magazine of Le Monde – IBM/ Planète Plus Intelligent, and UCLG (The Global Network of Cities, Local & Regional Governments) and World Bank City Sense.

Pablo is fluent in Spanish, English, Italian & Catalan.