9th World Congress of Metropolis 2008 is a global forum for some of the world’s leading cities to look at their futures and find ways to improve the quality of life for their citizens. Representatives from more than 100 cities will meet in Sydney in October to discuss collaboration techniques, knowledge exchange and advanced service provision.

The Congress is a great opportunity to generate research into the future direction of cities.  With this in mind, a number of research publications that explore new concepts related to cities as well as the emerging cities of India and China have been developed.  As the congress research partner, Woods Bagot is supporting the series of research publications under the theme of 'Connecting Cities'.

' Connecting Cities:City-Regions ' will be one of the books launched at the Congress.  This book examines the growing phenomena of city regions, the sprawling urban growth from a major central city, or in some cases the growth of a number of smaller cities, to become connected into one urban system.  Further information on the Metropolis books can be found here. 

One of the featured articles within this publication has been written by Woods Bagot Director of Workplace, James Calder.  James's article, 14 Hour City explores the phenomena of re-engineering the working day from our current 9–5 model into a 14 hour day with an early and late shift and an overlap in the middle.  This article is also published in Woods Bagot's recent publication, Public#4: 21st Century Guide to Life.  For further inforamtion on Woods Bagot publications and research initiatives, please click here.

' Connecting Cities:City-Regions ' will be launched by The Hon. Frank Sartor - Minister for Planning on Thursday 28 August at NSW Trade and Investment Centre, Level 47, MLC Centre, 19 Martin Place, Sydney.