Metropolitan Seminars: collective training on territorial projects
An annual training programme for urban planning and development professionals, offering immersive experiences in two Mediterranean metropolises, from project design to action.
A collective training approach
Two weeks of site visits and exchanges, spread across the year, offering the opportunity to explore metropolitan contexts and experiences, compare and enhance your practices, in a dialogue between territories.
Join a group of experts from all over the Mediterranean, to immerse yourself in inspiring metropolises, share common references for effective action, gain insight into local stakeholders’ networks and governance models, and strengthen your theoretical, strategic, and operational approach to territorial projects.
The AVITEM Metropolitan Seminars provide an integrated approach that blends theory and practice, addressing key themes such as strategic planning, risk management, the regeneration of historic city centres, mobility, and the city-nature relationship. A time for co-production of knowledge among peers, actively committed for sustainable urban and territorial development.
These seminars have been organised by AVITEM since 2014, in partnership with Campus Groupe AFD, the training centre of the French Development Agency, and co-financed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. They have brought together over 500 territorial experts in more than 20 metropolitan areas across the three shores of the Mediterranean.
Join our network of territorial experts
You are key actors in territorial design, from all around the Mediterranean region: elected officials and local leaders, State officials, private and public professionals, NGOs representatives, academics, researchers, and collaborators of the AFD group.
Spring Seminar 2025: Bologna, Italy
From 4 to 9 May 2025
A metropolis that upholds a territorial project of values, solidarity, citizenship, hospitality, and cohesion.
Historically, the metropolitan strategy stands out for its policy of urban regeneration of the city center, thereby improving living conditions. A long tradition of strategic planning has resulted in a polycentric metropolis balanced between development, environmental protection and social cohesion, made possible through financial innovations.
Autumn Seminar 2025: Tirana, Albania
From 9 to 14 Novembre 2025
A metropolis with a remarkable urban heritage, currently undergoing rapid change.
Tirana is currently working on a coherent regional integration between its urban hubs (Tirana-Durrës), an urban renewal policy characterised by the interplay between large-scale projects and micro-system projects, and a virtuous city-nature relationship in the management of urban space (orbital forest). Positioned at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, the city has been awarded Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue 2025.
Training programme
Immersion stays
The seminars are organised in two phases of immersion at the heart of Mediterranean metropolitan territories, selected for their influence and regional importance. On the programme:
- Educational content on territorial projects.
- Field visits to study the contexts and understand the challenges.
- Exchanges with the stakeholders who shape the territory.
- Participatory workshops among peers, to generate new ideas and concrete action pathways.
- Thematic conferences and roundtable discussions.
- End-of-seminar synthesis sessions, assessment of the projects visited, responses to identified challenges, and identification of potential pathways transferable to other Mediterranean contexts.
- Edition of Metropolitan booklets, capitalising on each seminar.
Webinar sessions
Two webinars will provide an opportunity for peer exchanges, enabling territorial stakeholders to discuss their own practices.
Global theme and context
The 20th century was marked by a widespread movement of metropolisation. Territorial systems were shaped, with highly diversified contexts between urban, environmental, and agricultural spaces, as well as between capital cities, medium-sized cities, and villages.
Today, these metropolitan areas must face challenges amplified by the urgency of crises: ecological, economic, health, digital, and societal transitions. They are fundamentally being rethought in favour of a more balanced territorial development.
As a result, territorial actors must collectively envision solutions to adapt and transform development models.
Training programme
# Educational content on territorial projects
# Field visits
# Exchanges with local stakeholders
# Peer-to-peer participatory workshops
# Conferences and roundtables
# End-of-seminar synthesis sessions
# Publication of Metropolitan Booklets
Applications 2025
Submit your application:
# Before 15 March 2025
# By email : l.brenier@avitem.org
Requirements:
# Experience in territorial and urban project management
# Proficiency in French and/or English (spoken and written)
# Commitment to the entire seminar cycle
Participation fees:
# Registration Fee: 500€
Travel, accommodation, and some meals costs are at your expense.
AVITEM covers one meal per day.
The learnings, reflections, and collective proposals from each seminar are compiled in the form of Metropolitan Booklets, an analytical framework of territories that is accessible to professionals, researchers, students, or simply informed citizens.