Monocle is launching its first ever Quality of Life Conference this spring with a two-day event in Lisbon from Friday, April 17 to Sunday, April 19, 2015. Hosted by Monocle’s key editors and correspondents, the conference itself will be held at Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, and will take place all day on Saturday April 18, welcoming 150 delegates from around the globe.
“We’ve long debated hosting our own conference and after a brief discussion with Portuguese Tourism last year, we felt the timing was right,” says Tyler Brûlé, Monocle Editor in Chief.
The weekend in Lisbon will be hosted by the charismatic editor in chief of the magazine himself, and it will showcase the best the city has to offer with live music, great Portuguese food and wine, a guided Lisbon city run, a chance to meet the mayors and to "design your own high street," among many other surprises.
Monocle invites its readers to a weekend of peerless hospitality, great debates and in-depth conversations about the forces shaping the world’s great cities. With the help of more than 20 speakers and panelists, Monocle aims to reveal the best projects, people and practices helping to create dynamic cities around the globe. With topics ranging from how do media brands make our cities and how the museum became the modern cultural powerhouse, through to how to reinvent the high street, the summit is designed for a distinctly global delegation.
Speakers include the heads of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Rijksmuseum; media owners and media mavericks; Erik Spiekermann, the world’s most celebrated living typographer and designer; Isay Weinfeld, Brazil’s celebrated architect whose work has helped reinvigorate the nation’s design credentials; Beverley Churchill, visionary marketing director of Capco, the property company reshaping London’s Covent Garden and rebuilding Earls Court; and Marie-Louise Theile, celebrated Australian TV anchor who is now director of the James St Initiative in Brisbane, a project showing a promising future for bricks-and-mortar retail.
Thirty members of Monocle’s editorial and commercial team will be sent to Lisbon for the weekend to run and host the event, which also aims to showcase the best of the city through associated hospitality events, a morning city run and a Monocle travel guide. Working with Portuguese pop star Luisa Sobral, design house LONA and a team of local baristas and chefs, including Executive Chef Pascal Meynard of Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, the conference will have a distinct Portuguese flavour.
The Quality of Life discussions will also be broadcast live on Monocle’s radio station, Monocle 24, and through a variety of films from the conference online at monocle.com. A Monocle pop-up shop will be hosted in the Entre Tanto gallery for the week surrounding the conference.
A stay at Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, with a special rate for this event, can be booked online.
The Monocle Quality of Life Conference agenda includes:
Friday, April 17
- 8:30-10:30 pm - Welcome Cocktail Reception
Saturday, April 18
- 7:00 am - 7:00 pm - Conference at Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon
- 8:30 pm til late - Dinner and Dancing
Sunday, April 19
- 9:30-11:30 am - Farewell Breakfast
Tickets cost EUR 1,500 and are limited to 100 guests. Tickets are available online.