Creativity Against Bureaucracy: Placemaking at the Edges of Europe

Ramon Marrades is an urban economist, writer, and activist with a passion for people and places. He is currently Director at Placemaking Europe, founder at Vigla – an applied research start-up focused on designing urban futures–, and strategy advisor to a number of cities and large-scale development projects. Before, he has served as the Chief Strategy and Finance Officer at La Marina de València, Valencia’s waterfront redevelopment agency, and a board member of the Worldwide Network of Port Cities (AIVP).

He holds an Executive MSc in Cities from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MSc in Economics and Geography from Utrecht University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Valencia. He has been a researcher at the University of Valencia (Spain), Western Sydney University (Australia), and FLACSO (Ecuador). He received the Spanish Social Entrepreneur Award in 2012. Ramon is co-editor of the book “Our City? Countering Exclusion in Public Space” (2019) and the host and co-curator of Placemaking Week Europe 2019 and 2022.

Milena Ivković is a Dutch-Serbian public space designer and civic participation innovator.
She leads the Association Placemaking Western Balkans – based in Belgrade, Serbia – a non-profit organization focused on creating better public spaces in the cities across the Balkans and SEE region through placemaking. She is currently the Board Member of Placemaking Europe.

Next to leading the Placemaking Balkans movement, Milena is the creative director of BLOK 74 – Office for Urban Simulations and Urban Communications, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. BLOK 74 is a digital design collective with expertise in serious games and gamified simulations for civic participation and scientific communication.

Prior to starting the Placemaking Western Balkans, Milena served as a Board Member of ISOCARP, International Society of City and Regional Planners. She is a regular speaker at international events on the topics examining the links between digital futures, civic engagement, and inclusive public space design.

Laska Nenova has over 25 years of international management and marketing experience leading people, organizations, projects, and campaigns. She is passionate about creating and implementing large-scale initiatives and campaigns promoting behavior change for the health and well-being of people and strives for the results of her work to have a societal impact. For the past ten years, Laska led the global NowWeMOVE campaign advocating for the human right to move.

Matic Gajšek is a international cultural manager and researcher, with a focus on development of strategic projects intertwining culture, innovation and cultural diplomacy. His wide range of experience includes working with international orchestras, talent agencies and artists. From 2018 until 2021, Matic has been the director of Hestia Art, arts studio managing projects of Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing.

In 2021, Matic joined the Brussels think-tank Europe – Asia Center as Deputy Director. He is lecturing at Breda University of Applied Sciences (NL) and as a doctoral researcher at Tilburg University (NL) researches the topic of “rural creative placemaking”.

He is also the founding director of Hisa Podlog, a pioneering cultural residency space in rural Slovenia.