Young Planning Professionals' Programme

Short History of the YPP Programme
The Young Planning Professionals Programme was initiated in 1991 in order to provide unique opportunities to Young Planning Professionals to share their experiences in an attemps to resolve complex and multi-dimensional planning problems.

The first Young Planning Professionals' Workshop took place at the 26th ISOCARP Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico (1991). Since then, the elder members of ISOCARP have happily – and at times perhaps a little enviously – observed the competition for admission to the Workshop, the creative spirit of the Workshop itself, and the enthusiastic response of the participants. The YPP workshop has become a source of meaningful debate, new ideas and rejuvenation for the Society. It is now not only a unique opportunity for young planning professionals and post-graduate students from around the world to meet and exchange technical and scientific knowledge, but also a basis for making life-long friends.

YPP Workshops are brief-but-intense brainstorming and design exercises that resemble what architecture students know as ‘charrettes‘. In the established tradition of the YPP Workshops, you could hear the following comments by the young planning professionals:   :"…our multi-skilled and multi-cultural team kicked off our work with a lot of enthusiasm and eagerness … After a bumpy start and a lot of deliberation of what we want to do, what we think we should do, what we could do, what we want to give comments about and what we had opinions about, we decided to make it even more complicated by facing a REAL SITUATION!"
This comment confirms how young professionals, through the Workshops, have the opportunity to develop new ideas, concepts or proposals for the area under study – as defined by Local Authorities or University Departments – that need new strategies and/or action plans.      

Another benefit of the YPP Workshop is related to the quality of the new ideas, concepts or proposals that are prepared and presented. The Young Planning Professionals are required to defend their ideas in front of a critical jury, the participants of the annual congress. Thus, the working teams have to prepare a well-rehearsed presentation that frequently catches the special attention of the planning authorities. The host Local Authority or Planning Agency usually welcomes the fresh ideas that arise from the Workshops. Sometimes these ideas and inputs have even been used as inputs in their own strategies for the study area.

Since 1991, UNESCO has extended generous funding for the annual “Young Planning Professionals' Workshop”. For 15 years selected young planning professionals from all over the world had the benefit of a UNESCO grant for participating in the YPP Workshop. The growing number of ISOCARP members from the developing world is encouraging, particularly as the formative processes of the urban future of the world are taking place primarily in these countries. ISOCARP, as an independent think tank and as a network of professionals, can make meaningful contributions to the enormous tasks ahead. In this perspective, the YPP Workshops can play a significant role in bringing in new talent. With UNESCO support, the proportion of participants from developing countries increased significantly. ISOCARP thanks UNESCO for their support from 1991-2005.

The wonderful YPP‘s contributions on the occasion of the 15th birthday speak for themselves!

During the last few years sponsoring for the YPP Workshop is mostly given by the Local Organising Committee.