Mauricio leads Cities of Service’s support to its network of cities, including strategy and design, training, and technical assistance. Cities of Service is a partner of URBACT City Festival. It is a US-based non-profit helping cities use volunteers and citizen engagement to regenerate neighbourhoods.  

Dr Hans Schlappa is an experienced regeneration practitioner and academic. He has worked for 15 years in municipalities and third sector organisations, developing and leading socio-economic regeneration programmes in the some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. Since 2004 Dr Schlappa is working as a researcher and teacher at universities in Birmingham, London and Coventry. His publications include a wide range of conference papers and research reports, focusing on the provision of government funded services in deprived neighbourhoods, co-production and partnership working in regeneration contexts, and the impact of EU funding on third sector organisations.

Claudia Chwalisz is a consultant at the London-based reputation and strategy consultancy Populus, where she is bringing the long-form deliberative process to the UK in the form of Citizens Councils. She is the author of The Populist Signal: Why Politics and Democracy Need to Change (2015) and The People’s Verdict: Adding Informed Citizen Voices to Public Decision-making (forthcoming).