Confirmed speakers:

Hans Abbing - painter, photographer and economist - Professor of Art Sociology (the Boekman Chair)/Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam

Mark Schuster – Professor of Urban Cultural Policy/Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.)

Vincent Dubois – Sociologist and political scientist, Professor at the Institute of Political Studies (IEP), Strasbourg

Franco Bianchini – Professor of Urban Planning/Montford University

Milena Dragicevic-Sesic - Professor at the Arts University of Belgrade/Serbia; jury president of the Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA)

Other speakers:

Ritva Mitchell – Director of Research Cupore/University of Jyväskylä/Finland

Dragan Klaic – Initiator of the European Festival Research Project, board member of Prämium Erasmianum (Amsterdam), professorship at the University of Arts Belgrade and University of Amsterdam

Per Mangset –Professor at the Research Institute/Telemark University College/Norway

Wolfgang Schneider – Professor of Cultural Policy/University of Hildesheim

Nina Obuljen - assistant minister of Culture for International Cultural Cooperation (Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia); research fellow at the Institute of International Relations/Zagreb; Cultural Policy Research Award winner 2004

Ilber Ortayli - Director of Topkapi Museum Istanbul, Lecturer at Galatasaray University, Faculty of Law

Nilgün Mirze - İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Director of Institutional Communication, Vice President of the Executive Board of Istanbul European Capital of Culture 2010

Kerstin Tomenendal – Economics and Technology University of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB-ETU), Department of History; head of the Austrian-Turkish Forum of Sciences (OTW)

Kathrin Merkle– Head of the Cultural Policies Research Department Unit of the Council of Europe

Yudhishthir Raj Isar - Jean Monnet Professor of Cultural Policy Studies, Department of International Communications/The American University of Paris, president of EFAH

Martin Heller/Ulrich Fuchs – Programme Directors of European Cultural Capital Linz 2009

Oliver Bennett - Centre for Cultural Policy Studies/University of Warwick, United Kingdom; Editor of the International Journal of Cultural Policy

Dr. Asu Aksoy - Istanbul Bilgi University Santral Istanbul Projects Coordinator, and member of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Advisory Board

Timea Junghaus - independent curator and Roma cultural activist, founder of the RomaMoma group/Hungary

Andreas Wiesand - European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (ERICarts)

Peter Duelund   - ass. Professor in Modern Culture, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies/University of Copenhagen

Marie Paule Roudil - Chief of Culture Section of the UNESCO Venice Office (BRESCE)

Dorota Ilczuk - Professor of Humanities and Cultural Management/Warsaw School of Social Psychology/Jagiellonian University