REGISTER | ADD TO CALENDAR | PERMALINK
On 11-12 May 2026 the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will host the third ‘UN Virtual Worlds Day 2026‘ in Geneva, with the theme ‘AI, Spatial Intelligence, and the Citiverse: Shaping Trusted Digital Futures‘. The event will convene ambassadors, ministers, city leaders, UN entities, industry pioneers, and innovators for two days of high-level dialogue and an Ambassador Roundtable on the future of AI-driven cities and communities. Discussions will explore how the convergence of artificial intelligence, immersive virtual environments, spatial intelligence, and other frontier technologies is reshaping urban governance and enabling new approaches to delivering public services, including emerging concepts such as the AI-enabled citiverse. The programme will also examine how these developments can help translate the Global Digital Compact into trusted, inclusive, and people-centred outcomes for cities and communities worldwide.
PROGRAM (All Times CEST = UTC+2)
DAY 1 – 11 May 2026
9:00 – Opening Ceremony
Seizo Onoe – Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona – Director, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
Dmitry Mariyasin – Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Sameer Chauhan – Director, United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC)
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio – Deputy Chief Executive, United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF)
Christina Kitsos – Vice Mayor of Geneva, Switzerland, and President of Global Cities Hub
Hyoung Jun Kim – Chair of the 3rd UN Virtual Worlds Day and Chair, ITU-T Study Group 20
09:30 – Shaping Trusted Digital Futures: An Ambassadors’ Roundtable on Delivering the Global Digital Compact
Moderator: Bilel Jamoussi – Deputy Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU
H.E. Mrs Fancy Chepkemoi Too – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva
H.E. Mr Luigi Maria Vignali – Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva
H.E. Mr Marat Kangarlinski – Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva
H.E. Mrs Sung-yo Choi – Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva
10:30 – Fireside Chat: The GDC Stops Here: How One Nation is Turning Global Principles into People-Centred Action
Moderator: Sameer Chauhan – Director, UNICC
H.E. Ms Angellah Jasmine Mbelwa Kairuki – Minister, Ministry of Information, Communication and Information Technology, Tanzania
10:45 – Keynote: The AI-Enabled Citiverse: Turning Intelligence into Real City Impact
Okan Geray – Senior Digital City Strategy Advisor, Digital Dubai and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Global Initiative on Virtual Worlds and AI – Discovering the Citiverse
11:00 – Coffee Break
11:30 – High Level Dialogue: Toward the Citiverse: How Cities Learn, Test, and Decide with Agentic, Physical, and Spatial AI
Moderator: Paul Wilson – Advisory Board Chair, Smart Cities Worlds
Manuel de Araújo – Mayor of Quelimane, Mozambique
Paula Llobet Vilarrasa – Councillor for Tourism, Digital Agenda, Innovation, and Investment, City of Valencia
Gesa Ziemer – Academic Lead, United Nations Information, Training and Analysis Center (UNITAC) & Director of City Science Lab of HafenCity University
Roland van der Heijden – Chief Citiverse Officer, City of Rotterdam, The Netherlands
12:30 – Fireside Chat
Moderator: Cristina Bueti – Counsellor, ITU
H.E. Dr. Lucio Adrián Ruiz – Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, Holy See
Dino Cataldo Dell’Accio – Deputy Chief Executive, UNJSPF
12:45 – Lunch Break & Exhibition
13:45 – Session 1: Spatial Intelligence for Decision-Making in the Citiverse: Encoding Space, Behavior, and Policy
Moderator: Prema Chandrashekhar – Sustainability, Technology Policy, and Global Operations Specialist, Technology Innovation Office, The World Bank
Fisnik Shpuza – Head of Technology Innovation Office, The World Bank
Ievgen Kylymnyk – City Experiment Fund Manager, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
14:15 – Keynote: The Phygital City: How Physical AI is Rewiring Urban Infrastructure
Jonathan Reichental – Founder of Human Future, Professor, and Author
14:30 – Session 2: Housing, Energy and Climate: Building Resilient Communities with AI, Digital Twins, and Spatial Technologies
Moderator: Kamelia Kemileva – Co-Director, Global Cities Hub
Niek Verschure – Senior Project Manager, City of ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Nkosenhle Madlala – Chairperson of the Governance and Human Capital Committee, Municipality of Durban, South Africa
Dario Liguti – Director, UNECE Energy, Housing and Land Management Division
Aline Matta – Senior Programme Management Officer, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
15:15 – Keynote: AI, Digital Value and the Future of Work: Why Your Data Strategy Matters More Than Your Dashboards
Agata Ruta – Chief Operations Officer, UNJSPF/Office of Investment Management
15:30 – Session 3: Work, Wealth, and Worlds: AI, Digital Assets, and the New Digital Economy
Moderator: Anita Lamprecht – Senior Advisor, DiploFoundation
Sebastian Rovira – United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC)
Ryszard Frelek – World Intellectual Property Organization
Nevena Alexandrova-Stefanova – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
16:15 – Coffee Break
16:45 – Session 4: Trust by Design: Rights, Safety, and Human Dignity in the AI-Enabled Citiverse
Moderator: Ilcheong Yi – Head of Partnership & Senior Research Coordinator, UNRISD
Pilar Orero – Professor, Autonomous University of Barcelona
Massimiliano Claps – Research Director, Government Insights, International Data Corporation (IDC)
Helen Koepman – Deputy Head of Unit, AI for Societal Good, European Commission
Ramy Ahmed Fathy – Chief of International Cybersecurity Affairs, National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Egypt
17:30 – Session 5: From Virtual Worlds to Baku: Setting the Urban AI Agenda for the World Urban Forum (WUF13)
Speakers TBD
DAY 2 – 12 May 2026
09:00 – Keynote: AI Transformation for Society: Korea’s National AX Strategy (AI+X)
Jun Seob Lee – Director, Intelligent Convergence Research Laboratory, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)
09:15 – Session 6: Beyond Borders: The Case for Global Collaboration on Physical AI, Agentic Systems, and Spatial Intelligence
Moderator: Muath Al Rumayh – Co-chair of Joint Coordination Activity on Metaverse Standardization (JCA-MV)
Karl Filip Coenegrachts – Chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Director, Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC)
Teppo Rantanen – Executive Director of Economic Policy, Competitiveness and Innovation, City of Tampere, Finland
Sophia Nahoza – Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Tanzania
Dieter Uckelmann – Professor, Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart, Germany
Ziqin Sang – China Information and Communication Technology Group (CICT), China
10:00 – Closing Ceremony
Hyoung Jun Kim – Chair of the 3rd UN Virtual Worlds Day and Chair, ITU-T Study Group 20 “IoT, Digital Twin, Smart Sustainable Cities & Communities”
Cristina Bueti – Counsellor. ITU
#itu #virtualworldsday #citiverse
