Ricky Burdett joined a panel to discuss the UK premiere of the documentary ‘Beijing Taxi’ on 23 May at the Curzon Soho in London. The film, which received the New York Magazine’s critic’s pick, takes an intimate and compelling look at the lives of three cab drivers as they confront modern issues and changing values against the backdrop of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Following the screening there will be a Skype link up with the director in New York, looking into the film and the forthcoming London Olympics.

The era of “big data” has transformed the way businesses gather information about customers, the way governments assess the needs of citizens, and led to new areas of scientific research. In a news report by Deutsche Welle, Philipp Rode comments on new data generated by commuters on the London underground and if this can tell us new things about the city, its residents, and their habits. Listen here (5:16).

On 11-12 May Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities, presented the preliminary results of the LSE Cities/ICLEI survey “Cities and the Green Economy” in Bonn, at the conference Green Urban Economy: New drivers for a sustainable urban development.

For more details about this conference, visit the Bonn Perspectives website at http://www.bonn-perspectives.de/