ATTENTION: City government, city planning and business writers and editors

WHAT: "The Future of Shrinking Cities: Problems, Patterns and Strategies of Urban Transformation in a Global Context," a two-day conference at the University of California, Berkeley, with an international lineup of planning practitioners, academics, architects, urban designers and policy makers.

These experts will address urban decline and the loss of jobs in cities around the world, using case studies to explore the social, economic, environmental, cultural and land-use issues related to the "shrinking cities" phenomenon, with a goal of helping to develop and improve regional governance in the United States and other participating countries.

The conference is part of a program launching a global network of scholars and practioners working to resolve the problems of shrinking cities, which affect not just Rust Belt cities such as Buffalo or Detroit, but also the San Francisco Bay Area, which lost 450,000 jobs during the dot.com bust from 2001-2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 8, and Friday, Feb. 9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. each day

WHERE: International House, at the intersection of Gayley Road and Bancroft Way

WHO: Thirty speakers from five continents, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France, Great Britain, South Korea and Australia.

DETAILS: Media interested in covering the event should contact Karina Pallagst at (650) 430-7529 or pallagst@berkeley.edu. UC Berkeley's Center for Global Metropolitan Studies is sponsoring the program.