The Global Planning Students Meeting was an initiative introduced at WPSC and APSA Congress to promote networking and sharing among global planning students. The event was held online on 29 August 2022 as a WPSC-APSA Pre-Congress program. The meeting was attended by students from some countries worldwide, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Nigeria, France, and the Netherlands.
The Global Planning Students Meeting is a discussion forum that provides opportunities for cross-border students from all education levels to communicate and promote group cohesion, as well as provide opportunities to discuss, evaluate goals and objectives, and develop actions. The persons in charge of the Local Organizing Committee of this event were Prof. Winny Astuti (ASPI/UNS), Dr. Widya Suryadini (ASPI/ITENAS), and Aldi Fauzan and Fatchur (Indonesian Planning Students Organization / IMPI). The Global Planning Students Meeting consists of a plenary session, discussion, introduction to global planning education associations network, and sharing session about challenges and opportunities of being planning students.
The plenary session presented 2 resource persons who gave presentations “Trend and Opportunities for Global Career by Prof. Zeynep Gunay from ISOCARP, and “Trend and Opportunities for Planning Careers in Indonesia” by Shofi S Shulhiddar from Indonesian Planners Association/IAP. While The GPEAN Introduction presentation was delivered by Prof. Zorica Nedovic-Budic and Prof. Paulo Silva as representatives of GPEAN. The enthusiasm of the participants at the Plenary Session was great, as shown by the active discussion among the resource persons and participants.
The Challenges and opportunities session was delivered by four speakers from various countries. The first presentation was “The challenges and opportunities of being planning students in Malaysia,” that delivered by Nabiha Mohd Khusairy (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia). The second presentation was “The challenges and opportunities of being planning students in Indonesia” provided by Muhammad Ibnu Fadlin Syah (Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia). While the following presentation was “The challenges and opportunities of being planning students: The Netherlands,” delivered by Mitchell van Dijk. The last presentation was “Planning in the French context: Opportunities of being planning students” delivered by Inès Baudienville (ESSEC Business School Cergy-Pontoise Campus, France). The discussions were moderated by Sonia Bunga April Ria (IMPI/Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia)
The WPSC-APSA Pre-Congress session of the Global Students Meeting was a very out-of-the-box event including games, wrap-up sessions, and delivering plans that were held inclusively by planning students. As an idea that came out of the meeting is a vision to promote the world planning students forum as a media for sharing knowledge and networking among planning students. With the success of this event, it is hoped that it can be helpful and promote better communication between planning student forums throughout the countries to work together.