The 11th World Conference of Historical Cities was held in Konya in June 10-13, 2008 with approximately 600 participants including mayors and other local administrators of historical cities of the world, academics, scholars and students from relevant disciplines, and those who are interested. The theme of this year's conference was "Living Cultural Heritage in Historical Cities", and the sub-themes were Urban Identity - "Cultural self"; Living Heritage - "A Path"; Cultural Diversity - "Tolerance"; and Crossroads of Culture - "A Gateway".

Among the participants were LAUD members both faculty and students contributing to the conference at different capacities. S. Ayşegül Tokol, the academic advisor for the whole conference made the opening speech and moderated with the General Secretary of The league of Historical Cities - Mr. Hisakazu Takagi, moderated the final roundtable where all keynote speakers and moderators made their concluding remarks in evaluating the conference and highlighting the policies. Dr. Tokol and her colleagues Hatice Karaca, Deniz Altay, Kumru Arapkirlioğlu presented their joint paper entitled "LAUD intensities: LAUD in ten cities ... Third Millenium - Fourth Dimension" (to view the abstract as PDF, please click here).

Another LAUD instructor, Funda Baş Bütüner moderated the Youth Forum, a first in the history of The League of Historical Cities conferences. In addition to Bütüner's presentation, "(Re)thinking the Spatiality of Istanbul Historic Penninsula Land Walls", current and former students of LAUD Zeynep Sıla Akıncı, Yeliz Kahya, Berrak Bakışkan, Asmin Kavas have also presented their studies in the Youth Forum. Last but not the least all LAUD students who made presentations at the conference along with 2nd year student Hasan Hüseyin Okur facilitated the conference organization with their valuable assistance.