Speed Dating Housing Problems Meets Solvers

The global housing crisis is one of the most pressing challenges cities face today, encompassing affordability, climate resilience, rapid urbanization, inequality, and governance. Despite the scale of the problem, responses often remain fragmented, with housing addressed separately through policy, development, finance, or social programs. This siloed approach limits impact and slows down implementation. What is urgently needed is cross-sector collaboration that tackles housing as part of an integrated urban system. Speed Dating: Housing Problems Meets Solvers is a high-energy networking event at World Urban Forum 13 designed to transform housing challenges into actionable ideas through rapid, structured collaboration. The event creates a space where real housing problems meet diverse expertise in a focused, time-efficient format. Participants register in advance as either problem holders or solvers. Problem holders include cities, municipalities, housing providers, and developers facing concrete housing-related challenges. Solvers include urban planners, architects, policymakers, NGOs, investors, researchers, and innovators offering tools, knowledge, or resources. Before the event, problem holders submit a short description of their challenge, supported by visuals or background material, which is shared with solvers to enable targeted preparation. During the session, each problem is hosted at a dedicated table. Solvers rotate between tables every five minutes, engaging in concise, solution-oriented discussions. Multiple solvers work on the same challenge simultaneously, bringing cross-disciplinary perspectives and reducing siloed thinking. The rapid format encourages clarity, creativity, and practical exchange, allowing participants to test ideas, compare approaches, and identify promising solution pathways in real time. After each round, problem holders can identify solvers they wish to follow up with based on the relevance and feasibility of the ideas proposed. The event concludes with a 20-minute reflection session, where problem holders share key insights, highlight emerging solutions, and outline potential next steps for collaboration and implementation. By turning networking into a problem-solving mechanism, this event supports WUF13’s focus on partnerships, implementation, and systemic change, while offering a replicable format that cities can apply beyond the Forum.