The 23^rd European Colloquium on Theoretical and Quantitative Geography (ECTQG) was held in Braga (Portugal) from September 14^th to 17^th, 2023. Organised by Professor Antonio Antunes and his colleagues from CITTA – the Research Centre for Territory, Transport and Environment of the Universities of Coimbra and Porto (https://citta.fe.up.pt/), the colloquium brought together 109 participants, of which 41 PhD candidates. Conversation suggested by:
Denise Pumain
Laboratoire Géographie-cités, Paris, FranceThe participants came from 19 different countries (31 from France, 14 from Belgium, 13 from Portugal, 11 from the Netherlands, 7 from Switzerland, 6 from the UK or Italy and 4 from Luxembourg). There were also a few non-European nationals as it is often the case at these conferences, coming from as far as South Africa for the occasion. The chosen location (Vila Galé Collection Braga Hotel) provided the quiet and magnificent environment of an ancient cloister. The average age of participants seemed considerably lower than at previous colloquia, reflecting the interest of young geographers in theoretical and quantitative geography. 101 papers were presented in 4 days, including 4 keynote speeches (by Julie Vallée (Paris, France), Cecilia Silva (Porto, Portugal), Clémentine Cottineau (Delft, Netherlands) and Stan Geertman (Utrecht, Netherlands). Over twenty paper sessions were held, with mobility as the dominant theme, but also spatial inequalities, urban planning, environmental change, new information processing methods and theoretical geography (see the full program here). The proceedings are available online here.

The next ECTQGs are scheduled on September 10^th-14^th, 2025 in Estonia (organised by Professor Jenni Partanen, Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies, Tallinn University of Technology) and in September 2027 in France (organised by Didier Josselin, UMR Espace, CNRS and University of Avignon). The full story of ECTQGs is available here.