Why lifelong learning and why learning cities?

This article is based on a keynote presentation made in May 2014 at the Townsville Learning Cities conference in Australia, one of a series of regional events organized by the Australian Learning Community Network. The presentation sought to answer a series of specific questions that had been posed by the city of Townsville as follows: What are the Community benefits of a local government emphasis on lifelong learning? How do we engage youth in learning? How do we reengage adults in learning after formal learning? How do we maintain engagement in learning throughout the life-course? What examples exist internationally for maintaining community participation in learning? This is a specific example of one small city in Australia, but the issues raised might pertain to many other cities in the world