The document reviews Day 1 of a conference on connecting cities for sustainable living. It discusses how cities face challenges from urbanization, aging infrastructure, climate change and economic crisis. Stories were shared about innovative solutions. For cities to be 75% of the climate solution, there needs to be a common vision to accelerate change. Information and connectivity between citizens and government can help overcome challenges of scale as 180,000 new people move to cities each day. A vision is proposed for a connected, sustainable city where information sharing and collaboration across sectors through a network can change how cities are planned and managed.