With more than 500 attendees, the FIRE Forum aimed to pinpoint current and future opportunities for Earth observation (EO) uptake in six sectors: agriculture, energy (wind), infrastructure, marine, raw materials and urban development. In the first Parallel Session – Urban planning in the digital age - Evangelos Gerasopoulos, who serves as the Urban Sector Lead for the FIRE Forum, introduced urban trends and served as panelist engaging in a vivid discussion on the issues, challenges, opportunities and ways forward in the sector. Jennifer Bailey also served on the panel, further synthesizing the highlights of the session in a presentation at the first Plenary.