They all agreed on one thing -- the world faces a crisis of urbanization and answers are needed soon. Yet there were seemingly few concrete solutions on offer among the 10,000 or so experts gathered in Vancouver for the third World Urban Forum.

The event, organized by the United Nations housing and settlements agency UN-HABITAT, saw participants from 100 countries come together in the Canadian city for five days of talk and debate in late June.

With the proportion of the world's population living in urban areas expected to reach the 50% mark some time next year, the incredible growth of cities -- especially in the developing world -- is something that cannot be ignored.

Many of the estimated 180,000 people arriving in cities every day end up living in appalling conditions, delegates were told.

Unless urgent action is taken, the number of people living ion slums worldwide will double from one to two billion by 2030, UN assistant secretary general Inga Bjork-Klevby told a special session of parliamentarians.

"We need a common vision for reducing the burgeoning poverty in cities," she said.

In an opening message to the event, UN secretary general Kofi Annan warned that the world had become "more urbanized, congested and polluted, and less equitable."

But at the same time, cities can be "leading incubators of knowledge, birthplaces of technical innovation and repositories of cultural riches," he added.

Despite the strong words and the wealth of expertise in attendance, it remains debatable how much the forum -- dubbed 'WUF III' and following on from the first two such events in Nairobi in 2002 and Barcelona two years later -- actually achieved.

Civic leaders and others should return to their home nations and "work harder to solve urban problems and challenges", read the sometimes vague-sounding final report from the forum, giving little in the way of specific pledges and nothing at all in terms of new spending.

One of the best-received speeches came from Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of the Colombian capital, Bogota, who has become somewhat of a pin-up for urban planners.

Penalosa explained how he had rejected plans to spend huge amounts of cash on roads to improve public transport and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists instead.

But one leading Indian activist told delegates that they were wasting their time.

We are very, very critical about this kind of conference," said Jockin Arputham, president of India's National Slum Dwellers Federation and a former slum inhabitant himself.

"The amount of time and money spent on this World Urban Forum -- how many consultants have been employed for carrying out this kind of conference?" he asked.

Arputham also pointed out the incongruity of holding the gathering in Vancouver, a wealthy city set amid mountains and forests which regularly tops international indexes for liveability, health and education.

Environmentalists at the event pointed out that even Vancouver's apparent good fortune masks a host of problems, noting that locals consume many resources to maintain their lifestyles.

Were the whole world to live like people in Vancouver, it would take somewhere between three and five Earths to support this, one campaigner said.

Are events like the World Urban Forum worthwhile, or a waste of money?

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A World Urban Forum might help for a while but not in the long run. The only thing that will help is to either to limit population growth as China has done or use more lands for people to spread out on and get them out of the big filthy cities.

As far as our own American public goes, we are spoiled. What will happen if we do nothing to control population when having 2.5 children is everyone's dream in the USA? When there is no more livestock to feed us or land to live on our government will have but one choice -- to put limitations on us like China does their own citizens, only allowing one child per couple.

I believe that the World Urban Forum is not a waste of money if the forum's attendees truly create concrete and attainable plans to meet the objectives of the forum.

Forums for me are a way to network and share resources with each other, creating a united effort to address the problems or issues facing the group. Forums offer this kind of opportunity for growth and effectively addressing the global problem.

Do government official delegations bring back any new ideas from such meetings?

You will be able to solve urban problems after such brain storming sessions. These discussions are useful tools for problem solving.