Jereon Beekmans is an urban practitioner and principal at Amsterdam-based urban development agency Golfstromen.  By collaborating across disciplines with businesses, municipalities and other organizations, Golfstromen has become a leader in developing creative solutions to difficult urban issues.  The agency’s award-­winning urban art project, “10,000 Eyes”, commissioned in 2011 by the City of Rotterdam Police Department to raise awareness about a new anti­-crime policy, resulted in a record-­breaking low count of robberies in the area.

In 2008, Beekmans co-founded Pop­-Up City, an internationally popular urban culture and design popular blog featuring creative projects initiated by people who actively transform their local public spaces. Examples include a crowd­funded walking bridge that improved pedestrian mobility in downtown Rotterdam, Helsinki's development as a food capital through Restaurant Day, and a bicycle culture blog in Copenhagen that ended up improving the city's cycling infrastructure through its immense popularity.

Pop-Up City celebrates the social energy of cities, focuses on "city­ making" and emphasizing a city's people and innovative ideas, as opposed to traditional "city ­planning", which approaches urbanism from a more structural, physical, and permanent standpoint. This 'soft' perspective can adapt to a city's constantly changing needs and seamlessly incorporates the rise of online media and technology as powerful tools for community transformation.