Cities from 82 countries choose Smart City Expo World Congress to discuss their future together

The second edition of Smart City Expo World Congress has meant the establishment of Barcelona as the world capital of smart cities and the event organized by Fira de Barcelona as the world’s leader on the subject. Over seven thousand visitors from 82 countries (including 3.055 delegates), 319 speakers and 140 exhibiting companies have come together to tackle the challenges that major cities will face in the near future, showcasing the available solutions and exploring business opportunities in this new industry.

Cities will be at the centre of world development in the next few decades and will be home to the majority of the planet’s inhabitants. How new towns and cities are built and existing ones are transformed will be a key aspect in the future of humanity as the different keynotes and panel showed during the three days of the show, which brought together 7,065 visitors, a 14.6% more than in the first edition.

Among the speakers taking part in the 60 presentations were Carlo Ratti, Director of the SENSEable City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Charles Landry, economist specialised in urban development and founder of Comedia; Robert Puentes, specialist in infrastructures and urban mobility at the Brookings Institution, New York; and Ricky Burdett, architect specialised in Urban Planning and Professor at the London School of Economics.

The transformation of the current metropolises into smart cities is not only an objective necessity from an environmental and economic standpoint but it is also a new market for large companies and small start-ups from a variety of industries. Smart City Expo World Congress has been the perfect setting for many of them. The Director of Smart Cities at Indra, Manuel Ausaverri, said that they were “very pleased with this second edition of the Smart City Expo World Congress. The summit has been the best place to learn what are the current goals of many cities and realize how ambitious they really are, as well as to showcase our solutions and prove that we are ready to tackle every existing technological challenge.”

Barcelona, the city of cities
The Congress program featured cities from the five continents such as Birmingham, Bogota, Boston, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Durban, Fukushima, Guangzhou, Haifa, Helsinki, Kansas City, New Delhi, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Santander, Shenzhen, Sydney, Tokyo, Vancouver, Vienna, Yokohama and Zapopan. The event hosted participants of a total of 1,781 municipalities worldwide.

Among the official delegations who attended Smart City Expo World Congress were those from Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and the UK. The Minister for New Technologies of Bogota, Mauricio Trujillo, said that “in Smart City Expo World Congress, Colombia has first of all learnt how ICT can be a useful tool to overcome social exclusion. Secondly, we have sought allies that allow us to promote urban projects through collaboration between universities, government and companies and, finally, Bogotá has had the opportunity position itself as reference for smart cities in South America.”

The week of sustainable mobility
Smart City Expo World Congress will be back for its third edition in November 2013 as part of the Sustainable Mobility Week, which will also hold EVS27, the world’s largest event focused on the promotion of electric vehicles and the fourth edition of BcnRail, the International Railway Industry Tradeshow.