Smart City World Congress Preview

What is a Smart City? It’s clever, that’s for sure. The smart prefix suggests something techy too. If you try to really define it, you’ll hear a lot of different answers—it’s as much to do with cutting edge technologies as it is to do with people. But what it boils down to is putting citizens at the forefront of the city’s evolution, using their data to implement effective technology that will make people’s lives easier and better.

The Smart City is what happens when technology and urban planning meet, the intersection between tech, the government and companies all working together to make life more efficient in cities. As data becomes a bigger resource for companies worldwide, it’s helping expand what cities can do to help their citizens. It allows them to see how they want to move, how they want to live and changing their practices based on that. This comes with challenges, of course—data rights and data ethics are a hot topic these days—but used ethically, data is transforming the way we live our lives. In Barcelona, you can see Smart City tech everywhere, but at the same time, you can’t. It’s our famous bright red Bicing bikes as much as it is sensors on traffic lights. It’s improving visibility on street corners after dark as much as it is efficient underground waste and water management.

The Smart City World Congress was set up to celebrate and showcase all this, and it is one of the biggest of its kind, a world leading event to promote these technologies and to show us what the future of cities will really look like. From its inception in 2011, it’s been leading the way for urban innovation, and it, like smart city technologies, is growing exponentially—while there were 6,000 visitors back then, there are going to be more than 21,000 in 2019.

The SCWC wants to promote the smart city ecosystem worldwide, engaging citizens in the urban landscape and getting the biggest companies working to change the urban environment together in one place. It’s a global event, and proudly so, helping cities from across the globe to learn from each other, seeing who is doing what and improving their own best practices based on that. As such, the event now takes place the world over: next year sees editions taking place in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, the USA, Qatar, Japan and many more places.

Barcelona’s congress, which takes place at Fira de Barcelona from November 19-21, is split into three sections:

The Expo

A marketplace with 844 global companies showcasing the latest projects in Urban renewal. You’ll be able to chat with world leading organizations, like Huawei and Microsoft, who sit alongside niche startups making waves in the global smart city scene.

The Congress

This is where to head for real insight, as over 400 international experts come to give talks on the future of cities, and what is being done to change the ways we think about urban development.

Side Events and Activities

Sessions and workshops are also on offer to give you in-depth and intimate chances to hear from even more experts on the issues that are defining cities in the 21st century.

What are these issues? Well, this year the SCWC is focusing on five main topics: Digital Transformation; Urban Environment; Mobility; Governance & Finance; and Inclusive & Sharing Cities. Each will get a thorough examination in each of the congress’ sections, helping to give all of the 21,000+ professional punters a real understanding of everything going on in the worldwide smart cities ecosystem.

Visit the Smart City World Congress site for more info on exhibitors and a program of speeches across the three days.

If you still haven’t bought a ticket, Metropolitan readers receive 25% off entry with the code: C2BC4214. You can do so here.

Barcelona Metropolitan will be reporting at the congress over its three days, so look out for our writing about the event, and about the nature Smart Cities worldwide, coming up in the near future.

Harry Stott is a regular contributor to the Barcelona Metropolitan covering Brexit, local political and social issues as well as the music scene. He recently received a B.A. in music from the University of Leeds, and now writes and produces radio content for a number of organizations in Barcelona and beyond. You can read more of Harry's articles here.