Smart City Expo prepares for a record edition

Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), the main exhibition on smart cities, is preparing for a record edition with the participation of more than 1,000 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees, leaving behind the impact of the pandemic and slightly exceeding the 2019 records. "Smart City Expo 2023 will be the largest in history. The figures show that the urban innovation ecosystem is back in full form," says its director, Ugo Valenti.

These magnitudes have nothing to do with those of 12 years ago, when Fira de Barcelona decided to promote the congress, at a time when the term smart city sounded a bit futuristic and only concerned a few theorists and large corporations. Year after year, and despite COVID, the exhibition has ended up becoming the international reference for urban innovation and is exported all over the world, with events in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Qatar, and China.

From Tuesday, November 7, to Thursday, November 9, the congress will bring together more than 600 experts at the Gran Via venue to discuss the future of cities. They will talk about technology, without forgetting the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), mobility, sustainability, and the blue economy. Even Barça will sneak into the discussion topics at Smart City Expo, bringing to the fair the renovation it is undertaking of the Camp Nou and its proposal to better integrate into the Les Corts neighborhood.

Some of the most prominent speakers at this edition will be Airbnb co-founder, Nathan Blecharczyk, computer scientist and algorithmic bias expert Margaret Mitchell, AI specialized lawyer Micaela Mantegna, and former UK Minister of Energy and Clean Growth Claire O'Neill. Also present will be Siemens Chief Technology Officer, Peter Körte, Yale School of Architecture Professor Emerita and founder of The Architecture Lobby Peggy Deamer, director of the national hub for the regeneration of public buildings in Italy, Piero Pelizzaro, Nobel Prize in Physics Roger Penrose, and Airbus Chief Engineer, Johanna Sepúlveda.

It won't all be conferences and round tables, and some of the innovations already being developed around the world can be seen, and even tried out. Electric scooters equipped with AI, cabins to create workspaces in public areas, smart bins that classify waste by themselves, and foldable cars will be some of the disruptive solutions presented at the L'Hospitalet de Llobregat exhibition center. Among the thousand exhibitors are companies such as AWS, Cisco, Dell, Deloitte, FCC, Microsoft, Nvidia, PWC, Siemens, and Veolia.

Smart City Expo will coexist at the Gran Via venue with other parallel events that will expand its reach. The novelty will be Tomorrow.Building, created to address the transformation in the construction industry. Likewise, this year will see the third edition of Tomorrow.Mobility, focused on urban mobility and organized by Fira de Barcelona and EIT Urban Mobility, a European initiative based in Barcelona. Puzzle X, a congress on materials that will shape the future, will also be organized for the third consecutive year. Finally, Tomorrow.Blue Economy will return, focusing on the blue economy and promoted by the fair institution with the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council, the Port of Barcelona, and the World Ocean Council, the main international business organization dedicated to the maritime economy, also based in the Catalan capital.

The future Council of Cities will start in Barcelona

The exhibition will also feature a high participation of cities from around the world, with representatives from 800 cities in 140 countries. Among them, the attendance of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, the Mayor of Dublin, Daithí De Róiste, the Mayor of Tallinn, Mihhail Kölvart, the Mayor of Rosario (Argentina), Pablo Javkin, and the Mayor of Vancouver, Kenneth Sim, stands out.

In the twelfth edition of Smart City Expo, one of the key moments will be the formal presentation of the Barcelona Declaration European Cities for the Design of European Policies and Democracy. With this act, which will be held within the framework of the exhibition, the mayors will formalize their request to create a Council of Cities at a European level, an institution that will serve to give weight to municipalities within the EU governance architecture.

Smart City Expo's record figures have also been registered in the participation of the awards it presents each year, the World Smart City Awards. With a total of 411 candidacies from 63 countries, the 12th edition of these awards has become the most numerous to date.