"The Smart City Expo makes us the world capital of smart cities"

Eleven years ago, Fira de Barcelona decided to create a trade show about smart cities, at a time when that term sounded a bit futuristic and only concerned large corporations. With the support of the city councils of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and Sant Cugat del Vallès, the congress has ended up becoming the international benchmark for urban innovation, after other similar events in cities like Amsterdam, New York, or Singapore failed to take off. The Smart City Expo World Congress not only leads but is also exported all over the world, going to the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Qatar, and China.

After the pandemic, when it seemed that cities were in crisis and everyone wanted to flee to rural areas, the show will reclaim the power of cities, but will also address how to make them more friendly and how to solve realities that suffocate them, such as gentrification and tourist overcrowding. From this Tuesday until Thursday at Fira Gran Via, the Smart City Expo expects to have the participation of 800 exhibitors and receive more than 20,000 attendees. Among the more than 400 international experts who will come will be University College London Professor of Mathematics of Cities Hannah Fry and Princeton University Professor of Architectural Design Liz Diller. A highlight will be the conference by Vitaly Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv (Ukraine), who will visit the congress to explain how his city has had to technologically prepare to survive during the war with Russia.

--- What do we mean when we talk about smart cities?

--- A smart city is one that makes its inhabitants have a better and more sustainable life, and that efficiently manages its resources. In the world, not only in Europe, more and more people live in cities and not in rural areas, which generates stress on the different available resources: roads and buildings are needed, water, electricity, gas must be supplied... All this is not easy if you do not plan and if you do not manage what you already have very efficiently. A basic example, pipes: you can perfectly lose 30% of the water that moves; instead, with smart solutions, you can detect where the leaks are, act quickly and stop losing 30% of the water.

--- The Smart City Expo has already passed its first decade. How has the concept of smart cities evolved during this period?

--- At the 2011 Smart City Expo, the discussion was basically about technology and applying sensors everywhere. These devices, which at that time barely existed, were developed, but then, in practice, what was done was to put the citizen at the center. Technology became a means and not an end in itself. The focus shifted to thinking about how technology can help people: sensors should not be installed just for the sake of it, but they really have to serve to improve our quality of life and give people opportunities for development and business.

--- What caused this change in vision?

--- In the beginning, it was a conversation largely led by large corporations like IBM, Telefónica, Siemens, or Schneider Electric. They realized that technology had to be applied at an urban level because citizens were increasingly technologically prepared, but cities struggled to keep up. It was a very private initiative until city councils and governments realized that it was an unstoppable trend. That's when they took the lead, and at that moment, the person was put at the center, and their needs were considered. Citizens want to be able to interact with the administration digitally and want much faster procedures, but they also want to know how long the bus will take to arrive or want to pay for all public transport with a single card. All of this we now take for granted, but 11 years ago it wasn't like that. And, obviously, there are other places in the world where it is not yet being applied.

--- And now, what is yet to come?

--- Many of our cities are designed for car use. In Barcelona itself, 60% of public space is dedicated to them. All of this, in the smart city of the near future, is going to change. Public space has to be reclaimed to have a much more people-friendly city. Sometimes, it's things as basic as going back to the past. Before, we could play in the street, and now it's a bit complicated. There are spaces where this is already happening. For example, here there is a very clear case, which is that of the superblocks, which are being looked at and imitated in other cities around the world. Times Square in New York has made a very strong change and is still a large superblock; they were very inspired by what they saw in Barcelona to do it.

"Public space has to be recovered to have a much more people-friendly city"

--- Barcelona is a great reference. The city and its metropolis have a size and an idiosyncrasy that is very transferable to other cities in the world. That is to say, when you see that sustainability solutions are made in Stockholm, then it is more difficult for them to be tested in Colombia or Delhi, because there is a culture and a city size that make it not so exportable. Or, when you see great innovations in Shanghai with the massive use of artificial intelligence, it's fine, but it's not easily transferable. On the other hand, everything we do in Barcelona is powerful because it can be exported to other places, making it a great example of implementations that we end up seeing in other parts of the world.

--- The exhibition helps the city to be a benchmark in this aspect.

--- We are used to having very important events such as the Mobile World Congress or ISE, but the Smart City Expo is an event that we have created from here, where it will stay, and we are making Barcelona the world capital for smart cities. We have seen how it has led to the creation of many jobs in the territory and how a ripple effect is being generated, with the arrival of representatives from more than 700 cities around the world who come to meet with their counterparts, but also take the opportunity to see what is happening in Barcelona. All of this must be protected, maintained, and encouraged to continue growing.

--- After the Smart City Expo 2021, the first in-person event after the arrival of COVID, how is this edition shaping up?

--- We will once again have the participation of more than 20,000 people who will come from all countries in the world, except China, which continues a zero-COVID policy and does not allow travel. For us, this has an impact, because we had a strong Chinese presence at the event. That said, it will be a great edition because the sector continues to grow. The reality is that, as the world's population increasingly lives in cities, these cities must be more efficient and sustainable, and the only solution is to make them smart cities because otherwise the use of resources becomes extreme and complex. Technology also helps us in the governance of cities.

--- They expect to approach pre-pandemic participation figures.

--- Yes, in addition to the more than 20,000 visitors, there will be more than 800 exhibitors, more than 400 speakers and more than 100 site events. These figures are similar to those of 2019. The world is meeting again in Barcelona to make a more sustainable planet.

--- Urban mobility is a field that increasingly generates more business and discussion in cities. At last year's show, a space exclusively dedicated to it was launched, will it continue to gain ground?

--- Within the framework of smart cities, there are different key areas. One of them is mobility and we did a pilot with Tomorrow.Mobility in 2021. This year it is already a larger-scale event, growing in size and participation. We also hosted Puzzle X, an event dedicated to new materials, basically content, and now it is consolidating. In addition, in this edition, we will focus on the field of building, both smart and sustainable, with Tomorrow.Building. Right now, buildings generate almost 30-35% of CO2 consumption in cities. Just as mobility was a topic that had to be addressed, with building, exactly the same thing happens. If we want to live in a better, more sustainable and habitable world, we have to change how we build buildings, how their energy efficiency is managed, how we use them... It is a key issue because there is a need, but there is also an opportunity. There are many construction events in the world, but we want to focus on how to change the way we build.

"Tomorrow.Mobility this year is already a larger-scale event, growing in size and participation"

--- We will also focus on the blue economy with Tomorrow.Oceans, with the support of the Barcelona City Council and the Port of Barcelona. This is a very large sector, in which there are a series of events that talk about the maritime economy. But we all know that, in turn, there are a series of problems, such as the tons of plastic in the sea. Here there is also an opportunity, relying on the Smart Ports program, to do something very special that is not done anywhere else.

--- Why urban buildings or the blue economy?

--- When there is a new sector, you have to deal with the content, most of which are projects, powerpoints, ideas. You have to start discussing it to develop it, validate the hypotheses that may exist and start implementing them. The basis is always a powerful congress and, from there, the application will be developed and then it will reach the business, therefore, the exhibition area. This is what has happened to us with the Smart City Expo.