The Fira de Barcelona in Gran Via de l'Hospitalet hosted more than 400 companies, speakers and cities from 15 to 17 November at this conference on future mobility. One of the main goals of the tenth edition of Smart City Expo was how technology can improve the lives of the city's population.

After the virtual edition of 2020, pre-format shows have been held again this year and its thematic scope has been expanded to include Tomorrow on new ways of sustainable urban transport. With the first edition of Mobility shows and advanced materials on the PUZZLE X initiative. It was expected to receive more than 12,000 visitors from more than 110 countries.

During the three days of the fair, the technological solutions and products of more than 400 companies and entities were exhibited and the reflections of around 400 speakers, most of whom were women for the first time, were heard. Ugo Valentí, director of the Smart City Expo World Congress, celebrated this at the official opening of the show.

Valentí took part in the welcome ceremony for the fair, together with Jordi Puigneró, Vice-President of the Generalitat and Minister for Digital Policy and Territorial Affairs; The first deputy mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni; Jan Jambon, Flemish Prime Minister; The governor of Antioch (Colombia), Aníbal Gaviria; Maimunah Mohd, UN Executive Director of Habitat; and Maria Tsavachidis, Director General of Urban Mobility at EIT.

A very real concept

Valentí believes that in these ten years of Smart City, smart cities have gone from being a concept that existed only in 'power points' to being a "utopian as well as dystopian" debate, a reality based on improving people's lives, a goal more evident after the health crisis. “We understood that we needed to put citizens at the center of the debate, because technology is just a tool, because it’s important, but it’s a means, not a goal,” Valentí stressed.

Along the same lines, Puigneró stressed that after the hard and sad times of the Covid pandemic, one of the authorities' goals should be to "bring happiness" to the citizens: "Let's make the cities happier, smarter." According to the Vice President, one of the ways to make the population happy is through employment, which is why he has advocated creating job opportunities and improving the education and training of citizens to ensure their prosperity.

He also called for technology to be used ethically to improve the democratic quality and transparency of public administrations and to increase public confidence.

A benchmark in innovation

For his part, Collboni emphasized that the Smart City Fair has strengthened Barcelona as a “benchmark for urban innovation” and emphasized that the aim of the event is to “discuss and share experiences to improve the lives of our cities and, above all, our citizens”. The first deputy mayor stressed that humanity faces "tremendous challenges" over the next decade, defining it as "crucial" and asserting the leadership of cities as "the most fertile ground for sowing innovation and gathering practical solutions".