Fira's smart city summit is bringing together 500 cities
First edition of Smart City Expo in Puebla
The Smart City Expo World Congress is taking place for the first time in the Mexican city of Puebla on 16-18 February. Organized by Fira de Barcelona in collaboration with official local bodies, the summit on smart cities is bringing together 500 Latin American cities, 150 speakers and over 80 firms with the aim of analysing the future of urban transformation in these countries. It expects to attract 5,000 visitors.
The Congress, which takes place in Puebla’s Exhibition Centre, is structured around five main themes: sustainable cities; equitable cities; living and participative cities; urban technologies and digital entrepreneurship; and urban planning and mobility.
The programme includes 3 keynotes, 5 plenary sessions—one per core topic—and 24 sessions. Amongst the most distinguished speakers are Guillermo Gil Peñalosa, founder and president of the NGO 8-80 Cities and president of World Urban Parks; Carlo Ratti, director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab; and Aníbal Gavíria, former mayor of the Colombian city of Medellin.
The exhibition centre will play host to more than 80 companies and institutions that will be demonstrating their latest smart urban solutions and most innovative projects currently under way.
Smart City Expo Puebla is the result of Fira de Barcelona’s international strategy to organise trade fairs in other countries.
As well as taking place in this Mexican city, the congress has already been exported to Kyoto which is celebrating its third edition this year, Bogotá (2013), Montreal (2015), and is also scheduled to take place in Casablanca (May) and Istanbul (June).
Barcelona, February 2016