The event, organized by Fira de Barcelona, welcomed 7,900 visitors to the Mexican city
Success of the first edition of Smart City Expo Puebla
The first Smart City Expo Puebla event exceeded expectations. Organized by Fira de Barcelona in collaboration with local institutions, the event welcomed some 7,900 professional visitors from 36 countries, an achievement that turned the Mexican population into the Latin American capital of smart cities over the three-day period. Holding this summit in Puebla forms part of Fira de Barcelona’s internationalization strategy and joins other editions of the Smart City Expo that are being exported this year to Istanbul and Casablanca.
Between 16 and 18 February, Smart City Expo Puebla brought together in the city’s Exhibition Centre no fewer than 500 cities, 150 speakers, 80 exhibitors and over 630 journalists. It was also attended by the main local institutions and dignitaries who will be responsible for spearheading urban transformation to adapt to the new challenges facing major Latin American cities, with the aim of achieving greater equality for their citizens.
The congress programme was based around five key themes (sustainable cities; equitable cities; living and participative cities; urban technologies and digital entrepreneurship; and urban planning and mobility) and featured 24 conferences, three keynote addresses and five plenary sessions. These included some noteworthy presentations by experts such as 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 event also hosted a trade show area which presented the latest smart urban solutions from over 80 companies and institutions, including Avaya, Cisco, Citelum, Clear Channel, Comflyer, Copemsa, Engie, Enlacetp, ER, Godtech, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Makensa, Metro Carrier, Pasa, Prowork, Redline, Semex, Sustentabilicity and Telmex, amongst others.
Institutional support
Holding the summit on smart cities in Puebla has achieved broad institutional support from administrations on a local, supra-local and governmental level, such as the Mexican Presidency, the Puebla government and municipality, and the Mexican Secretariats of Energy (Sener), of Agricultural, Regional and Urban Development (Sedatu), of Economy (SE), of Government (Segob) and of Communications and Transport (Sct). In addition, the event also has the support of Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), Mexico’s National Conference on Municipalities (CONAMM), the Mario Molina Centre, the World Bank and UN-Habitat.
Barcelona, 19 February 2016