700 Cities Will Gather on the Smart City Expo World Congress Focusing on Empowering Citizens

Under the theme Empower Cities, Empower People, Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), the leading international event on smart cities will host on 2017 its biggest edition to date. From November 14 to 16, Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue will gather 700 cities worldwide as well as 675 exhibitors and 420 speakers, all of them record-breaking figures. The event will focus on strategies to empower metropolises and their citizens through active participation, critical reflection, awareness and access and control over important decisions and resources. 

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The event's director, Ugo Valenti, said that, "We believe that the role that citizens will play in the near futures will be crucial. Top-down governance approaches are gone for good and we need to shift the relation between city governments and residents taking it one step further. Never before in history has there been so much talent and creativity concentrated in so little space. "

On 2017, SCEWC will host 675 exhibitors, a 14% increase compared to 2016. Over 30,000m^[2] of exhibition floor space, where top international companies from every industry within the smart urban ecosystem will showcase their latest solutions.

The event will also gather representatives from over 700 metropolises from around the globe. Among them, Atlanta, Berlin, Casablanca, Dubai, Grenoble, London, Lyon, Montevideo, Moscow, New York City, Puebla, Québec, Taipei, Tel Aviv and Zheijhang. While the event will also host several country pavilions such as those of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, China, Denmark, Dubai, Finland, Germany, Holland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden and USA.

SCEWC will showcase examples of projects currently being developed Worldwide that will reshape the way cities function and are managed. Dubai, for example, will showcase an Autonomous and electric Air Taxi service jointly developed with German company Volocopter. Spanish company FCC will also display an Aerial Robot for Sewer Inspection and within the Safe Cities field, SCEWC will show the world's tiniest panic button embedded in a ring.

A total of 420 international experts will share their insights about how the urban future should address its most pressing challenges. All of them will delve into the future of urban settlements through a conference program structured in 8 themes: Government, Safe cities, Economy, Sustainability, Circular, Society and Data Technology.