Smart City Expo World Congress 2015: our Summary

Now that the foundations, concepts, and communication codes have been established to interrelate in the world of smart cities, and governance, the positioning of the citizen at the center of the issue, the partnership between the public and private sectors, the flow of ideas from the bottom up, etc., etc., are concepts assimilated by anyone who approaches this sector, which is as necessary as it is apparent and attractive….What is left for us? What is the path that remains to be taken to reach the promised land/city? Will we ever arrive?

Well, after spending three days wearing out our soles around the fairgrounds and listening to a few presentations at the congress, we see, on the one hand, that more and more cities and countries do not want to miss this train. Beyond the well-known Western or Asian powers, or the large multinationals, it is interesting to see small countries like Finland or Estonia with dazzling stands full of technological offerings or many small companies that are making the sector increasingly “democratic”, flexible, and dynamic.

Regarding the congress, there is a perceived (pardon the critical tone) certain tendency to integrate as many speakers as possible, to prioritize quantity over quality. With this, we do not mean to say that the participants are not up to par, but rather that there is not enough time to delve deeply. With 10-minute presentations, it is difficult to speak beyond generalities or to point out specific cases that seem interesting but only scratch the surface. Perhaps it would be interesting to give more weight to the technological tracks than to others in which recurring debates are raised. After all, technology is the engine that has driven this entire “smart world.”

Another notable point: Big Data continues to be a challenge for all those who face it. We have heard from many speakers about the difficulties that still arise when organizing, discriminating, analyzing, and optimizing data to solve specific problems, not to mention the issues of privacy and misuse of data. Time will tell.

For our part, from our stand Creating Smart Cities, the brand specializing in solutions for Smart Cities from Logitek, we have persevered on the path undertaken, sharing this year a whole series of success stories already implemented in smart cities and infrastructures. Through the three screens of the stand, we have been able to explain and break down the work process in success stories such as the Irrigation Management in Parks and Gardens of Barcelona, Tunnel Management of Yas Island in Dubai, the comprehensive management of services and infrastructure at the neighborhood level in Eco-city Valdespartera – Zaragoza, or the infrastructure management of airports for AENA at the Barcelona airport.

We greatly appreciate the interest of all those who have come to our stand, and it reinforces our idea of offering a global and tangible solution that responds to the real needs of companies and/or public institutions in the areas of Water, Energy, Mobility, Building, and Waste. The Smart Management Infrastructure Platform, as the only solution that adapts to existing facilities and manages to centralize the control of all systems, allowing real-time information management on a city platform, has a long way to go, and we hope to return to it next year at SCEWC16 to share new success stories.