Smart City Expo World Congress 2104: the Attack of the Drones

Fourth installment of the saga. A drone flies and flutters around the Smart City Plaza. People crowd in the center, looking up, amazed, as if they were seeing a UFO or a flying donkey. Iphones in hand, photos, even videos. Almost 600 years after Leonardo, almost 50 after reaching the moon, humans, what a rare species, we continue to show admiration for everything that flies. The device lands, the humans applaud pleased…

Few, if any, approach the stand where what is really important is, which are the real utilities that this magnetic flying artifact has in the field of healthcare teleassistance. What gives it meaning and has allowed it to occupy that preferential place in the fairgrounds.

After all, it is normal, we are at a fair, the first and main thing for all exhibitors is to attract the attention of visitors, and each one plays with the weapons they have, it is legitimate. But what is behind all that? Are we satisfied with the endless declarations of good intentions?, with the reciprocal ones between politicians, companies, experts and, how not, citizens? It shouldn’t be like that.

We refer to the words of Mike Lake, President & CEO of Leading Cities, who was in charge of moderating the opening Keynote of the Congress, “we must share ideas, but it is time to take action.” Let’s stop looking at the sky in awe, let’s land our ideas and translate them into something material, into tangible projects and concrete realities.

It seems that the idea of ​​more “smart” cities and a world has caught on. Large companies have been present at SCEWC: IBM, Telefónica, Cisco, Thysen Krupp, Microsoft with all its “children”, Schneider Electric, Wonderware, Oracle, Indra… Not a few countries, India, Korea, Denmark, UK, etc, and a good handful of cities. Also among the speakers and among the visitors it is perceived that the concept of “smart” is more than international, it is already global. It transcends the barriers of the first, second and third world and is imposed as the backbone of a sustainable future, they can well say so in Medellín or in India.

It is a great step, but after three days, seeing and listening to proposals, the wish for the next edition is that these proposals materialize in large projects. It is the time of engineers, of algorithms, of devices, of connections, of integrating platforms, it is the time for IoT to be more than just acronyms, that this revolution proclaimed to the four winds is specified in the gardens, the traffic lights, the buses, the trains, the public lighting systems, the streets, in the cities, in the lives of people.

From Logitek – Wonderware Spain we are on that path, we have made what we had been announcing in previous years a reality. On a small scale, our “Creating Smart Cities” offer can be touched. The experience together with the Barcelona City Council to provide intelligence to the irrigation of green areas and gardens is a reality, it has the format of a pilot experience, but with a potential to grow in an open and scalable way that more than one would like for their city. And we are in it, contributing to Mike Lake’s call to action.

Goodbye forever SCEWC 2014. Ideas already shared, let’s land, it’s time to walk, to take action in CAPITAL LETTERS.