Barcelona, December 2023
This year again, it was a real pleasure to be in Barcelona at the Smart City Expo World Congress under the banner of EC Initiatives on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. The European Commission was gathering 31 sister projects united in a common goal to accelerate the implementation of sustainable urban solutions.
In C51 Hall 1, a 120m2 stand bringing together more than 31 partners – platforms, initiatives, projects and 7 services of the European Commission. During this great event MAKING-CITY took part of congress and agora sessions involving about thirty high-level speakers, 15 delegations from 120 European cities and a permanent audience of 60-70 participants, not to mention a constant traffic on the stand which included 8 “Networking Islands” allowing exchanges with the various partners, projects and representatives of the European Commission.
MAKING-CITY EU was thrilled to be part of the main event on smart cities which represented:
- 25 300 attendees,
- 1106 exhibitors
- + 800 speakers
- 140 cities
- 273 countries
It was a very intense activity for MAKING-CITY EU which took part of a plenary session in the central agora on urban innovation thanks to Emilio Miguel Mitre and Mohaddeseh Maktabifard who presented the economic modeling work of positive energy districts carried out within the framework of the European project MAKING-CITY EU.
This session on “Scaling Mobility and Energy Projects with Innovative Business Models” at the Central Agora was focusing on the insights into the different business models tailored to our lighthouse and follower cities, covering the various conditions, impacts and phases of business model implementation and presented by Emilio Miguel Mitre from Green Building Council España (GBCe) and Mohaddeseh Maktabifard from R2M Solution. The expert panel, featuring Philippe Fournand, Damian Wagner-Herold, Mari Hukkalainen, and Nadja Riedel delved into the actual landscape of smart city business models in Europe, business-oriented use cases within the Scalable City Network, and the vital relationships between cities and financial service providers, as seen in projects like MAKING-CITY EU and SPARCSeu. The focus was on how projects have developed innovative financing models, to support the implementation of cutting-edge mobility and energy solutions, paving the way for a landscape greener and more sustainable urban environment, and how they can be replicated in other cities.
On day 2, another informative session focusing on our (PED) approach chaired by Cecilia Sanz Montalvillo, the project coordinator from CARTIF, on a session around the developments in the two lighthouse cities Groningen and Oulu towards a more energy-efficient urban future, as well as the replication work of the 6 follower cities Vidin, Lublin, Bassano del Grappa, Léon, Trençin and Kadikoy, emphasizing commitment to sharing knowledge and supporting other cities on their journey towards climate neutrality !
This insightful session was made possible thanks to our esteemed partners, +CityxChange, EERA – The European Energy Research Alliance, and EXCESS Project. Together, we make a significant impact !
