Intelligent Cities Challenge conference, Barcelona 15-16 November 2022

The Intelligence Cities Challenge (ICC) Conference - an initiative under the COSME programme promoted by EISMEA and the Directorate for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission - praised the commitment, efforts and success of the 136 cities involved in the last 3 years in their green, digital and resilient transition.

The event, which took place on 16November 2022 in the framework of the 11th Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, saw European cities like Amsterdam (NL), Barcelona (ES), Sofia (BG), Leuven and Mechelen (BE) and the non-EU city Toronto showcase their actions towards Local Green Deals and Digital Transition and Digital Economy. From the proximity and social economy area, the city of Porto (PT) shared their approach for a sustainable food system, while Pori (FI) showcased their initiative aimed at building an industrial circular economy.

The day before, in the framework of the twin event Mayors Forum, Mayors and political representatives from Porto, Barcelona, Mechelen, Split (HR), Vari Voula Vouliagmeni (EL) and Amsterdam presented their views on how to tangibly involve cities in Local Green Deals – making them take up integrated, multi-level, cross-disciplinary action plans to orchestrate the green and digital transition. Towards this end, the event highlighted the importance of the involvement of citizens, civil society, local businesses and industry, knowledge institutes and utilities and the need for adequate financial and human resources.

Alongside the ICC conference and Mayors Forum, the ICC was also featured at the EC stand present at the Smart City Expo World Congress, together with other smart cities initiatives promoted by the European Commission. There, the ICC initiative Tech4Good Marketplace was particularly praised for its successfully developed solutions and best practices serving as inspiration to other cities.

The next phase of this initiative, called ICC2.0 and still promoted by EISMEA and DG GROW, starts as December 2022 and will last for 30 months. A new call for cities to join the ICC network will be launched soon: stay tuned!

To get more information about the initiative and be informed of the upcoming call for new cities to join the ICC2.0 network, consult the official Intelligent Cities Challenge website and subscribe to the ICC newsletter (via the form at the bottom of the website homepage).