Smart City Expo World Congress: Promoting global urban collaborative development and establishing mechanisms for trust and cooperation

Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) was first launched in Barcelona, Spain 2011. Recognized as one of the premier international events, it has garnered active engagement from close to 1,000 cities worldwide. SCEWC is a global platform championing urban intelligence and sustainable development, primarily focusing on city-led initiatives and robust integration with the business sector.

As a nexus for smart city dialogues, the Smart City Expo World Congress injects new momentum into sustainable urban development and augments the quality of life for its inhabitants.

SCEWC has cultivated deep-rooted strategic alliances with prestigious global organizations, including UN-Habitat, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Union, and the World Organization of the United Cities and the Local Governments. SCEWC aims to provide a balanced, inclusive, and forward-thinking platform for diverse global stakeholders, including governments, businesses, industry entities, academic institutions, and civic organizations. By facilitating knowledge exchange, sharing experiences, and fostering dialogue, SCEWC underscores the synergy between global cities and the tripartite nexus of politics, commerce, and academia. It fervently drives global urban tech governance advancements and the burgeoning digital economy. Through showcasing exemplary urban development practices and innovative solutions, SCEWC equips cities worldwide with pivotal insights, empowering them to navigate the challenges of the digital age and elevate their citizens' quality of life.

Smart City Expo World Congress has sculpted a diverse and open platform for cities, underpinned by three core innovative tenets

1. Innovative Integration: SCEWC seamlessly blends the global Congress, the World Smart City Awards, and the Expo, forging a dynamic and comprehensive platform. Its mission is to foster deep-rooted dialogues and partnerships between governments, businesses, and the academic world, gathering pivotal insights and best practices from across the globe to elevate the prominence of its participants.

2. Focused Innovation on Core Functions and Challenges: SCEWC focuses on eight essential facets and key challenges integral to smart city progression, including enabling technologies, energy and environment, mobility, governance, living and inclusion, industry and economy, infrastructure and building, and safety and resilience. The involved sectors are vast and varied, ranging from artificial intelligence, low-carbon initiatives, loT, climate change, finance, big data, waste management, renewable energy, cloud computing, sustainable development, and intelligent power systems to eco-friendly construction.

3. Diving Deep into Vertical Domains: Besides the primary congress arena, over 140 peripheral and concurrent events reinforce SCEWC's commitment to delving deep into specialized smart city sectors, including the Tomorrow. Mobility World Congress (exploring urban mobility models), Tomorrow. Building World Congress (exploring infrastructure and building updates), Tomorrow. Ocean World Congress (exploring the development of the Blue Economy), Puzzle-XPuzzle-X (New Material Innovation and Development), BForPlanet (Exploring Urban Green Sustainable Development Strategy and Action Plan), and other events.

Smart City Expo World Congress not only equips participants with a vanguard platform for communication and collaboration but also rejuvenates global urban sustainable development with fresh vigor and intelligence.

1. Global Participation and Interaction: In 2019, SCEWC brought together representatives from over 700 cities across more than 134 countries, with 41 national government delegations participating in the exhibition. Over 1,000 leading companies dedicated to the smart city industry and60,000 experts from various sectors attended.

2. Economic Benefits: Over its 10-year history, the congress has consistently highlighted cities that have been steadfast in implementing smart city innovations and developments, showcasing a plethora of innovative technologies and solutions. In 2019, the exhibition area grew by 15%, bringing an economic benefit of 90 million euros to the host city, Barcelona. The scale of the congress is expected to expand further by 2023.

3. International Collaboration and Exchange: For cities and enterprises, SCEWC offers an opportunity to connect with globally recognized visionaries in the realm of urban innovation and planning, including mayors, heads of city executive departments, experts, and corporate executives. Global partners and participating companies include, but are not limited to, Amazon, Microsoft, Deloitte, Dell, and Honeywell.

4. SCEWC's influence has radiated globally, proliferating from Barcelona to Curitiba, Doha, the Latin America Summit, North America, and beyond, marking its stature as a pivotal event in the burgeoning smart city arena. To date, the congress has successfully orchestrated annual events in Shanghai (2020, 2021) and Chengdu (2022) and the2023 event in Changsha, receiving the unwavering support from the central government, local administrations and pertinent institutions and enterprises.

In tandem with the offline congress, the World Smart City Awards was conceived to recognize and champion cities' innovation and intelligent evolution. SCEWC also unveiled the online digital platform "Tomorrow. City" to foster technological and cultural exchanges between global cities, collectively advancing the sustainable progress of smart cities.

1. The establishment of the World Smart City Awards aims to unearth and publicize challenges and stellar case results faced by cities in intelligence, sustainability, and integration development.

2. SCEWC launched the "Tomorrow City" digital platform in 2019 with the vision of erecting a global network to showcase exemplary cases and city profiles, promote incubation, innovation, and international collaboration, and provide a case library, toolbox, and solution pool for the future development of smart cities, bolstering the sustainable growth of global smart cities.