Delegations from UniCities and Viable Cities joined the Smart City Expo World Congress 2023 during a study visit to Spain from November 07, 2023, to November 09, 2023.

Smart City Expo World Congress is one of the largest events in the world aimed at developing and collectivizing urban innovations. The annual event has been held since 2011 in Barcelona. It creates the conditions for establishing connections between leaders of leading innovative companies, governments, and organizations to develop modern and sustainable cities.

Traditionally, the event consisted of a three-day forum and expo and became a place where mayors and politicians of local, national, European, and international levels, experts and specialists from research organizations and the academic community, top management of large international consulting (PwC, Delloite) and technology companies (Microsoft, AWS, Samsung, Dell, Honeywell, Nvidia, Cisco, Dassault Systemes), representatives of the public sector and innovative startups in the field of urban planning, mobility and green technologies shared their ideas, approaches, policies, interactions, innovations, and technologies of smart and green cities. The expo zones were represented by different regions, cities, and countries from around the world, which presented their best practices and technologies for smart, sustainable, and climate-neutral cities. The Kyiv City State Administration team also participated in the event, where they presented the Kyiv Digital City app and shared the peculiarities of implementing digital services in the capital, as well as experience in digitalizing city security issues, monitoring and analyzing public transport operations during critical natural situations, such as floods.

The first day of the expo was marked by discussions and presentations on the development of urban innovation, the impact of artificial intelligence on sustainable development, aspects of the implementation of the blue economy, and the importance of a bottom-up decarbonization policy. The focus was on how to engage cities and people in the fight against climate change, how to harness the potential of data-driven urban planning, and the key role of technology in improving the quality of urban services and sustainable development.

The second day of the expo was focused on discussing the important role of sustainability and engineering in the development of cities of the future, the meta-space of ethics, smart infrastructure, and the creation of more comfortable residential areas. In addition, mayors from all over the world were invited to the event to express a common position on the development of green, technologically advanced cities. They shared their experience and presented projects that are already changing urban spaces for the better.

The final day of the expo emphasized the importance of unity. In total, the event was attended by 25,300 participants, and 577 speakers, and involved more than 800 cities and 140 countries. Delegations from UniCities and Viable Cities explored innovative solutions for sustainable, resilient, and inclusive cities, joined with inspired peers, and established connections for future collaboration. Within the modern ecosystem, it is important to take into account aspects of engineering, the role of the blue economy, and leading technologies and experiences.

As a result of the participation of UniCities and Viable Cities delegates at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2023, valuable insights, experience, and ideas were gained for the further implementation of the UniCities project. Joint efforts and a bold fight against the challenges of today are what unite the UniCities project with the Smart City Expo World Congress 2023. Step by step, we are getting closer to building sustainable green cities in Ukraine!