Smart City Expo 2022 Recovers Pre-pandemic Figures Ready for its Biggest Edition

Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), the leading international event on cities and smart urban solutions organised by Fira de Barcelona, will host over 1.000 exhibitors on its 11th edition, held from November 15 to 17 2022.

Under the theme Cities inspired by people, the show and congress will boast pre-pandemic figures and will spread over two halls of the Gran Via venue in Barcelona. The congress programme will focus on the tools and strategies at hand that local governments, organisations, and citizens can seize to ensure a better future for cities and the coming generations.   

The event will bring together more than 400 leading international experts to share knowledge and tackle the many challenges involved in urban transformation. In a scenario with ever-growing environmental challenges and a geostrategic shake of the global stage, urban leaders must reflect on how cities can do their part to make the world a better place. To cover every possibility, the congress programme of SCEWC will be structured in eight themes: Economy, Enabling Technologies, Energy & Environment, Governance, Infrastructure & Buildings, Living & Inclusion, Mobility, and Safety & Security.  

The director of Smart City Expo World Congress, Ugo Valenti, said that “with six months to go before the opening of Smart City Expo 2022 we already have 80% of the exhibition floorspace booked and we expect over 24,000 attendees this November. This will bring us back to pre-pandemic figures, stressing not only how important cities are for the future of humankind and the planet but also that Smart City Expo is the global go to event for the broad urban transformation ecosystem, now more than ever.”  

Infrastructure and Mobility

Among the key topics involved in the design and construction of smart cities are efficient infrastructures and swift mobility. These two subjects will have events of their own hosted within the SCEWC framework. The second edition of Tomorrow.Mobility will focus on promoting the design and adoption of new sustainable urban mobility models. Co-organised by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union, the event also has the support of leading companies and institutions.  

Along these lines, the 2022 edition of SCEWC will see the debut of Tomorrow.Building, a new area focused on new technological solutions linked to construction, such as 3D printing, robotics, IoT and BIM (Building Information Modelling), as well as new materials. The main aim is to create the perfect forum for new disruptive ideas in the wide building and hard infrastructure industry to flourish.  

Innovative materials, building blocks of the future

SCEWC will also host for a second time PUZZLE X. After a successful debut in 2021, Barcelona will host a new edition of an event that aims to grasp the potential of Frontier Materials to solve some of the challenges that society is facing. Among the key technologies featured are quantum materials, low dimensional materials, 2D materials like graphene, advanced materials, and intelligent composites, which have proven to have a great impact potential in industries such as Energy, Mobility, Healthcare, Transportation, Construction, Electronics, Textile and Connectivity, among others.