BARCELONA CITIES PROGRAMME

Invitation-based sessions where city leaders exchange strategies, compare real solutions and move from conversation to implementation.

Where cities meet to shape what's next

Building on Barcelona’s experience and focused on practical exchange between cities, the Cities Programme brings together mayors, city leaders, experts and the innovation ecosystem to compare solutions, exchange strategies and turn shared challenges into coordinated action.

Within Smart City Expo World Congress 2026, Barcelona City Council brings a dedicated programme around two challenges shaping urban life: tackling the housing crisis while protecting affordability and the right to remain in the city; and governing the data, technologies and infrastructures that increasingly underpin essential public services.

SESSION 1

Housing Mayors Meeting

Housing has become one of the defining challenges for cities worldwide, shaping affordability, social cohesion, and the ability of residents to remain in their neighbourhoods.

The Housing Mayors Meeting brings mayors together in a closed-door working session to share the housing challenges their cities face, compare the responses they are putting in place and identify opportunities for future collaboration and coordinated action.

The meeting takes place as part of HOWS Barcelona | Housing World Summit, held within the framework of Smart City Expo World Congress and hosted by Barcelona City Council.

Topics: Housing · Housing Regulation · Social & Affordable Housing · Urban Planning & Land Policy

SESSION 2

Cities Enabling Strategic Autonomy

Strategic autonomy is often framed at the geopolitical or industrial level. This session brings the debate to the urban scale, where technological dependence increasingly affects essential public services, public decision-making and everyday life.

Cities do not need to produce every critical technology. But they do need the capacity to understand their dependencies, govern the data, AI and digital infrastructures they rely on, and shape how technologies are selected, tested, procured and scaled.

From Barcelona to other global cities, the session explores how urban ecosystems can strengthen resilience, preserve strategic choice and turn innovation into public value.

Topics: Enabling Technologies · Governance & Economy

If you would like to attend, please register your interest below.

Barcelona City Council will process this request and manage all registrations for this session on behalf of the Organization.

City Peers

Alongside its two main sessions, the Cities Programme hosts City Peers Meetings: closed-door sessions where city leaders who hold the same responsibility sit at the same table.

There is no stage and no audience. They are trusted spaces to share what works, compare approaches and learn from one another.

*Dates are provisional.

City Peers · CIOs & CTOs: 10th anniversary of the Council of Global City CIOs

For a decade, Barcelona has hosted the Council of Global City CIOs, the peer network of city technology and innovation leaders supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. This tenth-anniversary gathering brings together CIOs, CTOs and Chief Digital Officers from cities across Europe and beyond. They will share how they are governing artificial intelligence, data and digital public services.

City Peers · Chief Architects

City architects shape how cities look, feel and work for the people who live in them. This meeting brings together chief architects and heads of urban design to exchange how they lead design quality, public space and the transformation of the existing city.

City Peers · City Managers

Migration, housing pressure, tourism, homelessness and demographic change often land on the same desk: the city manager’s. City Managers and Chief Executives compare how each city organises its administration and partnerships to protect urban social cohesion.

Solutions Lab · Science-Producing Cities

Promoted by Metropolis with the support of Barcelona City Council, this roundtable gathers cities from Europe, Asia and the Americas. Each city shares its innovation policies and strategies, and how it turns research and knowledge into urban solutions.

City-Business Climate Alliance Workshop

Climate action moves faster when cities and businesses work together. This two-day workshop gathers climate and economic development leads from the CBCA Forum to share public-private models. Participants leave with concrete plans to build their own city-business climate alliances.

City Peers · Economic Development

What does it take for a city to secure its economic future? Convened by the Barcelona Investment Office together with the World Economic Forum, heads of economic development compare the roadmaps and partnerships they use to strengthen their economic base and prepare for technological, industrial and demographic shifts.

City Peers · Housing

Many cities have spent recent years expanding their public and social housing stock. The harder question is how to manage it well over time. Officials responsible for public housing compare how they allocate homes, maintain buildings and combine social support with property management.

SESSION 2

Cities Enabling Strategic Autonomy

Strategic autonomy is often framed at the geopolitical or industrial level. This session brings the debate to the urban scale, where technological dependence increasingly affects essential public services, public decision-making and everyday life.
Cities do not need to produce every critical technology. But they do need the capacity to understand their dependencies, govern the data, AI and digital infrastructures they rely on, and shape how technologies are selected, tested, procured and scaled. From Barcelona to other global cities, the session explores how urban ecosystems can strengthen resilience, preserve strategic choice and turn innovation into public value.

Topics: Enabling Technologies · Governance & Economy

Request to attend

Attendance is by invitation only. A limited number of places may become available upon request. If you would like to attend, please register your interest below.

Barcelona City Council will process this request and manage all registrations for this session on behalf of the Organization.

BARCELONA CITIES PROGRAMME

Where cities meet to shape what's next

Housing Mayors Meeting

Cities Enabling Strategic Autonomy