18/05/2023

Smart City Expo 2023 outlines the New Urban Era in a record-breaking edition

Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), the leading international event on cities and smart urban solutions organized by Fira de Barcelona will hold a record‑breaking edition in 2023. From November 7th to 9th and under the theme “Welcome to the New Urban Era” the show and congress will register a 55% growth in its exhibition floorspace and 20% more attendees, reaching over 1,000 exhibitors, 25.000 professional attendees and representatives from more than 800 cities and 140 countries, making the upcoming edition the biggest to date.

The event confirms itself as the largest global showcase of innovative urban solutions and projects focusing on strategies to transform current metropolises into more sustainable, efficient, and livable spaces. To achieve this goal, SCEWC will structure its Congress program in eight main tracks: Enabling Technologies, Energy & Environment, Mobility, Governance, Living & Inclusion, Economy, Infrastructure & Buildings, Safety & Security, and Blue Economy.

The event’s director, Ugo Valenti, said that “The 2023 edition of Smart City Expo will be the biggest ever and we will witness the return of the urban innovation ecosystem in full force. Now is the time to go beyond dreams and inspiration. Amid the so-called Decade of Action, we need to walk the talk and future-proof our cities so they can effectively make themselves more sustainable, efficient, and livable. Many are already on the right path, and Smart City Expo World Congress is a chance to contribute to this goal.

With still six months to go, SCEWC has already booked 95% of the exhibition floorspace and will feature over 1,000 exhibitors at the Gran Via venue including Aramco, Axis, Cisco, Dell, Deloitte, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Smart Ports: Piers of the Future and Sorigué and Country and City Pavilions from Brazil, China, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nordics, Poland and USA, among others.

Global Hub of Innovation
In addition, Tomorrow.Building, Tomorrow.Mobility and Tomorrow.BlueEconomy –focusing on the opportunities of the blue economy– will be held alongside SCEWC to strengthen the role of the event and Barcelona as a global hub of smart solutions and provide answers to the challenges today’s cities face.

On its last edition, SCEWC was also held together with Tomorrow.Mobility, jointly organized by Fira de Barcelona and EIT Urban Mobility, and gathered over 700 cities from the five continents, 853 exhibitors and over 400 speakers, more than half of which were women. The event registered significant growth hosting over 20,000 attendees from 134 countries, almost 50% more than in 2021, and bringing the platform to pre-pandemic figures.