The leading event for cities will have a special focus on housing
Smart City Expo 2026 speeds up towards urban solutions that yield real impact
Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), the leading international event on cities and smart urban solutions organized by Fira de Barcelona will hold its 2026 edition from 3 to 5 November 2026 to showcase technologies that address today’s most pressing urban challenges through tangible, scalable solutions. Under the theme “Urban Solutions, Real Impact”, the event will bring together 1,000 cities, over 25,000 attendees, more than 1,000 exhibitors and 600 speakers, reinforcing its role as the strategic meeting point for public administrations, companies, and experts.
Held at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue, the event’s congress program will be structured around seven main tracks: Enabling Technologies, Energy & Environment, Mobility, Governance & Economy, Living & Inclusion, Infrastructure & Building, and Blue Economy. These tracks will address the key drivers shaping the future of cities, from digital transformation, AI applied to cities, and green energy, to efficient governance, sustainable urban development, and social equity.
The 2026 edition of Smart City Expo World Congress will have a special focus on housing, a critical challenge faced by cities worldwide. The event will delve into key elements such as Urban Planning & Land Policy, Housing Regulation, Social and Affordable Housing, Building Innovation, and Renovation, Retrofit, Reuse, aims to open a debate for all actors to define the foundations of a new sustainable residential paradigm for generations to come.
The Director of Smart City Expo World Congress, Ugo Valenti, said: “In the age of AI, quantum technology, and robotics, we also need to embrace solutions that offer a real and immediate impact on the most pressing urban challenges. Housing is a clear example. Rapid urbanization and rising populations are making access to affordable housing one of the defining challenges of our time. By having a special focus on this topic, we aim to provide a framework for cities, industry and experts to share practical solutions and accelerate actions on an issue that affects communities worldwide.”
The exhibition floor will host leading companies from around the world to showcase the latest solutions and technologies. Among the confirmed exhibitors are Advantech, Arrive Group, Bright, Dahua Technology, Dell Technology, Deutsche Telekom IoT, ESRI, FCC enviro, Google, Hanwha Vision, Lora Alliance, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Silicon Highway, Smart Ports, Ubiwhere, Urbio, Veolia, and Yuan High Tech. In addition to companies, the event will also house a large number of country and city pavilions including those from Argentina, Austria, Barcelona, Belgium, Berlin, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hamburg, Italy, Japan, Las Rozas de Madrid, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Tokyo, and the USA.
Top 50 solutions in sustainability
SCEWC 2026 will also host the “Terra50” exhibition, a new space that will unveil the world’s top 50 solutions yielding the best sustainability results to date in the urban field. This initiative aims at highlighting best practices in order to scale up successful solutions from fields such as green energy production, waste collection and urban greening that can be replicated across different urban contexts and countries.
Smart City Expo World Congress 2026 will be jointly held with Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress, organized by Fira de Barcelona and EIT Urban Mobility and aimed at developing a new and sustainable urban mobility paradigm; Tomorrow.Blue Economy, aimed at using the full potential of ocean resources for a sustainable economic growth, the Barcelona Deep Tech Summit, an event organized by Barcelona Activa focused on scientific tech entrepreneurship and university spin-offs, and the Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress.
