Track: Living & Inclusion

The European Forum for Urban Security will hold its Executive Committee Meeting within the framework of the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. The meeting will bring together Efus Executive Committee members, representatives of member cities to discuss the organisation’s strategic priorities, governance matters, ongoing projects, and future initiatives related to urban safety, security, and sustainable urban development.

This session presents the MICAD Toolkit, a practical guide for local and metropolitan authorities to design inclusive climate and digital transition roadmaps. Through key insights and examples, it shows how to move beyond smart city solutions towards coordinated, participatory and metropolitan-scale transformation.

Can youth ideas help shape the future of our cities? This inspiring session brings together global city leaders and brilliant youth voices from the C40's Students Reinventing Cities competition. Through a dynamic roundtable, discover practical, groundbreaking approaches to tackling urban climate challenges and innovation. Join us to unlock powerful collaboration strategies that translate youth-led ideas into real-world urban transformation.

A city starts to feel like home in the small, everyday moments: walking down a street, sitting in a square, running errands close by. These experiences depend greatly on how public spaces are designed, managed, and cared for. When people come first, these spaces become more than functional; they foster connection, safety, and a shared sense of belonging. Increasingly, cities are rethinking how public space is planned and maintained, from accessibility and inclusion to the role communities can play in shaping and sustaining it. Creating places that feel welcoming, lived-in, and meaningful is essential to building urban environments that people genuinely value.

Human-centered design, accessible public spaces and everyday services are not just amenities – they are the building blocks of belonging. How do cities create places where people genuinely want to live?

Welcome to our 2026 edition – the global stage where urban innovation comes to life. This opening session sets the tone for an exciting journey ahead, with a warm welcome from Smart City Expo director Ugo Valenti and Tomorrow.Mobility president Marc Rozendal. Joining them are high-level representatives who will share how territories around the world are becoming better places to live and thrive. Get ready for three action-packed days of bold ideas and groundbreaking strategies from around the globe.

What would our cities look like if women's voices shaped every tech decision? This session unites European Mayors and Women in Tech® Global to explore the real-world impact of women in urban governance, digital entrepreneurship, and smart city innovation. Honest, inspiring, and forward-looking, a conversation that challenges cities to do more and shows them how.

Explore how robotics, AI and robot-avatar technologies are transforming industries, cities and society, while accelerating innovation through collaboration between startups and public institutions. Featuring insights from Japan and Catalonia, the session will conclude with elevator pitches from three Catalan startups showcasing innovative solutions with global market potential.

Digital transformation requires networks and partnerships that help cities turn ambition into implementation. Moderated by IDB Cities LAB, this interactive discussion brings together representatives from Brazil’s Ministry of Cities and Spain’s Smart Cities Network (RECI) to explore how national programs and city networks accelerate innovation, strengthen local capacities, and scale knowledge exchange.

In increasingly digital cities, opportunity is shaped by more than connectivity—it depends on who has the access, skills, and rights to participate fully. While digital technologies are transforming economies and public services, they also risk deepening existing inequalities if inclusion is not addressed from the outset. Cities are beginning to take a more holistic approach, combining infrastructure, education, and rights-based frameworks to expand access to digital opportunity. As AI reshapes the workforce and decision-making systems, the challenge is not only to bridge divides, but to build inclusive digital ecosystems where innovation supports social equity, economic participation, and individual empowerment.

In the digital age, opportunity is unevenly distributed. Addressing the divides in access, literacy and rights that define who benefits from urban innovation and who gets left behind.

Beyond access and literacy, this session argues for a genuine digital understanding: the ability of every citizen to navigate the digital world critically, distinguish reliable information from manipulation, and make informed, mindful choices about personal data and attention. It calls for a sustained civic commitment to building a digitally mature society and nurturing a shared digital culture.

Cities are becoming the new engines of inclusive prosperity. As affordability, wellbeing and social cohesion become defining urban challenges, livability is emerging as the new frontier of competitiveness. This high-level roundtable will explore how cities can design economies, services and policies around people’s everyday lives and needs, turning inclusion into growth, public space into connection and quality of life into a strategic asset. Because the most successful cities will not only attract investment and talent; they will make people want to stay, belong and thrive.

The public finals of the international Spanish-Czech Challenge HackaTEEN 2026 competition. A total of 10 teams from the Czech Republic and Spain will present their proposed solutions to real-world challenges facing modern cities to the audience at the SCEWC. The session will offer a unique insight into how young people envision the future of smart cities and will culminate in the announcement of the winners and an awards ceremony.

The Women’s New European Bauhaus is an official partner of the NEB working for new urban settings and lifestyles that promote well-being, beauty and equity, experimenting with research, circularity, sustainable mobility, innovative cohabitation, care, and technological innovation. It identifies effective methodologies for radical changes towards a sustainable way of life, through spreading knowledge and practices of women's active citizenship

Cities face growing pressure from climate change, rapid urbanization, and technological change, while urban identity remains overlooked. This session explores how identity can act as a catalyst for inclusive and resilient cities through governance, participatory design, and place-based approaches, highlighting the role of women leaders in shaping human-centered urban futures.

Books shape how we think about cities — and sometimes, how we govern them. The day after the Pattis Family Foundation Global Cities Book Award ceremony, the winning author joins jury members and urban practitioners from around the world for a live debate on the book's core arguments. What do its ideas mean for the cities we are building today? Where do theory and practice diverge — and where do they converge?

From accessibility and public services to safety and community wellbeing, cities face challenges that directly shape people’s everyday lives. The technological revolution is opening new possibilities to respond to these needs in practical and inclusive ways. This session showcases solutions that combine innovation with a people-centred approach, exploring through real-world cases how technology can improve urban experiences and respond to diverse needs across the city.

Culture shapes not only how cities are experienced, but how they are lived and understood by the people who call them home. Through education, creative expression, and everyday participation in urban life, culture helps build identity, strengthen belonging, and deepen the relationship between communities and their surroundings. The challenge lies in supporting this vibrancy while maintaining authenticity, accessibility, and balance. As cultural activity drives economic value and social cohesion, cities are exploring more integrated approaches that connect culture with planning, community life, and local economies, ensuring it remains a living, inclusive force that evolves from within rather than being imposed.

Education, civic life, creative industries and responsible tourism are not the backdrop to urban development. They are its engine. How cultural ecosystems build identity, care and quality of life from within.