Barcelona Smart City Expo breaks attendance record

Barcelona’s Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) came to an end on Thursday with a record-breaking 21,331 visitors, a 17% rise since last year.

With a strong international presence, the fair dedicated to urban innovation gathered 844 exhibitors, more than 400 speakers, and representatives from over 700 cities worldwide.

Constantí Serrallonga, the director of Fira de Barcelona, the trade fair institution hosting the event, said that the SCEWC "strengthened its position as the world’s leading event" in the field of smart cities "year after year."   

Serrallonga praised the SCEWC for "contributing to display Barcelona as a city that favors innovation and technology at the service of urban life quality." Fira de Barcelona is the host to other yearly international fairs such as the Mobile World Congress.

🎥Smart police cars, collaborative bikes, autonomous taxis… What will the cities of the future look like? The @SmartCityexpo , which kicked off today in Barcelona, is providing plenty of ideas https://t.co/vmSOKy5JTF pic.twitter.com/bS5Z8obBN0

— Catalan News (@catalannews) November 13, 2018

In the 2018 edition, Singapour was recognized with the Smart City 2018 award for a project transforming the city into a global example of smart urban solutions, including dynamic algorithms planning the routes of public buses and systems detecting water leaks.

Among the global companies with a stand at this year's edition were the likes of Bosch, Cellnex, Huawei, Indra, Mastercard, Microsoft, Nec, SAP, Siemens and Suez.

Focus on people

This year's edition focused on five main issues facing cities: Digital Transformation, Urban Environment, Mobility, Governance & Finance, and Inclusive & Sharing Cities.

What's more, the particular focus for 2018 is local people and what makes a city livable, taking in such issues as the effect of gentrification on neighborhoods and how sharing can make cities more sustainable, resilient and inclusive