On Thursday 12 January 2017, ENoLL joined the Connected Smart Cities conference, not only as a participant and an exhibitor but also as an organizer of the session on Innovation Ecosystems. 

The event was opened by Dr. Martin Brynskov (OASC) and followed by High-level keynote speeches by Markku Markkula (President of the European Committee of the Regions), Günther H. Oettinger, (European Commissioner) who address the attendees via video message, Mary-Ann Schreurs (city of Eindhoven, and Chair, EUROCITIES), Anna-Kaisa Ikonen (Mayor of Tampere) and Kees van der Klauw (Philips Lighting). 

With 370 registered participants registered and eight parallel sessions, the 4th Connected Smart Cities conference was a great success. 

Detailed agenda, description of the sessions and slides as well as session reports will be uploaded on the OASC website. Pictures from the conference are available on ENoLL Flickr page. You can see highlights of the event on OASC Storify page or watch the Live Stream. 

The session on Innovation Ecosystems which was organised by ENoLL and chaired by Zsuzsanna Bodi (Acting Lead, ENoLL) and Gohar Sargsyan (OISPG) was the most visited session. Innovation Ecosystems session demonstrated an approach which is cities and citizen driven and backed by industry. The session aimed to proof that innovation ecosystems can be valid mechanisms for creation of cities enablement platforms with simple standards for interoperability and near real data exchange from connected cities.

Participants first listened to best-practice examples by Nicolas Walder (Mayor of the City Carouge in Switzerland), Davor Meersman (City of Things Lead), Louise Overgaard (City Aarhus, Denmark),  Auke van den Hoek (PayQueste B.V co-owner) and Ingrid Willems (Creative Ring Manager).  

In the second half of the session, the participants divided according to their areas of interest for interactive co-creation and information sharing sessions. 

The sessions were led by Living Lab experts and were divided into four thematic groups:

Academia/Research session – led by Dr. Dimitri Schuurman from imec Living Labs
Business session – led by Quadrio Alves from Future Cities CGI & Yilmaz Czakir (Basaksehir Living Lab)
Government session – led by Wim de Kinderen from Brainport EU Office, Eindhoven Living Lab
People/Citizen Engagement session – led by Marita Holst from Botnia Living Lab 

In the concluding session, Zsuzsanna Bodi (Acting Lead, ENoLL) summarised the findings of the discussion which were held during the ENoLL session on Innovation Ecosystems. Similarly, chairs of other parallel sessions, briefed the audience on the most important points that were discussed.

The sessions that took place were:

3 cross-cutting themes, 3 domain-specific sessions, 2 technical sessions.

Cross-cutting themes:

Innovation Ecosystems: Open innovation between small and large, public and private (morning)
Market Creation & Policy Issues: On market creation (morning)
Cities for and by People: Co-creation, ethics & privacy (Chair: Marita Holst, ENoLL effective member, Lulea Technical University)

Domain-specific:

Mobility: As the recent OASC survey shows, mobility is a dominant aspect in any major smart city strategy 
Digital Water: Water management is one of the biggest existing deployments of sensors in urban areas 
Assisted Living & Aging: Focus on living environments for elderly and disabled citizens 

Technical track:

Platforms & Data Models: Emerging mechanisms for interoperability (morning)
Standardisation: Connecting cities to ongoing initiatives 

Final keynote speeches were delivered by Ben Levine (Executive Director of MetroLab Network, USA), Chi-Hyung Lee (President, Seoul Digital Foundation, Republic of Korea), Alberto Martin Torras (Smart City Expo) and Mechthild Rohen (Head of Unit, Internet of Things, European Commission, DG CONNECT). 

Dates for the Connected Smart Cities conference of 2018 will be announced soon on OASC website!