Green Digital Charter
FollowThe EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum (KSF) and the Green Digital Charter (GDC) jointly hosted the conference ‘Cities in transition – the role of digital in shaping our future cities’ on 25 January 2017. The event, held in the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Brussels, brought together over 100 participants, including civil servants, smart city experts, delegates from the EU institutions and partners and representatives from the private sector.
The role of cities in the digital transition
From left to right: Dorthe Nielsen (EUROCITIES), Eddy Hartog (European Commission), Flavia Marzano (Rome), Mary-Ann Schreurs (Eindhoven), Eero Halonen (Oulu) and Roberta Cocco (Milan)
The opening plenary session, moderated by Dorthe Nielsen, EUROCITIES policy director, enabled local politicians to share their ‘smart city’ visions and expectations of the recently-established Urban Agenda partnership on digital transition. This session included an exchange of views between the cities of Eindhoven, represented by Mary-Ann Schreurs, deputy mayor for innovation; Milan, represented by Roberta Cocco, alderman on digital transformation; Oulu, represented by Eero Halonen, chairman of the economic development board; and Rome, represented by Flavia Marzano, alderman on smart city and innovation. The discussion enabled participants to better understand cities’ priorities in this new urban partnership, especially with regards to data management issues, including the opening of data, data privacy and security, standards and interoperability of systems within as well as between cities.
Eddy Hartog, head of unit for smart mobility and living at European Commission DG CNECT, described the future solutions that need to be developed – including a one-stop-shop for cities – in order to improve multilevel collaboration on urban policies within the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC).
Kaja Kallas (MEP, EST, ALDE) delivered a a keynote speech in plenary, during which she stressed the importance of the digital economy in Europe’s development.
What came out of the parallel sessions?
The political debate was followed by two parallel series of technical workshops. Each workshop addressed opportunities and challenges, examples from cities and open questions, and each delivered a small set of takeaway points and next steps for action. Posters have been designed for workshops’ moderators to write down key take-aways. They can all be consulted online by clicking on the links below.
- Workshop A – Data (Moderator: B. Rosseau, Ghent)
- Workshop B – eGovernment (Moderator: F. Bordelot, EUROCITIES)
- Workshop C – IoT and the future city (Moderator: A. Slatcher, Manchester)
- Workshop D – Standards (Moderator: C. Colinet, Bordeaux)
- Workshop E – Urban platforms (Moderator: G. Colclough, Urban DNA)
- Workshop F – Performance Measurement of smart city projects (N. Kontinakis, EUROCITIES)
- Workshop G – Connectivity (Moderator: S. Ingvarsson, Stokab, Stockholm)
- Workshop H – Procurement for innovation (Moderator: B. Zuiderent, Eindhoven)
Bart Rosseau from the city of Ghent (signatory of the Green Digital Charter) and chairman of KSF Data working-group
Pictures of the day, including of the GDC Awards ceremony, are shared on Flickr (bit.ly/2kqnKj3).
The agenda of the conference is available at bit.ly/Agenda-CitiesInTransition.
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