Following our recent win of the GO-NH Circular Economy Accelerator by the Province of North Holland – we were selected to represent the city of Amsterdam Smart City Expo World Congress , alongside 250+ government representatives and startups from the Netherlands.

Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) aims to empower cities and collectivise urban innovation across the globe. Through promoting social innovation, establishing partnerships and identifying business opportunities, the event is dedicated to creating a better future for cities and their citizens worldwide. It provides a meeting spot for smart city sectors and an innovative platform for urban action worldwide.

Organised by Fira de Barcelona, the event gathers in its eighth edition representatives of more than 700 cities from the five continents and over 100 mayors. It features major capitals such as Amsterdam, Athens, Atlanta, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Geneva, New York, Rome, London or Yokohama that analyses how to undertake initiatives that seek to transform cities into places in which to make the lives of their citizens better.

In this edition and under the theme 'Cities to live in', the event hosts 840 exhibitors and more than 400 speakers. Among the participating cities in this edition are Amsterdam, which is focused on Circular Economy; and among others: Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Cologne, Stockholm, Florence, Hannover, Kobe, Melbourne.

The director of SCEWC, Ugo Valenti, said that "the number of cities present in the 2018 edition confirms the leadership of the show not only as a great international showcase for the latest technologies in the field of urban transformation, but also as an authentic platform of debate on the future of cities, a place where experts and municipal leaders are summoned annually to address together the most important challenges of the immediate future." And he added that "this gives us an idea about the importance of what is discussed and decided here if we take into account that in the coming years the geostrategic importance of the cities will multiply turning them into protagonists of global development."

In this sense, it is particularly noteworthy that several of the cities that take part in SCEWC are among the 25 leading disruptive innovation cities in 2018, according to 'The Global Cities Index' of  A.T. Kearney. New York heads this ranking, followed by London and Paris. Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Melbourne, Seoul, Shanghai and Vienna are also in the top 25 of the list. Business activity, human capital or cultural experience are some of the parameters used to develop this classification.

Since its first edition in 2011 and with its constant growth in the number of cities, speakers and participating companies, SCEWC has become the world reference event. Thus, in this year's edition, among the 840 exhibiting companies are Alstom, Bosch, Cellnex, Cisco, Dassault, Deloitte, FCC, Ferrovial, FiWare, Hexagon, Huawei, Indra, Mastercard, McKinsey, Microsoft, Deutsche Telekom, Engie, Huawei, MasterCard, Microsoft, Mshereib Properties, Nec, Ntt, SAP, Siemens, Suez and Urbaser.

Smart City is based around the values of social inclusion and empowerment and is dedicated to promoting awareness, understanding and critical reflection between inhabitants of different cities worldwide, all in a climate of mutual respect and caring. Sustainability is a top priority, with the Towards Zero Waste initiative aiming to reduce waste and increase efficient use of resources across the event.