Creating Smarter Cities 2011 Conference, Edinburgh, June 30/July 1

Urban thinkers, practitioners, academics, governments and third sector partners met in Edinburgh for Creating Smarter Cities 2011, a two day conference that focused on what makes cities smart, how cities work, and how we need to adapt to make cities fit for the 21st century. Speakers from cities, universities, governments and the private sector worked together to identify relevant academic and policy frameworks, shared local approaches, and the key challenges for the future.

Download the presentations

You can download the conference presentations from our event site at slideshare.net - http://www.slideshare.net/event/creating-smarter-cities-2011 .

Day one

Day one of the conference saw a range of speakers from Universities and the private sector bring together their visions of what makes a city smart and their plans for the future as they work to create smart cities. A number of analytical frameworks were reviewed which helped attendees understand the background to the Smart Cities movement and the different ways of characterising a Smart City. Representatives of Manchester, Amsterdam and Edinburgh provided forward looking visions setting out what they were doing, what they wanted to do, and the social and political contexts which shaped their urban visions.

Day two

Day two built upon this, with reviews of the e-government landscape in Europe, the research and development roadmap for Smart Cities, and extensive analyses of regional innovation systems and of e-service developments in Europe. The conference closed with a forward looking analysis of the issues facing smart cities in the coming decades, and the technological, organisational and political agendas that are needed in 21st century cities.

Thanks to all who attended, those who sent in comments via twitter, and most of all to the speakers who did such a great job in bringing so many ideas and perspectives together.

Further details

If you have any questions about the conference please email us at  smartcities@napier.ac.uk.

Speakers

Smart Cities is partly funded by the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme of the European Union. The North Sea Region Programme 2007- 2013 works with regional development projects around the North Sea. Promoting transnational cooperation, the Programme aims to make the region a better place to live, work and invest in.