Even as different increasingly pressing worldwide issues such as connectivity or the digital divide are global challenges, local and regional involvement is required to stimulate an effective bottom-up transformation. These first focus sessions will draw out key approaches on how local authorities, from a specific territorial vision, can start improving connectivity and digital policies in an inclusive manner and on a small scale, with the goal to be replicated on a bigger scale.
Focus Sessions
Welcome to "Focus Sessions #1 - Local actions tackling global challenges, a program of panels and side events spotting how digital skills and infrastructure are helping local businesses and communities thrive.
EXPERT PANELS & SIDE EVENTS
Partners

Huawei is an independent, privately-held company that provides Information and Communications Technology (ICT). We have nearly 194,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.
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The European Commission is the EU’s executive body. It represents the interests of the whole European Union. The Commission’s main roles are to propose legislation which is then adopted by the co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers; enforce European law (where necessary with the help of the Court of Justice of the EU); set objectives and priorities for action, outlined yearly in the Commission Work Program, and work towards delivering them, as well as managing and implementing EU policies, the budget, and representing the Union outside Europe. The European Commission has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and some services are also in Luxembourg. The Commission has Representations in all EU Member States and 139 Delegations across the globe.
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SmartCAT is the strategy of the Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya which extends the concept of Smart City to a country-wide level to carry out a program that integrates and coordinates local initiatives and supralocal, support companies and deploy Smart initiatives throughout the territory. SmartCAT aims to turn Catalonia into an “Smart Country” of international reference that takes advantage of the use of digital technology and information to innovate in public services, drive economic growth and promote a smarter, more sustainable and integrator.
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Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Council) is a local public authority that provides technical, economic and technological support to the 311 municipalities in the province of Barcelona, fostering quality local services throughout the region. Its mission is to ensure progress and well-being for all the citizens in the territory by providing services to people, either directly or, above all, in cooperation with the municipalities themselves. To this end, Diputació de Barcelona is determined to become a Smart Region: a community of Smart Villages and Smart Cities in which technology and citizens are the main drivers of change to achieve social, environmental and economic development for all, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) is the public administration of the metropolitan area of Barcelona, which occupies 636 km² and encompasses 36 municipalities with more than 3.2 million inhabitants. The metropolitan area is a territorial, social, demographic, economic and cultural entity formed during the last century as a product of the growth and connection of urban systems around the city of Barcelona. This is the largest metropolitan conurbation in the western Mediterranean, which generates half of the GDP in Catalonia. The new public metropolitan administration replaces the three entities existing until 2011: Union of Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, Environmental Agency and Transport Metropolitan Agency. This new AMB rationalises and simplifies the metropolitan governance by creating a single administration.
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L'Hospitalet de Llobregat City Council.

Side Events' organizers:

ESADE


Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC) is a non-profit, international network of smart cities & communities. Together with our international member cities and partner organisations, and based on our core values – openness, agility, and cooperation – OASC is building the foundation for a global market where digital services can scale sustainably.
As the largest network for smart cities and communities, OASC creates sustainable impact for our member cities by working towards a common technical ground which allows scaling and sharing of urban digital services based on open standards, open APIs, and shared data models. We call this common technical ground Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms.


For about 15 years, the URBACT programme has been the European Territorial Cooperation programme aiming to foster sustainable integrated urban development in cities across Europe. It is an instrument of the Cohesion Policy, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the 28 Member States, Norway & Switzerland. URBACT’s mission is to enable cities to work together and develop integrated solutions to common urban challenges, by networking, learning from one another’s experiences, drawing lessons and identifying good practices to improve urban policies.
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